Landsturm Headgear

[Wyliecoyote]

I am starting this thread as a companion to Tony's outstanding Landwehr Shako Plate thread.

http://www.pickelhaubes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1541&start=0

Landsturm / Landwehr is a tough nut to crack ( at least for me). We know that prior to June of 1915 other types of headgear were issued.

The first type of headgear we are going to discuss is the Wachstuchmütze (oilcloth cap). It sports the Landwehr cross and the state cockade. I assume these 4 Landsturmer are Bavarian, as the pc was posted from Munchen. The cancellation is mostly blotted out by the unit stamp, but the year is clearly '14. The unit stamp is "S.B. over Landst. - Bat. Rosenheim". I think that is what the words are on their armbands also. Haven't gotten around to checking any references as to what color the uniforms are. They might be feldgrun? I have once seen a pc that had a picture of a similar type mutze, only it was constructed of cloth.

Every one please feel free to add pc pics or pics of Wachstuchmützen. After any additions or discussion I will move along to another type of headgear. Just an attempt to keep things from getting fragmented.

 

[joerookery]

At the beginning of the war and before, Landsturm were organized in Bns with zero service support. They were named for where they came from. For example this band came from Hannover 1.

This should be early war because there were no Landsturm training requirements. These guys wore oilcaps and when they ran out old Landwehr shakos. Looking at the band they had no numerical collar dogs. Kraus single volume pg 288 says the landsturm started the war with just brigade numbers on their collar. This picture below shows men of a Landsturm unit from 37th Bde with a mixture of oilcaps and old style shakos.

In both of these pictures the "leader" wears a haub. In the case of the band leader there are no accepted "landsturm" haubes so they are called landwehr?????

Not all units wore "dogs", Gd Lansturm wore litzen.

After the Bde numbers the number of Corps and Bn were both worn as of April 1915,

Some of the oilcapshad some sort of cloth top.

Those Landsturm who did not have oilcaps or uniforms they had uniform marking...in this case arm bands to ensure they were not mistaken for Francs tirralier (sp) of 1871 style.

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

In both of these pictures the "leader" wears a haub. In the case of the band leader there are no accepted "landsturm" haubes so they are called landwehr

So why is he wearing a Reserve Pickelhaube with the EK on the tail feathers? Does that go back to the % rule of this much Reg + this much Reserve + this much Landwehr or Landsturm makes a unit?

 

[joerookery]

So why is he wearing a Reserve Pickelhaube with the EK on the tail feathers?

Good question that I cannot answer. Bandmasters were different but
I think that like officers of the line they had to request movement betwween levels. So he could have been a reserve officer and requested transfer to the Landsturm due to age. He could have kept his original helmet?????? What else would he wear? It is a good question.

The % rule did not apply to Landsturm only Landwehr according to Busche.

 

[Glennj]

Joe,

he is the battalion Adjutant and not the Bandmaster.

It seems that any combination of Retired officer, Reserve, Landwehr, retired reserve or retired Landwehr officer could serve in any unit as formed at mobilisation or after.

And it is further highly probable that these guys would have worn the headgear and uniform of their last peacetime unit/Landwehr Bezirk.

regards
Glenn

 

[joerookery]

he is the battalion Adjutant and not the Bandmaster.

Goodness I've only looked at this a few thousand times so missing the sash is excusable?!!?!?!?!?
This has to be post mobilization right? So we went through no collar dogs, brigade number, corps number with bn number collar dogs in pretty rapid fashion.

 

[Mike Huxley]

Hey Wyliecoyote, That's a nice Landsturm group photo you posted. It's interesting to see the guy kneeling with the shooting award is also wearing a "Kaiser Centenary" medal, any idea when the shot was taken?

Here's a closer shot of the only pic that I have of a Landsturm guy wearing a Wachstuchmütze. Unfortunatly I can't make out the number on his collar.

 

[Wyliecoyote]

Wachstuchmützen with uberzug. I really like this pc because of the Hussar with Busby uberzug. Would love to have seen the busby minus the cover, looks like it is a pre-war model.

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

Look how shiny these caps were! These one are unusually "perky". Does anyone have one or know someone who has one? I do not know of one in a collection and I have been looking for one for way longer than I want to admit. They are just gone.

Nice view of that odd Landsturm Litewka with single upper pocket too.

 

[timp_be]

I have a Wachstuchmütze from Baden. Even if the cap looks good I have a problem with the cross on which is written "Mit god fur konig und vaterland". Normally it must be "Mit god fur fuerst und vaterland"...? In the book "Militarische kopfbedeckungen der kaiserzeit" from Reiner Herrmann on page 72 there is a picture from an oilcloth cap wearing a cross with the motto "konig" and from a shako wearing the motto "fuerst". Can somebody explain it?

 

[Wyliecoyote]

This is a nice pc of Otto's that I harvested from a thread he authored.

This chap is wearing the "Kaiser Centenary" medal as was a soldier in the first pc. One very interesting thing I noticed about this fellow is that on his wachstuchmutze are not only the State cockade under the southern arm of the Landwehr Kreuz, but also a National cockade above the northern arm of the kreuz.

So it appears there were at least 2 variations of insignia display on this type of mutze.



Must be a smaller Landwehr Kreuz to be able to fit the cockade?

 

[joerookery]

George I apologize for moving backwards but we are fixing Janet's scrapbook room (again) and having counters and murphy beds installed so I couln't get to my postcards. I have a series of questions / thoughts that lead back to the original hats.

First for your viewing pleasure a landsturm hat quiz type picture.

I'm sure I missed stuff.

 

[joerookery]

The next issue is collar dogs. There are MANY types. These first guys have none.

Then there seem to be those with some sort of verticle line.

 

[joerookery]

Then you get to ornamental dogs. Initially the Landwehr Bns were supposed to have their Bde number in large numbers on their collars.

This next picture from the Kostel collection shows no number on the coat but one on the collar.

Hoch Der Landsturm!

 

[joerookery]

The "verticle line" I think is an unterofficier bar for the greatcoat per Sommers V2 pg 732. 2 bars would be Feldwebel.

Again Bde number only for the Landsturm of Hildesheim..

 

[joerookery]

After Bde collar dogs, the dogs starting in April 1915, differentiated the Korps and Bn. number. You have to know both to track down which unit it is. For example this guy is from XIX Korps bn # 16. which is Ldst. I-Btl. Plauen. The Busche manuscript has a complete listing of unit numbers by corps.

There were many variants of this combination with the pcture above being the standard. You see Bn number followed in a line with Korps number like this wonderfully clear picture Chas allowed me to use.

You see the reverse of this variant.

You can see from the examples you have both big and small numbers used for Bn. Then there is the corps only variant. There is some thought that this might be Landsturm Pioneer. I do not know.

I do not know when/if Lansturm stopped wearing dogs.

 

[Wyliecoyote]

The next piece of headgear is the pickelhaube. In 1915 the Landsturm were issued pickelhauben, and that same year the Landwehr Kreuz in green was authorized for Landsturm use on the uberzug. Below the kreuz (where one would normally find a Regimental number on Regular Armee & Reservist uberzugen), the Korps number in Roman numerals, above the Battalion number in Arabic numerals were found, also in green. This was done in a similar manner as on the collar dogs, posted above.

This next pc shows examples of Prussian Landsturm from the top right wearing a wachstuchmutze with cloth cover, wachstuchmutze no cover, and pickelhauben with plain uberzugen. The sillouettes of the Prussian wappen can be seen under the uberzug. This pc is undated.



A pc from the Lille Citadel, undated, of French POW's being led by Landsturmer with pickelhauben, one with cloth wachstucmutze. Check out the Hussar to the right.



I don't have any pc's of my own of Landsturm troops with their type marked uberzugs. Anyone who does, PLEASE, feel free to add pics.

:help:

 

[joerookery]

 

[joerookery]

I'm toying with the idea of doing an article on the meaning of all those landsturm marks including a chart linking number like this XI34 to a unit.

 

[Wyliecoyote]

The next style of headgear is the Feldmutze or Kratzen, a soft, visorless cap worn by enlisted men. They displayed small cockades on the front of the hat, National or Reichs on the crown or top, State or Landes cockade below on the cap band. In the case of Landsturm, the State cockade also could include a Landwehr Kreuz in the inner ring. The top or crown of the cap for Landsturm was generally feldgrau, with piping and the cap bands in the color of the occupational specialty for example red bands and piping for Infantry, black bands and red piping for Artillery and Pioneers, green bands and green piping for Jagers. At some point feldgrau bands were made to cover the bands to reduce recognition by allied troops. These were issued up until July, 1917, when the both the crowns & bands were produced in feldgrau.

These first two Landsturm troops are from the 43rd Brigade prior to April 1915. The state cockades are of the Landsturm type.



These troops are from the XIX Korps, 17 Landsturm Btn, the sign says 18 Korporalshaft, 4. Komp., Landsturm Inf. Btn Scheeberg, 2 Zt.Zwickau, 1916