Grandfather's Imperial Medals

[Mike Fuss]

I'm a new subscriber to this forum and am researching my grandfather's Imperial German Medals which were given to me. He was in the Bavarian Troops and fought in the Balkans. He told me that he was a Serbian POW.

He received the Iron Cross Second Class and the Bavarian Medal of Merit Third Class. He also received the attached medal and ribbon which I have been unable to identify. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

My guess on the medal (and that of the Bavarian War Archive in Munich) is a Turkish medal given to German soldiers. The ribbon looks to me like an Austrian campaign ribbon. However, those are just educated guesses.

[Mike Fuss]

Updated Photo

Sorry, I missed a photo.

[Rick Research]

That is the Georgian Order of Saint/Queen Tamara. The ribbon should be red with black stripes--looks like yours has faded or dulled. You will find much more in the International Forum if you do a search on the word "weirdest" or "Tamara."

... because this WAS the Weirdest Award, Ever.

The main Bavarian troop unit in the Caucasus 1918-19 was the 1st Bavarian Reserve Jäger Battalion, detached from Jäger Regiment 29, and renamed Bavarian Jäger Regiment 15 with reinforcements from hundreds of former German POWs released in Georgia. I have a Tamara document (and EK2) to a Jäger Sergeant from this unit, but though I am a Bavarian collector, I have never found a BAVARIAN Tamara ribbon bar, as the examples below will show.

I actually did my college honors thesis back in the 1970s on this BIZARRE campaign.

[Mike Fuss]

As this campaign is directly related to my grandfather's activities would you mind sharing your thesis with me?

As to the ribbon, the ribbon bar and the loose ribbon have a consistent orange color. There is no indication (even on the back of the ribbon bar) that the original color was red or even a darker shade.

[Mike Fuss]

The information you supplied in the International Forum is fantastic.

I have also been in contact with the Bavarian Hauptstaatsarchiv (Kriegsarchiv) in search of my grandfather's war records but without much success. They would like me to narrow their search to a company or regiment.

As you say there were only about 3,000 of these medals could you narrow the troops involved to a point that would be meaningful for them? Should I say he was part of the Bavarian Jager Regiment 15? Do you think that will be specific enough?

[Rick Research]

Do you have any pictures of him in his uniform? NO documents of any kind?

The part about being a POW in SERBIA is what confuses me, since I can't imagine how he would have gotten to GEORGIA then.

The Tamara was not given to all German troops who were "in country" but only to those still there after the Armistice in November 1918.

Former POWs of the RUSSIANS are the wild cards-- like the officer from Saxe-Altenburg whose two ribbon bars are shown above.


Aside from "odds and ends" like personnel of the German Military Mission to the Caucasus staff, military radio stations Tiflis and Poti, etc, the major troop units involved were:

Bavarian 1st Reserve Jäger Battalion, aka Jäger Regiment 15
Sturm Battalion 10
Staff of II./Reserve Foot Artillery Regiment 65
Saxon Signals Section (Nachrictenabteilung) 1750
and transport, supply, and bakery etc etc personnel--

a total of 1,950 officers and men, all repatriated aboard the "Minna Horn" to Hamburg in April 1919.

But there were ALSO "stray" personnel from the other two Battalions of the original Jäger Regiment 29-- Reserve Jäger Btn 7, Res Jäger Btn 9... and most of the Res Foot Art 65 men, who were also entitled, yet had wended their way home from Poti via the Ukraine (where some were killed in the confusion of the Russian Civil War).

My estimate of 3,000 "Tamara" holders is probably much too generous, and 2,000 more likely.

As a Bavarian, 1st Reserve Jäger Battalion aka 15 Jäger Regiment is PROBABLY the most likely... if he was not from any other unit, and had been taken prisoner by the RUSSIANS 1914-17 and simply let loose in Georgia in 1917 when the tsar fell.

BTW, you have the 1919 Meybauer "3rd Class" Tamara, far less often seen than their enamelled "1st Class." Usually the "3rd" and "2nd" "Classes" are the type Eric and I show, made by ? Küst or ? Sedlatzek in 1919.

[Mike Fuss]

Thanks for the info. I do not have any military documentation other than the ribbons and medals themselves.

My aunt told me the story of being a Serbian POW as she recalled it from Opa. Apparently he got one glass of wine a day to prevent disease (although he missed his Bavarian beer). That is all she recalled of his "military stories".

[AOK4]

IIRC the only bavarian unit involved in the fighting in Serbia was the 11. bayerische Infanterie-Division...

Jan