49 replies to this topic

[Justin H]

I am trying to identify a German unit from a set of three postcards and would welcome any suggestions from forum members with a knowledge of the German army

 Canteen.jpg   36.86K   14 downloads

The sign looks like 2 Batterie F A R O 3. Could this stand for Feldartillerie Regiment?

The picture looks like it was taken outside of a canteen. Google translates the other sign as "newspapers, weekly rules"

 Workshop.jpg   21.67K   11 downloads

The second picture looks like it was taken outside 2 Batterie workshop and gas room? Could this be for gas shells?

Regarding date and location, all I have is:


 Sevry.jpg   15.48K   3 downloads

Which hasn't been that useful

A good mix of uniforms are on display which I could post if likely to prove useful

Thanks in advance


Justin H

[Jack Sheldon]

Justin

We need a closer look at the FAR ?? abbreviation. Could you please scan that at the best resoltuion the posting limit will allow?The FAR bit will mean Field Artillery Regiment, but the next character should be a number. The battery canteen is offering newspapers and weekly magazines, rather than rules.

Jack

[Phil Evans]

Justin,

Presumably taken at Sevry (Belgium) in June 1918.

I'm not too sure on the unit as the resolution is too low for my eyes and looks like FAR 93 when I blow it up.

Phil

[Justin H]

Phil, Jack thank you

 2 Batterie.jpg   32K   4 downloads

Hope this looks is more helpful

Justin H

[Jack Sheldon]

Justin

Thanks for that. As far as I know there never was a FAR 93. I suppose that it could be a '4', which would make it FAR 43 and part of 14th Inf Div. There is a detailed history, but I do not have a copy unfortunately. A glance at the divisional Gefechtskalender suggests that it fought in France at that time near Reims and Soissons and in amongst the major rivers, so the Sevry thing is  a bit of a mystery. What we need now are a few other readings or suggestions.

Jack

[TRAJAN]

Jack Sheldon, on 09 July 2012 - 06:27 AM, said:

...I suppose that it could be a '4'...

To me it looks much more like a letter 'D' than a number of any kind, so reading F.A.R.D.4

Trajan

[Ken S.]

Acording to this discussion there was a FAR93...

http://www.milex.de/...mer=936&page=42

Quote

Feld-Artillerie Regiment 93

Abgesandt von Holger Heidemann am 14.01.2004 - 08:20:  gibt es Regimentsgeschichte oder Gefechtskalender des FAR 93? Diese Einheit findet keine Erwähnung in "Ruhmeshalle". Bin bei zvab etc. sowie in online-Katalogen von Bibliotheken nicht fündig geworden. Vielleicht kann mir jemand -gegen Entgeld- Kopien zukommen lassen, Danke im Voraus   

Antwort von th. ehret am 16.01.2004 - 21:38 Guten Tag, Das Feldart.R. 93 wurde im September 1915 aufgestellt. Eine Regts.-Geschichte ist nicht erschienen, es gibt auch keine Akten beim BA-MA Freiburg. Gruß, th. ehret

Antwort von David Gregory am 17.01.2004 - 19:00 Hallo th. ehret,  in welchen Unterlagen bzw. Bücher stehen Informationen zur Aufstellung dieser und auch anderer Ari-Einheiten?  FAR 93 erscheint in keiner mir bekannten Aufstellung oder Kriegsgliederung. Welchen Formationen war sie unterstellt?  Im Voraus vielen Dank und Gruss,  David

Antwort von th. ehret am 18.01.2004 - 15:05 Guten Tag Herr Gregory, Die Informationen über Aufstellung sind zu finden in : "Übersicht der Behörden und Truppen in der Kriegsformation" Teil 6 (Berlin 1918). Signatur BA-MA : PHD 6 / 181, PH 2 / 532. Informationen über die Zuteilung (1918) sind zu finden in : Signatur BA-MA : PH 3 / 86 Diese Quelle ist sehr umfangreich und für die Feldart. habe ich noch eine große Lücke zu schliessen. Gruß, th. ehret

Antwort von Alexander Fasse am 26.01.2004 - 13:21 Hallo David,  das FAR93 ist eine "üble" Einheit, denn es war "Heeresartillerie". Da gibt es insgesamt bei solchen Verbänden eine riesige Lücke und Thierry hat wohl den einzig richtigen Ansatz zum Nachvollziehen der Truppengeschichte im WK genannt. Das FAR93 war, wenn ich mich da recht erinnere, eines der 6 motorisierten Regimenter der Heeres- Feldartillerie (Cron).  Gruß, Alexander

[Justin H]

Excellent, many thanks all

Justin H

[ph0ebus]

I would go with FAR 93...my grandfather was with FAR 43 in June 1918 and they were, off the top of my head, around Soissons then and not in Belgium.  I'll check my notes once I have access to them later this afternoon.

Daniel

[Jack Sheldon]

Oh well, I stand corrected. I looked it up in various reference works and, as I said, there was no mention of it for some reason, but none of these things is infallible.

Jack.

[ph0ebus]

So, from my grandfather's Militarpass I gathered the following, for the locations of FAR 43 in June:

May 30 – June 13, 1918: Attack fighting west and south of Soissons.
June 14 – 30, 1918: Position battles between Oise and Marne.

I have to admit, if that is a 9, it's a pretty funky looking one.  Jack, interesting that FAR 93 is not represented in the reference works you checked...I wonder why that would be?  

There is, of course, the possibility that the place name written on the photo is a Red Herring, and it is a photo FAR 43 (with a funky 4 instead of a funky 9), and the photo was actually taken near Soissons, and the photo was simply mislabeled.  I learned such a lesson myself the hard way.  Any closeups of the shoulderboards possible?

Daniel

[Ken S.]

Googling "Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 93" leads to two wikipedia articles about former members of the regiment


Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
http://de.wikipedia....drich_Goerdeler

Wolfgang Pickert
http://de.wikipedia....olfgang_Pickert


The Goerdeler article states that he served with FAR71 and when that regiment was disbanded, he was transferred to FAR93.  According to the Ehrenrangliste there are two officers from FAR71 who died while serving with FAR93: Lt. [Ob.Lt.] Penner (16.1.19 in Zoppot) and Lt. Adlich (9.10.18 in Briey).


edit to add:
The Ehrenrangliste shows that Hptm. Nadrowski (FAR36) was a commander of FAR93.

[Justin H]

I shall try and post some enlarged shoulder titles, although the it is difficult to achieve any enlargement that doesnt pixellate, since the figures in the photos are small.

Here goes;

 Shoulder Titles.jpg   12.88K   0 downloads

Justin H

 Shoulder Titles.jpg   31.59K   0 downloads

This should be better

Justin H

[Justin H]

 More titles.jpg   24.11K   1 downloads

Here are some more

Justin H

[Justin H]

Here are the full size pictures

 Group 1.jpg   41.38K   2 downloads

 Group 2.jpg   35.59K   5 downloads


With regard to the labelling of the photos, I suppose all that means is that someone labelled them at some time for some reason. Not necessarily the original owner!

Justin H

 Group 3.jpg   31.91K   3 downloads

The final one

Justin H

[Ken S.]

I should note that Lt. Adlich died of illness he contracted "west of the Moselle" ["westl. d. Mosel"] several days earlier.  The distance between Briey and Sivry-sur-Meuse is roughly 60 km.

[ph0ebus]

Well, other than the flaming bomb visible on the schulterklappe, I cannot make out much other details, so at least two of your fellows are FAR guys.  What's your scan resolution on these?  If it's set as high as you can get it, we probably won't squeeze much more out of these pics.  If you can still increase the scan resolution, say, to 4800 dpi or so, you may eke out a bit more info.

-Daniel

[Justin H]

 Hig Res.jpg   35.82K   1 downloads

Here's one at 1200

Justin H

[Justin H]

 Hig Res 2.jpg   37.19K   2 downloads

And another

Justin H

[Justin H]

 Hig Res 3.jpg   52.71K   1 downloads

[Justin H]

 Hig Res.jpg   38.41K   7 downloads

Higher resolution scan of the sign at 1200

Justin H

[TRAJAN]

Justin H, on 10 July 2012 - 12:31 PM, said:

Hig Res.jpg

Higher resolution scan of the sign at 1200

This seems to confirm what I suggested earlier (post no, 6), that this is a letter 'D' and not a number, and so it reads 'F.A.R.D.3'!   May I suggest thinking caps back on again chaps?!

Trajan

[Phil Evans]

To be fair Trajan I did plead poor eyesight.

Coming at it from a different angle, what role did the Sevry (Belgium) area play in June 1918? They look like a well seasoned group, but very relaxed and in a well established billet.

Phil

[Ken S.]

Why not contact these people to see if they can identify the buildings in the first two photos...?

http://www.sevry.be/

[TRAJAN]

Just in case I thought it might be useful to check the standard military abbreviations used by the Heer in WWII (these are conveniently available at http://downloads.stu...breviations.pdf), but with no joy there for anything that might FARD...

Trajan