A Postcard from the 1st Werfdivision.
Sorry, nothing major today in my section. Somehow, I am running out of stuff in my collection. Need to buy more. Still, it may be quite interesting if we have a look at the soldiers, the location and the date.
I am showing today a simple Postcard with sailors in it, located in Kiel and dated August 1918. This was just a couple of months before the end of the war and, maybe the most interesting thing, the “rebellion of the sailors”. Who knows, how many of them took part of it. But we will talk about that later, now we are going to concentrate in their Cap bands or cap tallies.
We can read in those tallies the following: IA Werft. Division I. Or I believe so. I think, that the A is for “Abteilung”.
The Werft. Division or Shipyard Division was an unit formed by the sailors (at least until the the 2nd half of the XIX Century), machinists and craftmen. The I Shipyard Division was established in Kiel and the II one was in Wilhelmshaven. These 2 units covers the 2 most important “Kaiserliche Marine” Ports.
Going back to the Postcard, we see at the back the date, when it was sent (6th of August 1918) and from where (Kiel). The sailor, who wrote this, was from a city nearby Regensburg in Bavaria. So, the guy was born in an area very far away from the see. We also see, that this person, with surname Strasser”, wrote to his parents introducing them his “Feldwebel” Pöppel. I guess, it is the one in the middle of the Picture. We also note 2 other ranks there, with one of them wearing a tallie, but unfortunately, it is very difficult to see, what it is written there.
So, the Sailor Strasser was in this moment in Kiel, a city, that will see a rebellion a couple of months later. Little to none action saw the German Fleet after the 1916 Battle of Jutland (Skagerrakschlacht) and in 1918, the morale of the sailors were already very low.
Things were going to get worse, when the Imperial Naval Command ordered in October 1918 a final attack to the British Navy, a honourable battle. Weill it was seen by many a death trip. This triggered the rebellion of many sailors in Wilhelmshaven, spreading too to other cities, including Kiel. This upraise was a left political one, with red flags appearing between the demonstrators.
As it was expected, the rebellion brought with it a few killed and injured sailors. But things were going to get worse for the Government, as the revolted gained control over the city and bringing other cities to the same stand…
The days of the Kaiserreich were counted (with just a hand)… and the soldier, who wrote this post card, was going to see it with his own eyes.
Sources:
Info from Wikipedia