Ghosts in the glass... spooky!
Nah, Ritter von Epp was more... constipated looking. Like Ludendorff.
Days I sat. sat I days. Days... paging back and forth in the @#@%&&^% Prussian award rolls for:
Red Eagle Order 2 with Cabbage & Xs, Prussian Crown Order 2 with Star Xs, to match up with holders of the
Pour le Merite.
From those weathered, Montana rancher cheeks and baleful "Epp" gaze, my first thought was Freiherr von Lüttwitz-- but that was whilst I was derailed trying to make this a POST-1918 snap. It ain't.
So there I was, buried in the @#%***^$# Prooshun award rolls. No *&%@$%%# first names, no @#^***%#@@ units. You guys have any CLUE how many COUSINS served in the German military, all the same rank?
And every one of them had to be checked against the much nicer PLM rolls so often published, so rarely illustrated.
THEN, have "narrowed" down to SEVERAL DOZEN possibles, I had to go sit and work my way through the 1914 Rangliste, checking against the PRE-war stuff:
Prussian Red Eagle 4 with Crown, Prussian Crown 3, Prussian Long Service, 1897. Naughty man still wearing his big Old Style bar of 1914-15 with his EK2, even with a steel helmet on (a first for this combo, in all the pix I've ever seen).
Typical "Oberstleutnant" medal bar combination, for our Generalmajor.
BUT... he was also a Commander grade Knight of the Prussian Johanniterorden. A Protestant von Somebody.
Like that reduced my Short List.
But I found A match. A single match. Could it be? was it really?
Only Glenn could confirm that winsome face! And, sure enough, so he did.
Here's our heavily armed General in happier days, peacetime, 1914:
(My thanks, always, to Glenn, my his library shelves never sag!
)
Nah, Ritter von Epp was more... constipated looking. Like Ludendorff.
Days I sat. sat I days. Days... paging back and forth in the @#@%&&^% Prussian award rolls for:
Red Eagle Order 2 with Cabbage & Xs, Prussian Crown Order 2 with Star Xs, to match up with holders of the
Pour le Merite.
From those weathered, Montana rancher cheeks and baleful "Epp" gaze, my first thought was Freiherr von Lüttwitz-- but that was whilst I was derailed trying to make this a POST-1918 snap. It ain't.
So there I was, buried in the @#%***^$# Prooshun award rolls. No *&%@$%%# first names, no @#^***%#@@ units. You guys have any CLUE how many COUSINS served in the German military, all the same rank?
And every one of them had to be checked against the much nicer PLM rolls so often published, so rarely illustrated.
THEN, have "narrowed" down to SEVERAL DOZEN possibles, I had to go sit and work my way through the 1914 Rangliste, checking against the PRE-war stuff:
Prussian Red Eagle 4 with Crown, Prussian Crown 3, Prussian Long Service, 1897. Naughty man still wearing his big Old Style bar of 1914-15 with his EK2, even with a steel helmet on (a first for this combo, in all the pix I've ever seen).
Typical "Oberstleutnant" medal bar combination, for our Generalmajor.
BUT... he was also a Commander grade Knight of the Prussian Johanniterorden. A Protestant von Somebody.
Like that reduced my Short List.
But I found A match. A single match. Could it be? was it really?
Only Glenn could confirm that winsome face! And, sure enough, so he did.
Here's our heavily armed General in happier days, peacetime, 1914:
(My thanks, always, to Glenn, my his library shelves never sag!
)
and commanded the XIV. Armeekorps. From the one other pic I could find the nose and jaw seem to match, sorta.
) researched completely anonymous photograph. 
I "had" him, from his awards, but confirmation came from Glenn's Pour le Merite winners' biographies volume 1. Hard work in the Original Primary Resources Mines AND international "networking" paid off with accurate results derived from experienced knowledge and educated good judgement. 
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