Landsturm troops parade captured French Alpine Troops

drakegoodman

drakegoodman

New member
Can't provide a location at this stage. Obvious choice is Offenburg, but I haven't been able to confirm this. Link to original size.

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Reverse:

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Abs. Uffz. Hihs 2. Komp.Landst.Bat. Offenburg
Armee Abt Gaede.

Dear Brother and family, as a memory of the transportation of prisoners I send you this card. I will have a leave at the end of Sept. All the rest verbally. I am still in the same garrison and I am well.

Till then the best regards, Jakob.
 
Brett,

An alternative thought. Jacob was sending this card as a representative of prisoner removal. The date on the card is written in a completely different pencil. The French Alpine troops and Gaede---- could this be a picture of a 1914 events in Alsace? Seventh Army troops?
 
The "Gefangenentrans. v. 26 Juli 1915" addendum has definitely been authored by someone other than Jacob. It's a shame there's no dated cancellation stamp etc on the reverse.

If this is indeed Strasbourg 1914, then the troops would be von Heeringen's men escorting prisoners of the 'Army of Alsace'.

Landst. Inf. Batl. 'Offenburg' was XIV Army Corps - which was under 7. Armee-Oberkommando.
 
Brett,

I thought the city name would be augmented by a number sometime in the spring of 1915. Nevertheless here is my tidbit of the day! As reported by Herwig, page 101 of his new book, just counting Prussia,Wurtt, and Baden there were 500,000 letters and packages daily during the Franco Prussian war.

Hang on to your hat -- that number shot up to 6.8 million pieces going into Germany and 9.9 million pieces going to the front each day. They needed 8000 postal employees just to handle the mail. Much of that was caused by the free postage.

From the same source I was really taken aback by the hostility shown by the Prussians to the Bavarians during the early part of the war. Nasty nasty Prussians!
 
The French Alpine troops and Gaede---- could this be a picture of a 1914 events in Alsace?
Click to expand...
My idea also at first. Please give me some time to identify the right place. I doubt about Offenburg, though the writing mentions it. Being a "fan" of the Chasseurs Alpins, I have seen this photo somewhere else in a French book with comments. But maybe my memory is playing games with me?
 
Have you guys read the masses of information provided by Pierre? I know this is not exactly the same thing but his website is really amazing. For a guy who will never explore these hills thank you for your work. I stole this picture from your website.

General_Gaede.jpg

http://pierreswesternfront.punt.nl/index.php?r=1&id=490357&tbl_archief=0#490357
 
Thanks a lot , Joe, for your kind recommendation. As it is not possible for myself even to copy a photo directly from my website to here, I may still be of help. I suppose you wanted to show the picture of General Gaede?
If I am right about this, here it is:
11114c8.jpg


From again : "Grosser Bilderatlas des Weltkrieges".
 
Perhaps off topic, but it might be of considerable interest.
There is a considerable difference in time concerning the use of "Armeegruppe Gaede" or "Armeeabteilung Gaede", etc.
I again use a quote from a lemma of the German Wikipedia, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Gaede. This is also confirmed by this recommendable German website, http://www.1914-18.info/erster-weltkrieg.php?u=463&info=Armee-Abteilung-Gaede .

Quote from wikipedia:
Ihr Einsatzort waren die südlichen Vogesen bis zum Sundgau.Vom 13. August -19. September 1914 bestand das ’’mobile stv. XIV. Armeekorps’’ unter dem Befehl von General Gaede. Am 19. September wird sie in Armeegruppe Gaede umbenannt. Zwei Monate später, ab dem 25. November, wurde sie erneut, in Armeeabteilung Gaede, umbenannt. Nach dessen Ausscheiden erhielt den Befehl General Erich von Gündell. Am 6. September 1916 änderte sie letztmalig ihre Bezeichnung in Armeegruppe B. Sie wurde nach Ende des Krieges am 23. Dezember 1918 aufgelöst.[
Click to expand...

Quote from 1914-18.info:
Armee-Abteilung Gaede (Chronik 1914/1916)

mobiles Stellvertretendes Generalkommando des XIV. Armeekorps
2.8.1914 bis 19.9.1914 (Deckungstruppen am Oberrhein)

Truppen-Abteilung Gaede
bis 19.9.1914 (Deckungstruppen am Oberrhein)

Armeegruppe Gaede
19.9.1914 bis 25.11.1914

Armee-Abteilung Gaede
(25.11.1914 bis 4.9.1916)

Armee-Abteilung B
4.9.1916 bis Kriegsende
Click to expand...

If translation is needed, let me know.
Considering this info the picture talks about 1915 and Armee-Abteilung.
The location, where the picture has been taken, might be also somewhere in Alsace- Lorraine. I am still looking for that picture....
 
In the summer of 1915 there were heavy battles in Alsace on the Ridges of the Vosges, like the Lingekopf, Schratzmaennele, Ban de Sapt, etc.
There were many Chasseurs Alpins involved in these fightings. Almost no doubt for me that these Chasseurs Alpins on the picture have been taken prisoner during these summer battles.
I do now shut up, but this :twisted: photo made me thinking and associating, and rethinking and...
 
I am thinking of the city of Straszburg, or Strassbourg, which is close to and west of Offenburg, but nowadays it is on French territory.
Strassbourg, now capital of the EU lies on the west, Franch bank of the Rhine river, Offenburg, rather a town, lies on the east, German bank of the Rhine.
 
This has made fascinating reading and now I'm doubly keen on nutting out the location of the photograph.

Pierre, your site is the finest site of it's kind on the web. I would hate to think how many man-hours you have devoted to it's creation and ongoing maintenance.
 
It is a pleasure for me to make these front travels, Brett, and to work on the website to show you photo reports of "my adventures" on the former battlefields. With reactions like yours, the pleasure to go on developpig the website even increases! Thank you, Brett, for your words of appreciation. :)
 
There was a Hotel National in Strasbourg prior to WWI.

Here is a link to a steamer trunk / luggage decal from the Hotel circa 1910:


www.internationalposter.com/poster-details.as px?id=FRL18580


Hotel National - Strasbourg
 
I hate to spoil the winning mood here, Brett.
I told you before I recognized this picture, but, having found it again I know now, that it was from a different angle!

It is the same occasion as in Brett's first picture. Look at the texts on the advertisement signs, like Hotel Nation.
I found it in the French book of the authors, Bernard Fischbach and Francois Wagner, "Mémoire en Images 1914-1918 En Alsace".
The translation of the subtitles is:
"Parade of French prisoners of war in the Rue de Sauvage, Mulhouse, after the battles of the Hartmannswillerkopf in april 1915."
So , perhaps not Strasbourg. I am willing to believe these French authors with marking even the street's name.

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One can not read too much in the caption of a period photo, even now, file photos are captioned to match the new article,
Gus
 
That is true, Gus. I do realize that phenomenon well.
But Francois Wagner is a history professor and inhabitant of the region around Mulhouse. He seems to have written more studies about the Great War in the Alsace.
His colleague Bernard Fischbach is a journalist and author of various articles concerning the history of Alsace.

Until now we were only carefully guessing here. So, reason enough for me to be not that sure about our former identification of the location.
Anyway, if you look at the street in detail; it is the same street as in Brett's period picture; the time of the day and weather conditions are the same, etc..
 
After looking at the Rue du Sauvage, in Mulhouse, I do not think that is correct, it does have the correct contour, but I can not find any buildings that would match those inthe photos, How much damage was done to Mulhouse in WWII?
Gsu
 
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