I showed this picture a couple of weeks ago and now it is time to talk a bit more about it.
It took me seconds for me to get this picture. I love the “funny” Reservisten pictures and this is one of them. But I believe, they were already in action, when the picture was taken.
For sure, they may have made also more “serious” pictures but there was always time (and money) for a different one, especially if the war was already on. Looking at the Beer Steins, I believe they were the ones provided by the photographer and not the ones, that they would buy. I have to admit, the kaiserliche Marine Reservistenkrüge are my weak point. I already wrote about the one I have in this article:
The SMS Baden was a Bayern Class Battleship launched in 1915 but commissioned in 1917, so I believe this picture may have been from that time or even it was made after the war. In fact, in the picture we can read: “we travelled in the see, we travelled in the land and we met in a beautiful Nordsee beach”. So it make sense, they met again for the picture once the war was over. Or maybe this is way, they don’t look so happy in the picture, knowing how the ship ended.
It is not the first time, that I see veterans posing with “old” uniforms after the war. Even in my wife’s family, we can see members making a picture with uniforms of the Afrikakorps at the end of the 40’s. One of them served in that unit, until taken prisoner.
Overt the ship, the SMS Baden carried 8 Rapid Fire 38,10 cms cannons as well as 16 x 15 cms ones and 4 x 8,8 cms cannons. It carried also torpedoes, which could be launched by 5 tubes.
When entered in service, it became the Flagship of the High Seas Fleet, but by this time, the Fleet was been kept mainly quite in the ports. This ship saw little action during its existence, even was involved in the mutinies.
The bitter end came with the Armistice, where the ship was sent to Scapa Flow. As we know, the Germans tried to sink there their ships and almost all of major ones managed to meet their destiny… almost all, because the SMS Baden didn’t manage to do it properly so the British could later reflote it and use it for study.
After that, it was decided to be used as Target Ship, being destroyed and sunk on the 16th of August 1921.
Sources:
deutsche-schutzgebiete.de
Foto from www.kruzien.eu/html/baden.html