Last Week I started talking about a group belonging to a Bavarian Officer, Bruno Wegner. I will be showing today another part of it, his “Dog Tag” or “Erkennungsmarke”.
In this one, we can see part of his personal details, like his name, the date of his birth: 22nd of October 1891 and the city, where he was born: Blankenburg in Braunschweig.
This Dog Tag may have been given to him after September 1915, because it was the moment, when he was sent to the Bavarian Gebirgs-MG-Abteilung Nr. 248, which is what it means the letter G.M.G.A. 248 stamped in the ID-Tag (see picture from his Records). During this time, he was in a Gebirgs-Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any records to support the number 52 in the ID.
Now we continue to tell about his actions during the First World War. At the beginning of 1915, Bruno was going to see action in the Eastern Front. Perfect destination for a person, that in this moment was in a “Schneeschuh-Bataillion”. Between the 6th of February 1915 and the 24th of April 1915, he fought in Ost Preußen and in Russia. His Unit was used during the Offensive in the Masuren (see map), when the 8th and the new 10th Armies tried to encircle the 10th Russian Army. At some point, Bruno could be located in Marienpol (marked in yellow). The battle ended at the end of February with a German Victory, but the objective of destroying the whole army wasn’t achieve, as a large part of it was able to form a new defensive line in Grodno.
He missed the Gorlice-Tarnów offensive, that took place between May and September 1915, which resulted in a tremendous defeat and big losses for the Russian Empire. The reason was, that he was sent to the hospital already on the 5th of May and transferred to another one on the 15th of May, but this time in Munich.
On the 1st of August 1915, he was promoted to “Gefreiter” and later in September, he joined the Bavarian Gebirgs-MG-Abteilung Nr. 248, which in this moment it could have been the Macedonian front fighting against the Serbian armies. It is not clear in his records, but for sure, between the 7th and the 11th of October 1915, he participated in the offensive against the Serbian army in the area of Semendria, between Belgrade and the River Morava. His Unit was part of the German 11th Army. Just a few days later, on the 15th of October, he got a Promotion as “Oberjäger”.
Bruno continued in this Front fighting against the soldiers of the Brave Serbia until the 1st of December 1915. At this time, almost the whole Serbia has been already taken and the race to catch the remaining retrieving Serbian army was still on.
But Bruno’s unit was in another “race”, this time to the frontier with Greece. Between the 1st of December and 24th of April 1916, he was going to be deployed there putting pressure in that front, which will be soon under fire. Greece was in a delicate position.
Bruno would go back to Germany between 24th of April and 19th of August 1916 to be trained as Officer, which took place in Graffenwöhr, in Bavaria. On that day, he was reassigned again to his “old” Unit, which in this moment was still in the Greek Frontier, but this time on fire against them, along with the Bulgarian Army.
Unfortunately for Bruno, on the 22nd of October, he was sent to the hospital, because he was sick with Malaria. He won’t see any more action in 1916, in fact soon after he was sent back to Germany for recovery (Ingolstadt, Neimarkt).
For his actions with the Bulgarian Army, he received on the 16th of November 1916 his “Bulgarische Silberne Verdienstmedaille”.
Nest week, we will see his actions during 1917 and 18, plus 2 more items from his group.