I hope, our Friend Tore comes back to business soon. We all wish him a great recovery. In the meantime, I will post another piece in my collection.
I didn’t plan to get any ID Tag or Erkennungsmarke (EKM), that wasn’t from the Bavarian Army, but sometimes, you have to make exceptions. And this is the case, because the rarity of the item.
I am showing today the EKM of Alex Rettig, a “Gefreiter” born in Berlin on the 16th of May 1890, who served in the Flieger Abteilung A (Artillerie) 269. Unfortunately, there is not much information available about this unit. Still, we can deduct a few things.
The Artillery made use of balloons in order to redirect their fire right where the Enemy was. Already in 1915, the Artillery reconnaissance started to use planes, grouped in “Abteilung” or Department, with 3 or 4 planes. The personal used for these Departments came directly also from the Artillery Units or even the Pioneer ones. It makes sense, obviously, because they could direct their own guns.
As the Imperial German Air Force or „Luftstreitkräfte des Deutschen Kaiserreichs“ expanded, so also the Artillerie Flieger Abteilungen or FA (A). Depending on the source, at the end of the war there were between 91 and 100 FA (A) in the German Army. The number of planes in these units was between 6 and 9 of them.
The FA (A) flew normally planes of the Type B (until 1915) and C, which were single-engine, 2 Sits reconnaissance planes. They were also armed. For example: Albatros C (III, V, VII, etc) or the Halberstadt C V.
I haven’t found much information about the FA (A) 269, apart from the fact, that they operated in Flandern, in the Aerdrome of Jabbeke-Varsenare (at least, in 1917). There are pictures attributed to that Abteilung, where some LVG C IV or VI are shown, but I am not sure if they belonged to the FA (A) 269.
Another photo, dated in spring 1918, shows the Hauptmann Lichtenstein from this unit and behind him, a Hannover CL II or IIIa.
So I left another front open and I will start searching for more books and Info to add more to this article in the future. I believe it is not going to be easy.
Sources
– Index to the German Forces in the Field (October 1917)
– Wikipedia.