landsturm pichelhaube storage--trying to move posts

W

Wyliecoyote

New member
In 1915 the Landsturm were issued pickelhauben, and that same year the Landwehr Kreuz in green was authorized for 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, Battalion number in Arabic numerals were found, also in green.

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.

 
Yes it is a clear image, one of my favorites. :)

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:
 
Hey George,
This is an interesting photo, from what I can see, the Gew88s look to be original configuration, I can not see any adaptation for stripper clips and the cut down for the thumb is not cut in the receiver, these adaptations were done in 1914, so I would suppose that it would nt be uncommon to see such a rifle in 1915. The fellows with the Pickelhauben look like they could be the same person, perhaps brothers?
Best wishes
Gus
 
Gus,

I never picked up on that. Have to take a closer look at the pc. There seems to be a consensus among some Gew 88 collectors that a large portion of the 1,675,000 Gew 88's that were produced by 1897 never received the 1905 or 1914 mods. I think something like 350,000 rifles were modified to 88/05 specs. It is believed that most if not all of these were given to Turkey in the form of military aid. Even though the Gew 88/05 was superior to the Gew 88, there was far more ammunition in the Imperial supply system available. Another factor being that most of the older troops were more familiar with the loading system with the unmodified G 88's than with the G 88/05's. They also feel that there were even fewer G 88/14's than G 88/05's because of the rapid speed at which the units were mobilized. Basically the 88/14 mod was the continuation of the 88/05 mod, with the addition of the magazine well cover. Only major difference being the 88/14 mod was done shoddily and lacked the quality of the 05 mod because the Arsenals were in a hurry to complete as many rifles as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Unfortunately there seems to be little surviving documentation to prove things one way or another.
 
George,
That is very interesting, and I can understand the idea of keeping some unmodified G88s to use up the exsisting stocks of the older ammo, most troops issued these weapons would have been rear guard, i.e. stationed at railways, POW camps ect. and they would not have the need for the hotter balistics of the new rounds. And when you compair the German situation in WWI to the US situation in WWII, it is easy to see a parallel, as Springfield '03s and '03A3s were used along side the Garand and M1 carbine. In other words, in time of need, you use what you have.
Best wishes
Gus
 
Brian

Looking up at the top left of this page just now, and I had to laugh. I have looked at it countless times and it just hit me now: Is that a Landwehr Busby?

Geo
 
Hi George:
I have always thought of it as a Reservist Busby. One comment regarding the uberzugen shown in your foto. I could be wrong but it appears that these covers have the slits in the sides that we associate with the M15 pickelhauben uberzug so that the chin strap may be worn on the outside of the helmet. If memory serves these uberzug had a seperate spike top cover. The ones in your foto appear to be the typical style but with side slits for the chin strap. Brian
 
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