Grand Maneuvers of the West (1912) Foreign Representatives

[paja]

Greetings gentlemen,
I stumbled upon information that one of my ancestors was Serbian representative on the Grand Maneuvers of the West in 1912 (Les grandes manoeuvres de l'Ouest). I managed to find a post card with foreign representatives on delcampe.net which proves that. Unfortunately it's not very large so I'd be very grateful if someone could share with me a better scan or some other image or post card with foreign delegations.
My ancestor was awarded with the Legion of Honor (officer) in 1912, I presume this occurred during the maneuvers. Later, in 1917, he was awarded with the commander.


"GRANDES MANŒUVRES DE L'OUEST en 1912 - Missions Militaires Etrangeres"

Edited August 28, 2017 by paja

[paja]

List of foreign officers who attended the maneuvers according to their rank:

Denmark: Tuxen, divisional general

Bolivia: Pastor Baldivieso, colonel
Switzerland: Simonius, artillery colonel; Romer, infantry colonel
Norway:  Bull, infantry colonel
Japan: Watanabe, artillery colonel, military attache
England: Yarde-Buller, general staff colonel, military attache
Netherlands: Piepers, cavalry colonel
Austria-Hungary: Vidal, general staff colonel

Peru: Manuel Bonilla lieutenant colonel
Serbia: Milan Tucaković, general staff lieutenant colonel
Italy: Zaccone, general staff lieutenant colonel, military attache
Argentine: Avelino Mendez, infantry lieutenant colonel, military attache
Greece: Charlambis, artillery lieutenant colonel (Charalambos?)
Chile: Julio Brownell / Broronell (?), lieutenant colonel, military attache 
USA: Bentley-Mott, artillery lieutenant colonel, military attache
Austra-Hungary: count Lamezan-Salins, general staff lieutenant colonel, military attache
Spain: Rodriguez de Rivas, lieutenant colonel
Belgium: Cumont, cavalry lieutenant colonel

Germany: von Winterfeldt, general staff major, military attache
Brasil: Fleury de Barros, cavalry major, military attache
Ottoman Empire: Djemil Bey, major, military attache
Romania: Soutzo, general staff major, military attache 

Switzerland: Baumain, infantry captain (Balmain?)
Sweden: Amundson, engineer captain, military attache
Bulgaria: Petrov, general staff captain, military attache 
Mexico: Federico Cervantes, engineer captain
Portugal: Pereira dos Santos, general staff captain

I apologize if I miswrote some of the surnames, a few of them were miswritten in the original source as well.

Edited August 30, 2017 by paja

[paja]

There was also a special British mission attending the  maneuvers which consisted of:
-Wilson, brigade general
-MacDonogh, general staff colonel
-Farquhar, general staff major

Edited August 30, 2017 by paja

[Bayern]

In the site http marksrussianmilitaryhistory. info  exists a better photo of the attaches . dated 1913 . 

[paja]

Thank  you for the tip! The photo was taken at the same location and even though some of the faces appear on both postcards, Serbia had different representative in 1913, unfortunately.

[paja]

Interesting photos found on Gallica.

Edited August 31, 2017 by paja

[paja]

"Danish officer, general Tuxen"
"English officer, colonel Butler" (Yarde-Buller?), Djemil bey and possibly Chilean representative (?)

[paja]

Field photos

[paja]

von Winterfeldt, Petrov and Watanabe

[Trooper_D]

These are truly wonderful photos, Paja. Thanks for posting them.

This is a subject of great interest to me and an area I have collected in. However, I have had a look at my postcards of the manoeuvres and I have nothing after 1908, sadly (a gap I need to fill).

As a general point, military attachés of the period deserve more study on this board, I think, as they usually present a dazzling array of different uniforms in such a 'confined space', if you know what I mean.

They also tended to be interesting characters in their own right. None more so than the US attaché, Bentley-Mott, who seems to have had the job (probably at his own expense, I suspect) for most of the Century to date. I may start a separate thread on him, when I have time.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Trooper_D

[Bayern]

7 hours ago, paja said:

Interesting photos found on Gallica.

Paja : from left to right : A Romanian pellise , a Swiss officer , another swiss , a French ,a Bulgarian , a Japanese ,a Chilean , a Italian staff officer , a German ,and the Serbian 

[paja]

17 hours ago, Trooper_D said:

These are truly wonderful photos, Paja. Thanks for posting them.

This is a subject of great interest to me and an area I have collected in. However, I have had a look at my postcards of the manoeuvres and I have nothing after 1908, sadly (a gap I need to fill).

As a general point, military attachés of the period deserve more study on this board, I think, as they usually present a dazzling array of different uniforms in such a 'confined space', if you know what I mean.

They also tended to be interesting characters in their own right. None more so than the US attaché, Bentley-Mott, who seems to have had the job (probably at his own expense, I suspect) for most of the Century to date. I may start a separate thread on him, when I have time.

My pleasure.

I've been thinking about opening a separate, general, topic about foreign military representatives at French Maneuvers. Going through photos and postcards from various years I noticed some familiar faces. For example Serbian representative in 1904 was colonel Petar Bojović, future vojvoda. Apart from him I recognized Mihailo Živković and Jovan Dragašević, both future generals. 

I presume a lot of representatives from other countries rose up to high ranks, unfortunately I'm not that familiar with foreign officers.

[Trooper_D]

11 minutes ago, paja said:

I've been thinking about opening a separate, general, topic about foreign military representatives at French Maneuvers.

I, for one, would welcome it, when you have the time.

[paja]

That would have to be a joint endeavor 

[paja]

16 hours ago, Bayern said:

Paja : from left to right : A Romanian pellise , a Swiss officer , another swiss , a French ,a Bulgarian , a Japanese ,a Chilean , a Italian staff officer , a German ,and the Serbian 

Thanks for your help. I don't know from which country is the last officer on the right but he can't be from Serbia. 
In Serbia braided shoulder boards were worn by generals and generals' "šajkača" cap was different. You can see how it looked like in that period on the right (WW1 photo of general Bojović).
Also compare that officer with the Serbian representative from the first photo it's not the same person. 

Edited September 1, 2017 by paja

[Bayern]

Paja ; You are Right , in the ampliation appears clearly that the cap has two cockades and the braided shoulderboards . perhaps the officer is Norwegian . 

[paja]

Looks like Russian delegation was present as well.
-Grand Duke Nikolai
-General Kaulbars