The new series by Kraus.

[Robert]

Jürgen Krause is working on a new series called "Handbuch der Verbände und Truppen des deutschen Heeres 1914 - 1918" and which should comprise 20 books when done. Evidently only a few books are yet completed. Has anyone read into them?

Personally I'm waiting for #7 which will cover the MG-units

 

[Glennj]

Robert,

There are five in print at the moment:

Regular Infantry
Field Artillery (2 volumes)
Munitions Columns (2 volumes).

I have the infantry and field artillery books. They are very detailed indeed and cover the complete subordination to higher formations throughout the war down to detached batteries in the case of the artillery.

Well worth acquiring. I hope Herr Kraus lives long enough to complete the series!

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

Glenn, does the Feldartillerie say what guns the Battery used? If so, I will buy the Fußartillerie the second it comes out.

 

[Glennj]

Tony,

it does not appear to do so for the field artillery. The books are very detailed but their slant is towards unit history, subordination and manpower issues.

Regards
Glenn

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

it does not appear to do so for the field artillery. The books are very detailed but their slant is towards unit history, subordination and manpower issues.

Well that sucks. :scratch: Could you please post a comment when you obtain the Fußartillerie volume? I would appreciate it. I honestly don't care about what a unit did or where they did it. That is for historians such as yourself and others here, but I am not one. I am only interested in matching units (shoulder straps) to the guns they used (cartridge casings). Thank you.

 

[joerookery]

Tony,

These books are not for you. They are nice books, very expensive and they have a huge amount of white space. They don't even tell you what unit did what when where. This is about formations, subordination, and manpower issues as Glenn has said. That is it. If you want to know when this unit was subordinated to that unit it has amazing detail. But if you want to know where they were fighting, with what they were fighting or changes in equipment and uniforms it is not here. One of the valuable things you get from this is the existence and organization of some weird numbered units. So you can chase down numbers but it is a history drill and has nothing to do with uniforms or equipment. Sorry.

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

Thank you. Seems a shame though to not even mention what equipment such as field pieces and guns they used. Oh well. Back to digging it out.

 

[Chip Minx]

I am waiting on the volume on the reserve, Landwehr and Landstrum infantry. I have Busche, but not in book form.

I would also be interested to see what he does with the foot artillery.

The information that I have is from the allied intelligence and I am sure it is similar to the 251 Divisions, in that it has mistakes. The only information as far as actions, is to say which front or sector a unit was in when the information was gathered. Very sketchy, to say the least.

These works of Kraus seem to be based on the work of Major Kling and Major von Stein, who attempted a similar listing starting in the Zeitschrift für Heereskunde in the 1930s and the publication Feldgrau during the 1950s . They never finished, as Kling died and von Stein eventually gave up, because "Feldgrau" had folded and the ZfH was no longer interested in printing the material. Von Stein had done the research, however, but it remains unpublished to this day.

Chip