Help identifying Oberst shoulder boards with number 5

[tmca05]

I just picked up this pair or Oberst (Colonel) shoulder boards.
They appear to be Bavarian with very faded light blue "V"s.

Is the red for artillery or infantry? I see them listed both ways and it may be because that changed in 1915 from what I can tell.

What unit would be number 5 ? Is it a division or a regiment ?

I usually stick to WW2, but I am starting to get fascinated with imperial German as it is much better made and more interesting and rich in history.

Thanks, Dave

[tmca05]

2

[kaiserwilhelm2]

The shoulder boards for 5. Bayerisches Infanterie-Regiment „Großherzog Ernst Ludwig von Hessen“ and those of for 5. Bayerisches Feldartillerie-Regiment „König Alfons XIII. von Spanien“ are the same.

There are no divisional shoulder boards in the Imperial army. Divisions in the Imperial Army were organizational concepts not integral units. The latter was the case in the German army only after WW1.

[kaiserwilhelm2]

I usually stick to WW2, but I am starting to get fascinated with imperial German as it is much better made and more interesting and rich in history.

Thanks, Dave

So right you are. Only a matter of time now and you will go the way many of us have gone - the quiet beauty of the Empire totally trumps the agressive loudness of the Third Reich.

[tmca05]

Thanks so much, and you are right...I am moving in that earlier direction.

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Here is its later wartime brother.

[tmca05]

Interesting, I never knew that they changed from Red to White underlying.
Your blue "V"s show up much better for Bavaria.

[pauke]

white

To tie imperial and TR collecting together a little in the M-1915 shoulder straps and boards white became the Waffenfarbe for most infantry regiments, though some retained different colors. It's jungle of color out there.