Nice picture found at Flea Market

Douglas

Douglas

New member
Hi people!

Here is a picture that I found at a local flea market a few weeks ago. I think you will enjoy it to see these tough guys.

As far as I know this regiment was raised in 1917, but note they all are wearing jackboots and appear to be so well kitted out. These men are in a rear area and have probably just completed their stormtroop training. The grenades are all smoke grenades with the holes in them and the man on the extreme left (who appears to be Otto! :eek: ) is wearing an M 18 helmet, all of the others are 16's or 17's. That pretty much dates the picture to probably early to mid 1918.

soldier477.jpg


Cheers,

Douglas.


PS - Click on the picture to see a bigger image.
 
Of interest to me is the Bluse uniforms with white piped shoulder straps. As Tony will tell you I know nothing about uniforms but is this unusual or do we see it quite often? One last comment regarding age. These guys all look to be in their 20's, no boys here. They all look very fit and strong. From my limited readings I seem to remember the storm troops were specially selected from existing Regts for their experience, youth and fitness. These guys would be tough to deal with. Excellent picture! Brian
 
Douglas, nice PC, thanks for posting.

Brian, I might get myself torpedoed ( again), but I believe that late in the war, most infantry units with the exception of possibly Garde troops, had the white piping on their shoulder boards.

One of the things I like about your pic is the way it illustrates what many truppen complained about the new stahlhelms: notice that even though these soldiers are in a somewhat shaded area, you can still see the reflective properties of the paint used on the helmets.

I'd like to post one of my favorite pc's. It appears to be a graduation pic from a Rekruten Depot. There is no message written on the back and it was never posted, only the date "Oktober 18". These kids are far different from the stosstruppen. If you look in the background you can see the "kids" goofing around behind the platoon, you get a true sense of how young these soldiers really were, not more than older children. Kinda sad to realize they were off to the meatgrinder shortly after this picture was taken.

 
Great Pic Wylie...lambs to the slaughter unfortunately. Of note though, what a collection of uniform variants and foot gear!
 
I really like that photo. Hard to believe I posted it here over 5 years ago. Shortly after I posted it a fellow used it on a youtube video. I was very surprised to come acrossed it by accident one day. I hope this link works:

http://commissionrifle.multiply.com/video/item/2/Preussens_Gloria
 
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