Turkish Star

[McCulloh]

Bob: This was an award. It was for merit and for bravery-and both combined of course and so widely distributed that some older authors claim it was a theatre award/campaign medal. However, Rick Lundstrom has the statistics in one of the original threads about the EH award to members of a Prussian medical transport company and only @50-60% actually had the medal. Many of the awards were made in 1918 and by company officers after the capitulations and backdated. There is overwhelming evidence that these were also given as merit/allied awards to officers and a few men on the Eastern and Western fronts (or for holdng doors open for a Pasha on tour in Berlin to paraphrase Professor Rick). There is also overwhelming evidence from photos (not a few of which I own) that this was liberally awarded to German, Austrian and Bulgarian troops in the Rumanian and Greek campaigns. It was also awarded during the Turkish war of liberation by Attaturk-and I have scans of the docs to prove it from Erturian. It was also awarded to Beamten in theatre and Diplomats.

Your Dad earned his I'm sure. Anyone who frags his Lt. was a "doer', not a follower.My guess is that 90% of the German troops in Gallipoli got it though-it was 1915 and they were specialists and still flushed with victory......;

[Dave Mosher]

Jeff and Bob

Is there any tie between either the 12 or 16 Uhlan regiment with that theatre of war (ie. some place where this award could be recieved)? I had posted a thread about a week ago to possibly to identify a tunic I have.

Regards

Dave

[McCulloh]

Don't know-don't have the regimental history-but email Glenn -he'd know. I think Daniel K. is sitting in the Potsdam archives-he might be able to look it up.

[Bob Lembke]

Ulanen

Dave;

I don't have the library of some, but I can state that Schlachten und Gefechte ------- has no entry for UR 12 and only one for UR 16, for 21. 8. 14. for when it was with the VII. Armeekorps, 2. Armee, a battle at Obaix, on the West Front. (?)

I would say that it was extremely unlikely that an Ulan unit as such would have been sent to any Turkish theatre; the Germans sent mostly small specialist units and seemed to hand-craft a series of units (with numbering like 701, 702, usw.) for service in, say, Palestine. I am sure the Turks had their own cavalry.

However, German cavalry might have served with or near to the Turkish army corps that fought on the southern part of the Russian Front. (My writing partner has an amazingly rare (I assume) photo; of a Turkish flame-thrower team training at a facility on the southern part of the Russian front.)

Bob Lembke

[Bob Lembke]

Archives

Jeff;

Didn't the Potsdam Archives burn down in a Brit air raid at the end of WW II? Is there any meaningful archive over there now?

I sent a painfully written two-page letter (in German) to the library of the Historical Institute of the Bundeswehr, and never got a reply. Their web-site said write, don't e-mail. But the Bundeswehr is starved for bucks. Anyone ever have any luck with them?

Bob Lembke

[McCulloh]

I thought so too Bob, but Daniel is sitting somewhere in Potsdam surrounded by Stammlisten and Rangelisten usw.usw. Perhaps the bombs hit the individual files and left the library. Rick says he's compiling a medal awards database.
Oh-was the 12 or 16 Uhlans in Rumania?? If so.....

[Dave Mosher]

Bob and Jeff
Where was Obaix? From the Ruhmeshalle Unserer Alten Armee, both the staff and portions of the 3rd Esk were part of the 13 ID and the remaining portions of the 3rd Esk were part of the 14 ID. Both are shown as participants of this battle on August 21, 1914.

Dave

[Bob Lembke]

Obaix

Dave;

Obaix sounds Flemish; but the other battles the VII. AK engaged in all had French place-names. The German Armies were deployed, I think, in an orderly fashion from the Belgian coast (1. Armee) to the 7. Armee in Alsace, I think. (Gutes deutsches Ordnung!) 7. Armeekorps had a battle about Namur about this time. I am guessing that this is near the Belgian-French border.

Bob Lembke