thanks Rick!

[AndyD]

Hi Rick,
many thanks for your reply.Here is some of the info that i have so far:Otto Rosswog,born 1st September 1891in Emmendingen(?)Catholic,salesman by trade.Joined Feld-Artillerie-Regiment,Konig Karl(1.W)Nr.13 8(F) Batterie. Also listed is an entry which i was hoping you could help me with! Tagdes eintrittsin das stehende heer am 17/8/14.Awarded EK2 23/9/16.
Another entry which i don't understand states:Ausgefertigt(long 'f' type letter,presuming it is 'f' or is it 's'?! and Im Felde 22 Februar 1918.
There are lots of entries marked with the date 18/3/1918,and stamps at the side of these,including,Reserve Lazarett 1 Leipzig.Also on the militarpass the rank of unteroffizier has been crossed out and something which looks like Vizewachtenmeister,VR has been written in its place.
Also one more thing,then i'll leave you in peace!There is a list stuck into the militarpass with what looks like battles on it and dates, eg,21/11/1916 to 26/11/1916 Schlacht an der Somme.There is a line drawn through 1/8 to 3/8/1915,Schlacht bei Cholm,and the line continues diagonally upwards through the previous battles,what does this mean?
Sorry to be a burden,but you're the only man i know who can help!
Many thanks and kind regards,
yorkie

[Rick Research]

Aha! A Wu"rttemberger! I think you will find that with his 1914 entry it will say he was a "Kriegsfreiwilliger" or "War Volunteer." That would be consistent with being an Unteroffizier and then jumping a rank to Vizewachtmeister (probably --->) der Reserve.

A Vizewachtmeister was the same as the WW2 rank of Feldwebel (the WWI rank of Feldwebel was a different creature). A Vizewachtmeister wore officers' cap cockades, and officers' sidearms and sword knot. This distinguished him from the Imperial army rank of Sergeant (which was a WW2 Unterfeldewebel), sharing NCO collar and cuff lace and a large button on each side of the collar in line with the shoulder straps.

Wtbg was a bad state for a senior NCO to come from, as they had the least options for awards. The Wtbg Silver Bravery Medal was considered too lowly for ranks above Sergeant, but to get the Gold one, they had to already have an EK1--so most of them got nothing!

The printed (?) list of battles was for all the engagements the UNIT was involved in. Any that are crossed out like that mean that your man was NOT present for those--either in another unit, wounded, etc.

Making Vzw before discharge means your man had at least a high school diploma. May not have made the "social cut" for being commissioned a reserve OFFICER, but was considered "suitable" for holding this rank as a platoon leader. Vizewachtmeisters were considered the same as their identically uniformed officer candidate (Fa"hnrich) counterparts, and were suffered to hang out with the officers' mess, etc at the front as junior semi-officers.

You've got "date of entry in the standing army" 17.8.14 alright, and if most of the entries were "ausgefertigt" (made out) in 1918--his messy (?) wound may have necessitated making up a neat new duplicate of his Milita"rpass. (I have one from 1920 which was laboriously sent round and round old units to replicate the man's original, taken when he was captured by the British in 1916.)

[ 21 November 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]