WWI Soldbch & Militarpas

[Phil_C]

Hi,

I have just received in the post today a WWI solbuch and Miliarpas, I have little to no knowledge on these, please could someone tell on which pages you find what (awards etc) also which are the most inportant pages.

Lastly where can I research WWI German Infantry Regiments as the owner of the books served in IR 126 & IR 180

Any help at all would be great,

Regards
Phil

[Dave Danner]

Both are Württemberg regiments.

For basic info on the regiments, try A Pocket German Army .

Dave

[Phil_C]

Thanks Dave,

What is a Württemberg regiment? does it mean non combatant?

Regards
Phil

[Rick Research]

Württemberg was a Kingdom in southern Germany between the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Soldbuch:

Page 1:

1) are the first names , family name, birthdate, birthplace, district, and state of birth.

2) is occupation and names of father and home town

3) soldier's religion, normally abbreviated "ev." for Protestant and "kath." for Catholic.

4) civil occupation of soldier

5) married since, wife's name, hometown, and number of children.

Page 2:

6) Date and unit originally called up into

7) "Is Holder of the following Orders & Decorations:"


Militärpaß:

Page 1:

1) Names, birthdate and place as above

2) Civilian occupation

3) Religion

4) whether married (yes or no) and number of children

5) Date of induction and as what (volunteer, draftee, etc etc)

6) Unit of Induction

Page 2:

transfers, promotions continued from above

7) Date and type of discharge

Page 3:

8) Discharge unit, unit roll number, height

9) Orders and Decorations

10) Campaigns and wounds


THAT is where WW1 books usually break down and you will find ALL sorts of pages stuck in (often out of order) showing EXACT participation in battles ("mitgemachte Gefechten") which are either handwritten in on each page's unit in-unit out conduct report, or glued in from small fold out printed lists.

For instance, your man's UNIT may have been ground to a pulp on the Somme... but he might have been back having a tooth pulled and will have actions he did NOT participate in struck out on such printed lists.

So you don't need the histories of his UNITS... you have HIS personal action history right there, day by day, wound by illness by leave...

just needs to be deciphered!

Missing only a photo to be the Perfect IDs!!!


Now-- be VERY interested in any papers that are "loose" in there: most WW1 AWARD DOCUMENTS are hand-written mimeograph looking things, and I have known them to be included, unnoticed, by dealers. There can also be all sorts of interesting additional stuff. The Soldbuch I just was looking at for the line by lines above has a 1922 letter to the Prussian War Archives complaining that the soldier's Sergeant Major made all the demobilizing men hand him their Militärpaßes, which this soldier then needed for employment purposes, and could they kindly send it back to him? Scrawled on the back was a bureaucratic version of "tough lumpies, IF we have it, we can't be bothered looking for it." It also has pages of an anti-fraternization memo from the wartime Corps commander (which has been posted in here in back pages) warning not to get too friendly with French civilians.

[Phil_C]

Thanks for the info Rick,

I was also wondering what was on page 9 of the miliapas? because there is lots of writing and extra pages glued in my one. The only paper that I found in the soldbuch was what I think is his discharge paper, - Entlaffungsfchein, am I right? How much do WWI soldbuchs and militarpas sell for as I very rarly seen them for sale.

Also in the soldbuch it has one medal wrote in yet in the militarpas it doesn't have any medals entered, lastly I have the guys WWI soldbuch and the photo shows the guy wearing a 4 - 5 medal bar, and only two medals are mentioned in all together in the militarpas, WWI soldbuch & WWII soldbuch, is it common to find that awards are left out? as I have a soldbuch to some one else and his wound badge in black isn't recorded in.

Sorry for all the questions but I still need to learn a lot.

Regards
Phil

[Rick Research]

OK, now you're confusing me, mixing the two wars' paperwork together... and too many questions so I can't remember when I'm down here typing... (Yes, Entlassungsschein is Discharge Certificate)

How MANY books have you got... both WW1 MP and SB and a Third Reich... something book= THREE? Or a WW1 MP and a WW2 SB= TWO? Or....

There are no photos in WW1 military IDs. My list above are for entries in the WW-ONE books... now you're talking about WW-TWO one with a photo....


9 in an Imperial Militärpaß is a troop assignment conduct report page, when in, when out, battles, decorations, wounds, punishments.

Soldbücher tend to be less concerned with non-pay related issues like awards than the other book.

A Third Reich book is going to show things like 1930s Hindenburg Cross etc etc that didn't exist during WW1.


All is much clearer if you can scan 'em!!!!!!

[Phil_C]

Cheers Rick,

I have his WWI MP & SB and his WWII SB, unfortunatly I am unable to scan anything. The set came from detlev so I'm prity confident with it, this is the only picture I have,

Regardes
Phil

[Rick Research]

Aha! Three AND a military driver's license! That complete a set of paperwork is hard to find these days.

If you can't get scans made, make xerox copies and pop them in the snail mail to me-- send me a PM.