Gallipoli Star Holder Photo

[ChristerD]

This lovely photo just arrived in the mail, EK II, Gallipoli star and another
turkish medal ?
Is there anybody who knows German WW1 uniforms who cauld say anything about this guy ?
He has a round badge on his collar , sorry to say the card is to dark to see what
it shows... The photo is taken in a studio in Hannover.

Best regards to all collectros from Sweden
Christer

[McCulloh]

Chester-the round badge is a button, I think it's a Gefreiters' (Senior Private) size.

The ribbon bar look like an EK2, state award (probably Ernst August medal) and the Harp medal ribbon. It's fuzzy and I haven't had coffee yet, so it's difficult to detremine. The jacket is a later war pattern.

[Chip M]

Matrosen Regiment

Christer,

This fellow is wearing the 1915 pattern Bluse (tunic). While it is somewhat common to see photos with the shoulder straps removed, it is not so common to see this tunic without the buttons that the straps were attached to. The only troops that wore the Bluse without shoulder straps were the men of the Matrosen Regiments (naval infantry regiments).
These soldiers did wear army NCO style collar disks, which had a fouled anchor with imperial crown above. I have a photo of another Matrose wearing the same pattern tunic and you can see both the collar disks and his Obermaat sleeve chevron. He is wearing a ribbon bar and an EKI. Unfortunately, I cannot post it, as I am not a member.

Best regards,
Chip

[ChristerD]

Gallipoli Star Holder



Thanks Jeff and Chip , now I get some leads to the mystery man in the Photo
and Chip you could mail me the pic you have so can I show it here in the forum.
I would love to see the Photo !

Maybe my man was in the Marine-Infanterie ?

Theese photos always rises a lot of questions...


Thanks again

Christer

[Bob Lembke]

Mystery Soldier - Matrose?

There were of course quite a few German EM in Turkey in 1915, in particular sailors on the Goeben and Breslau. Aside from the volunteer Pionier=Kompagnie, there were several small volunteer MG units serving on the Gallipoli front formed by sailors from the above ships. I imagine that after railroad communications were established after Serbia was defeated the sailors on the ships may have been rotated to the homeland, especially if Turkish sailors took over some of their slots.

So quite likely this guy was a sailor at Istanbul and possibly at Gallipoli, and then rotated back to Germany and ended up in the Matrosen=Infanterie. Also, of course, some troops that never made it to Turkey got the "Gallipoli Star", although I bet they were usually officers who, as someone said recently, "held a door open for a Pasha."

Bob Lembke

[Chip M]

Matrose

Christer,

When you say Marine-Infanterie, you may be thinking of the sea battalion "marines". This fellow was actually a sailor, who would have served in an infantry capacity. The See Bataillone troops wore a 1910 pattern tunic with shoulder straps of their battalion.

I will e-mail you the photo that I mentioned earlier.

Best regards,
Chip

[ChristerD]

Here is Chips Photo of the matrose !

Thanks to Chip , we here have another Matrosen and this one even has a name ! Thomas Wenzel , quite high decorated with EK I.

Thanks again Chip , now I have to start reading about German navy in Turkey during WW1, I hope Santa bring some interesting books


Christer