A Veteran’s Flag.
This is the only Flag in my collection and it belonged to an association of veterans of the Royal Bavarian 9th Regiment “Wrede”, a tough one, who fought hard during the war, it does not matter if they had to attack or defend.
I have not found any information about this Fahne, but I guess it was made for a veteran meeting, that took place in 1925, or even a veteran association created in that year. I guess it is just the first option, because it is not a big flag, just 40 cms long and wide. The quality is average good, still quite beautiful. Of course, being Bavarian, the “In Treue Fest” must be somehow there.
The Royal Bavarian 9th Regiment “Wrede” was formed in 1803 and took its name from “Karl von Wrede”, the most successful Bavarian Field Marshall during the Napoleonic wars. The Regiment was part of the Royal Bavarian 4th Infantry Division, along with the 4th, 5th and 8th Regiments (before the war). This Division belonged to the II Royal Bavarian Army Corps (6th Army under the command of Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern).
As seen previously, both 6th and 7th German Armies took part in the Nancy-Epinal offensives, right after they rejected the French attacks. They were expected to take place in Alsace/Lorraine areas. The German orders were to resist at any cost in the main areas, even if in some points, they had to retreat to better defensive positions. The French strategy and tactics were proved to be wrong. The main factors were the lack of heavy artillery and machine guns, the importance of the bayonet attacks and poor shooting trainings. Also, the French advance was very slow, what helped the Germans to prepare a tenuous defence. The French philosophy of Attaque à outrance (Attack to excess) was broken apart. And with this memento, the German attacked the French pushing them nearby Nancy. Unfortunately, the results were for them not so good as expected and slowly it came to a standstill.
Soon after, the regiment was moved to the south of Ypres (sector of Wytschaete), participating the in the First Battle of Ypres, with little progress made by the Germans at a high cost. After that, it would be holding defensive positions from November 1914 and October 1915. This means, that this regiment did not take part on the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915.
Still in 1915, the Division fought in the battle of Loos nearby La Bassée, when the British attacked. It achieved good advances in some sectors, but the bad organization of the offensive ended up with the British returning to the starting point.
Until August 1916, the Regiment was fighting (and taking heavy casualties) in Flanders and Artois. They were also involved in mine and Gas warfare, ending up with over 1.000 loses in April 1916 due to those actions.
In August 1916, and just for about a month, the Royal Bavarian 4th Division was sent to fight in the battle of the Somme. During that time, it suffered a 60% loses, so it had to be released in the middle of September, when it was sent back to Flanders, where it remained until June 1917, when it was subjected to British attacks (Messines). Soon after in September 1917, it was moved to the north of Ypres, where suffered casualties around the 30% of its force, in the attacks and defensive positions there.
After Ypres, the division was moved to the Lorraine region (Thiaucourt), remaining there until April 1918, when it was sent to Armentières. The Regiment fought northwest of that city until May 1st 1918, when it had to be relieved due to the big amount of casualties. The division was sent to rest until June 1918, coming back to fight again in July (west of Armentières), but sent for rest a month later.
Between August and September 1918, it fought in the Second Battle of Bapaume (South of Arras), which ended up with the division having to retreat due to powerful attacks of British and New Zealand troops. Also it is fair to mention, that from all of the divisions holding the front, only the Royal Bavarian 4th Division was a first class one.
Until the end of the war, the Regiment was going to be fighting in the Champagne area.
During the whole war, the quality of the division was always the same, even when new recruits were keep coming.
Sources:
Histories of the Two Hundred and Fifty One Divisions of the German Army.
Haig’s Enemy (Jonathan Boof)
Traditions of the Imperial German Infantry Regiments (Chris Dale)
Maps from Wikipedia.
New Zealand History.