This morning I happily handed over the money to purchase a 50% share in what I beleive to be 2 photograph albums that once belonged to two different German Army Officers of the WW1. Hopefully, there is possibly enough information to perhaps go some way to identifying the individuals concerned. The smaller of the 2 albums looks like this



I have lost the original photos attached to this post and I am in the process of replacing them

and this is a random page from the album




regards

Geoff

All of the photographs that I will upload to this thread are with the permission of my mate, Brian Kay, who realised what he was being offered and kindly agreed to share the purchase.

The second album looks like this



and a random page looks like this



Geoff

Wow thay look very good would love to see more
dave

Any chance of posting some close-ups? If I zoom in on the pictures the result is too grainy.
regards
Roel

By the way: quite strange the photo-album of a German officer has an English title ('photographs')

I thought this album title strange, it also looks rather modern but the contents are certainly OK

This is Page1 Photo 2



This Page 1 Photo 1



Geoff


Basse is in Lower Saxony

This is Page 2 photo 1



This is Page 2 photo 2



Geoff

These photographs and the resulting quest could become addictive.

ckbeans

This is the only photograph on Page 3



Does any one recognise the uniforms or could the regiment be identified from this photograph?

Does Batterie mean Artillery?

Geoff

These photographs are from Page 4 and we now have names

Page 4 Photo 1




Page 4 Photo 2





Geoff

Annoeullin is midway between lens and loos

The name Bunnermann doesn't ring a bell at the Volksbund-site, so no connection there to a regiment...

roel22

How about Oberst Schmidt? or is that to common a name?

Geoff

If he is listed, his name should be between 28.578 Schmidts the Volksbund has in their files.
Many of them don't have any info about their rank as well.
So no chance, really.

These next 2 images are a departure from the previous pages

Page 5 Photo 1



Page 5 Photo 2



Geoff

Back to group photographs

Page 6 Photo 1



Page 6 Photo 2



Geoff

Photographs of the Corps Commander V Francois?

Page 7 Photo 1



Page 7 Photo 2



Geoff

These are marvellous photos.
Marina

There are 4 photographs on the next page

Page 8 Photo 1



Page 8 Photo 2




Geoff

Page 8 photo 3



Page 8 Photo 4




Geoff

Certainly artillery, references not only to "Batterie" but also to "Abt." In the German Army the artillery battalion was not called "Bataillon", but "Abteilung", which more generally means "detachment".

The most curious caption was on page 8, "The very unloved regimental commander".

A bunker/observation post was called the Westhalian Bunker; perhaps that is where the unit was from.

Certainly the corps commander von Francois, who opened the war by deciding, on his own, with his corps of two divisions, to invade Russia when ordered to fall back; it may have contributed to the CO on the Eastern Front having something like a mental breakdown, leading to Hundenburg and Ludendorff being rushed in to take over. Exl. von Francois" means, in translation, "His Excellency von Francois".

Bob Lembke

Strange that one photo should say that it was taken in Mousson as the Germans never took Mousson (although they did hold the Signal de Xon briefly in 1915).

Excelleny Geoff, thank you! Please go on....

Brilliant photographs ! Thanks for sharing them with us.
Malte

Thanks for some very interesting observations Bob & healdav. Perhaps you could do a full translation of Page 6 photo 2?

Egbert & Malte , I will keep going!

I think I have an explanation for the actual album. On close scrutiny the photographs are attached to a piece of card with the comments on. It could be that they have been cut out of the original album and refixed in this one.

On to Page 9 photo 1



Page 9 photo 2


Geoff

Page 9 photo 3



The next 2 seem to be a bit of comedy

Page 9 photo 4



Page 9 photo 5



I dont understand why photo 5 is so large - it was'nt deliberate!

Geoff

Translation;
HeiWei (funny nickname) and ol' Tuent (even more funny nickname from Cologne area) in Mousson

page 9/1: Rollin' home

page 9/5: soldiers from backside

egbert, thanks for the translation. It is easier to look at the photographs and be able to understand the comments that go with the respective photograph.

Geoff

Hello there - thanks for following the trail and translating. The images are becoming more real by the day.

ckbeans

And on to the next page. Different photos with no comments -

Page 10 Photo 1



Page 10 Photo 2



Page 10 Photo 3



Geoff

Great pics, even more so in that they are private and not officially posed for.

Some of the subjects remind me of a version of ''Mademoiselle from Armentieres'':

Three German officers crossed the Rhine
Parelz-vous
Three German officers crossed the Rhine
Parlez-vous
Three German officers crossed the Rhine
.......... (edited for reasons of propiety) ... and drinking wine
Inky-pinky parlez vous!

Looking forward to more pics.

Ian

pic 2/1: "Oberfoerster mit Meute" is an ironic expression of good nature addressing this officer (Cmdr Regiment maybe). "Head-/or Chief Forester with pack"

A couple of other quick thoughts.

Many of the officers are rather old for their ranks. It is probably a reserve unit, no?

Note officers drinking and horsing about with enlisted men.

Bob Lembke

I'm pleased youve made sense of that for us egbert, in my newly aquired German Dictionery, meute is translated as pack or mutiny, neither of which made sense. To a non german speaker, mabye the photo caption could have read "Officer with Dogs"

bob, we agree about thinking it was a reserve unit, we thought maybe a supply unit of some kind.

Geoff

Geoff,

the pictures are either from German Fieldartillery-Regiment No 22 or from Germ. FAR No 58 (divisional artillery of german 13th Infantry Division). During the war the div.art. was devided and only G. FAR 58 stayed at the 13th Inf.Div. until the war was over.

Here's some regimental stuff that might help you by identification of Names

Malte


1.

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 22

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 22

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 22

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 22

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 58

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 58

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 58

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 58

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 58

Geoff;

I'm sure that your head is spinning. I am not sure what source Malte's first scans were from, the ones with the typescript appearance; the last scans/pages are from an important source called Ehrenrangliste 1914-1918. I will describe what that book and pages contain and do not contain so that you can use it to possibly identify your unit with certainty.

The Ehrenrangliste was published in 1926 by the German Officers' Association. Prewar, including mid-1914, a similar book was published annually. It therefore covers only regular officers, who were a fairly small fraction of all German officers in the Great War. (There was a German Reserve Officers' Association, but to my knowledge they never attempted such a work.) I believe that the German Army 1914-18 had 235,000 officers of one sort or another; this book is, if memory serves, 1315 pages. If it covered all officers it might be 10,000 pages long. (Anyone know how many regular officers in the army? I guess I could count the listings in the index, which is only about 250 pages long.)

(As I describe this book I may make errors; please anyone knowing of one please speak up so I know better and others are not misled.)

On the unit pages that Malte posted you have the listing for a given "regular" or "active" regiment, and the various officers' slots in the regiment's organization. A great problem is that only officers' last names are given, unless there were two Schmidt's in the regiment, where they would be distinguished, by e.g. (Max) and (Freidrich) in a light type. This last name only stuff is a major pain in the butt in this work.

The rank on the left side is the rank that the officer had in mid-1914, taken from Rangliste 1914. I only know a decent amount (and have several volumes) about the set that covered the Prussian and Wuerttemberg Armies; I believe that the Bavarian and Saxon Armies had more or less similar books. I believe the 1914-1918 book covered all four German Armies. There also is info on what position the officer held in the regiment in mid-1914, for example, a "2" meant that he was the CO or a platoon commander in 2. Kompagnie.

If there is a pair of crossed swords and a date the officer is dead and the date of death is given. If it was in the war, the place of death is given.

The rank on the right of the line is the officer's status in 1926; for example, a rank of OL (Oberleutnant) on the left, a 1914 rank, could be M a. D. (Major aus Dienst), or "Major out of service" (i.e., retired) on the right.

If I have misstated anything please speak up.

There is more info, but that is the basic stuff.

Now, the officers' names on the photos are quite likely mostly reserve or Landwehr officers, and would not be in the book. You would be lucky to get one or two hits. Due to the last name only problem one hit on a common name would mean nothing, a very unusual name, or 2-3 hits, probably would identify the unit.

Malte: How did you narrow down the unit to a couple?

Note: you have identified one or more NCOs as officers. As this is not a Guards unit; generally the men with collar stuff, usually a broad on its side "L"-shaped piping on the point of the collar, is a NCO.

Hope that this info helps, both in the narrow problem, and as general info.

Bob Lembke
(Your Hunnish Pal)

Very easy, Bob.

Geoff has posted pics of the album in two threads. See also

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...showtopic=41861

There is one pic of a bath-facility and the caption gives 13th Infantry Division. Other captions to pictures say "Batterie-Offiziere" and so it's no problem getting to the same conclusion. The unit is from the divisional artillery of 13th Infantry Division with 2 options: FAR 22 or FAR 58.
Another caption says: Beob. Stelle in La Bassée. I am going to scan a german report now and post it soon. This report will help to be sure. It is from "Ehrenbuch der Westfalen". Be aware of some good surprises.

Malte

Nice detective work Malte!
Geoff if you could post close ups of the plate, i.e. the one attached to the vat, we could translate them too; they are mostly humoristic

Geoff;

Malte's detective work as to regiments seems air-tight, so you can use looser standards for matching the men to a unit. You are chosing between two artillery regiments, not 300-400. A match or two should be OK.

I would think that most if not all officers who joined the regiment during the war were reserve officers, and would not be found in the book. However, they might be found in pre-war Ranglisten, either as active duty officers with the regiment during their about two (three?) years of active service with the regiment, additionally, they would then be listed for about five years as reserve officers of the regiment, even if they had moved to the other side of Germany.

Finally, a book called Dienstalterslisten could provide more info. I have copies from 1910 and 1912. However, it has no index, and it is ordered by date of rank, not regiment, so finding someone in there can take a lot of time.

I could suggest a division of labor; since you have the pics you could winnow out a list of officers, and I could poke thru some of these sources.

Incidentally, this sort of work, especially if successful, should considerably increase the value of the album. I bought two of these about three years ago and never did a minute's work with them, unfortunately.

Bob Lembke

"Geoff-I'm sure your head is spinning"

never a truer word was spoken!!

I'm certainly pleased to have you people helping out with this. I have already started to do a list of officers and maybe also place names will help. We had already decided on the Le Bassee area but this is on both lists.Other place names to crop up later include Schloss Gondecourt, Ostende, Violaines.

egbert, the close up of the swimming bath sign is here



with much appreciation

Geoff

Bob,

instead of suspections here some facts, which could be able to convince or - probably - not.

Here you are:






General von Francois was the Corps Commander of German VII. Army Corps, the 13th Inf.Div. belonged to the Corps.

Close up of the barrel page 2 photo 2



Geoff

Here' s more