Ein Reservistbild
In previous articles, I have shown you my Reservistenkrüge (Steins) and –Pfeifen (Pipes), so it was a matter of time to get my hands in one of these Reservisten Bilder.
If you have a German Imperial collection and your wife allows you to exhibit it (it measures 36,50 x 51 cms), this would be just perfect as display. It is very colourful, with the scenes of a normal soldiers’ life: the manoeuvres, trainings and even the social events, where they would have no chance against the cavalry… where a Chevauleger or Ulan or Hussar goes with his uniform, little more can do the Infantrymen.
But what it tops this picture is, apart of its beauty, when you get the Military Records from this soldier; Non Plus Ultra.
This is the case of August Johann Höhnlein, born in 1882, who served between 1902 and 1904 in the 11th Company of the Royal Bavarian 4th Infantry Regiment „König Wilhelm von Württemberg“, whose Garrison was in Metz at this point.
He joined back the army on the 6thof August 1914. In this moment, he was a farmer in hometown, Röttbach and had 4 Children. He went to the Reserve of the 9th Infantry Regiment. I already spoke about this regiment in the following link:
As seen and confirmed by his records, he took part in the Nancy –Epinal offensive (and previous defensive battles) and well as in the Somme are during the race to the See. On the 30th of October, he and his regiment were sent to Ypres.
In January 1915, he was transferred to the Reserve of the Royal Bavarian 4th Landwehr Regiment, which in 1915 was part of the 1st Bavarian Landwehr Division. This unit was going to be placed during the whole war in the Lorraine area. Even with that name, part of the division was also from the kingdom of Württemberg).
The year of 1915 was going to be the busiest year of the whole war for this Division: it guarded the Front Line and took part in some actions in Emberménil or Bezange-la-Grande in September that year, just 50 Kilometre east of Nancy.
During 1916, the division was almost completely reorganized, leaving it as full Bavarian. Still, many of its troops moved to other busier theatres of operations. At the end of the day, this area stabilized itself and remained quiet. It was at the end of this year, when August was transferred to a very different unit, the Royal Bavarian 20thInfantry Regiment.
Unfortunately, there are no more records of August from this year on. But I already spoke about this regiment in an article called “Another Bierkrug, but a different one.”, which can be found using the search option at the top of the main page.
So at the end, I did not know, if he survived the war or not. The 20th Regiment was in a tough Division and suffered huge casualties. The allies wrote about it: “The 2d Bavarian is one of the very best German shock divisions”
Sources:
Map from www.pierreswesternfront.nl
genealogy.net
Histories of the Two Hundred and Fifty One Divisions of the German Army.