I have been showing different Items in the last few weeks in this “Antonio Wednesday’s Wonders”. Now it is the turn for the Militärpaß or the Military Identity Documents. I will show you some parts of this type of notebook or log-book, but without going into a very detailed work, but just pointing to some important parts of it, as well as we go through the “war life” of this soldier, in the way, we have seen in previous entries. Due to the length of this article, I will split this article in 3 parts. Even I will not be going into great detail in the battles, because then it will takes ages, but I have added many maps to follow up.
The most difficult part of “reading” a Militärpass is, apart from the writings itself, to try to follow the book in a chronological order, because the pages may jump from 1917 back to 1915 and so on. But for the sake of clarity, I will follow the time frame of the experiences of the soldier, instead the book itself, so I may jump, for example, from page 15 to 10.
This Militärpaß(MP from now on) is one of my favourites, because it belonged to a person, who served in a Bayerische Maschinengewehr-Kompanie or a Machine Gun Company, and this is something, that we can see in the cover of this Document with the words MK, and in between, BAYERN. The form and colours in other states may change, as well as the coat of arms. This MP may easily be a replacement of a lost one.
Before continuing with the MP, in August 1914, a German Infantry Regiment was organized in 3 Battalions, with 4 normal Companies and 1 MG Company each.
At the back of the cover, we normally find a page with the Family/Wife address, as well their names, even the single surname of his mother. AS we can see, he was single, ledig.
The first 6-7 pages are just guidelines for the holidays or permit days. The days taken are noted at the very end of the MP.
After those, it comes a page with the Soldier’s Personal Details. There we can see, that Peter Letzelter was born on the 10thof February 1894 in Clausen (Pirmasens). In that time, it belonged to Bavaria, but after the Second World War, it formed a new Bundesland: Rheinland-Pfalz. He had a job as Fabrikschuster, a shoe maker in a Factory. The rest of the details are more or less clear, Religion, in his case, catholic or if he is married, but in his case he was just single. The last 2 details refers to when joined the army and in which unit, the Royal Bavarian 22nd Infantry Regiment “Fürst Wilhelm von Hohenzollern”, placed in the region above mentioned. With the Royal Bavarian 23rdInfantry Regiment formed the 5th Brigade under the 3rdBavarian Division, a really fine and top class one.
The page number 2 shows the units; where he was deployed and if there was any promotion given to him (it is not in the picture because they are blank). Peter was mainly in the 22nd Infantry Regiment and also in an independent unit; the 3. Ersatz-Maschinengewehr-Kompanie – Königliche II Armeekorps.
The page Number 3 shows us the information about the number of troops of his unit (2.802 in the 3. Ersatz- Maschinengewehr -Kompanie – Königliche II Armeekorps.), the Medals or decorations awarded to him and in which campaign he took part of. But as we will see later, these 2 latest points are incomplete, something really common in this type of document for these sections.
The page 4 is a bit more interesting, because it shows the weapons, in which he was trained. We can read he received training as Marksman in the MG08, Gewehr98 and Pistole 08, the mythical Luger. What it is interesting is that this Page was stamped by the 3. Ersatz- Maschinengewehr -Kompanie but not the 22nd Regiment. Also it has the markings of the place, where he trained: Hammelburg. It is a city located almost in the middle of Germany, still in Bavaria (Franken Area), where there was also a Training Camp for MG-Companies.
There are no notes or marks in the pages 5, 6 and 7, but they are used to write the equipment given, as well as any entitlement for payment depending on transport, food, etc. There are also other information about going to the Landwehr.
I will continue next week with the “action”. But we will see Peter travelling for a while in 1915…