David Stone - The Kaisers Army: The German Army in World War One

CONTENTS

MAPS, DIAGRAMS AND COLOUR

M APS

O RGANIZATIONAL D IAGRAMS

C OLOUR S ECTION

T HE K AISERS ARMY 19141918 seeks to provide an authoritative and comprehensive guide and reference to virtually every aspect of the German imperial army that fought in World War I. As well as providing a wide-ranging description of the development of the Kaisers army, this work is structured to serve as an authoritative companion to many of the existing historical works, personal memoirs and more specifically focused battlefield accounts of imperial Germanys fighting forces during World War I. Arguably, it also complements and serves as an essential prequel to my earlier work Hitlers Army 19391945 (Conway, 2009). As such, The Kaisers Army describes the German army of the pre-war period and then deals with its development during the war years, covering matters such as its preparations for war, organization, command and control, manpower, combat arms, supporting services, tactics, training and operational procedures. Also described are the uniforms the troops wore, the weapons with which they fought and the equipment issued to them to carry out their role. An overview of the Kaisers army at war is necessarily included in to try to balance the inevitable coverage of the fighting on the Western Front by highlighting some of the armys less familiar campaigns, including those in German East Africa, the Middle East, and on the Eastern and Italian Fronts.

The Kaisers Army relies on a number of contemporary German military sources and texts that originated between 1900 and 1918, as well as in the 1930s, and this is reflected in the use of the 191418 German military titles and terms for various types of units, personnel, weapons, equipment and so on where appropriate. Generally such terms are invariably shown with their English-language equivalent on first use (but with this explanation also sometimes repeated later where necessary), and every German word and phrase used in the main text can also be found in the Glossary. Where variations in some German words describing the same item or subject were identified between sources (often where two or three publications were produced several years apart), a single, correct version has been selected and adopted throughout the book and in the Glossary. Where appropriate, the use of the German ess-tset () character instead of the letters ss mirrors the correct grammatical use of that written character in the 191418 period.

With regard to the endnotes, some of these are quite extensive, as I have not only used them to indicate sources but have once again adopted the practice used in several of my previous books to amplify or explain in more detail various matters dealt with in the main text but where the inclusion of such detail within that text might distract attention from the principal theme. Accordingly, readers will find a diverse range of additional facts, figures, anecdotal material, biographical notes and explanatory and other information amongst the endnotes, several of which represent stand alone summaries of the subject in hand.

Concerning the material and sources used in The Kaisers Army, all of the illustrations are from my own collection, with most of the photographs and colour images (including German army World War I field postcards and contemporary photographs) published originally between 1900 and 1920. The individual illustrations in the monochrome photograph section were prepared for publication by Keith Luxton of Twyford Copy and Print, Tiverton. The field-grey uniforms illustrated in colour in the uniforms and insignia plate section were originally published in Die Graue Felduniform derDeutschen Armee by Verlag von Moritz Ruhl of Leipzig in 1910, at which time the German army adopted the first version of the field-grey service uniform that it wore during the war years 191418. Where short quotations have been used, these are fully credited in the endnotes and the bibliography. Most such quotations are from German and British military publications from the 191418 period or other sources from the early decades of the last century; however, a few edited texts are drawn from more recently published compilations of contemporary accounts of World War I, and these are credited accordingly, with additional amplifying remarks as appropriate. I have also taken the liberty of assuming continuing permissions for my albeit minimal or part re-use of some quotations used originally in two of my earlier books First Reich (2002) and Fighting for the Fatherland (2006). As ever, the flea markets and secondhand or antique book shops of Berlin, Munich, Dresden and a number of other German towns and cities, as well as in the Austrian capital Vienna, have over very many years provided an unfailing source of reference material, original documents and contemporary monochrome and colour illustrations of every type. The illustrations in this work reflect this, just as the main text reflects the excellence of the displays and archives of a number of German military, national and local museums, both great and small.

Pertaining directly to the sources used for The Kaisers Army, a special contribution to the project was that made by Gavin McClennan, a friend much-travelled in Europe during and since the Cold War, but with particular first-hand experience of the former DDR (East Germany). In addition to providing specific information connected with my research in Dresden during 2012, while in an old bookshop in Zittau (Saxony) he found an original copy of Dienstunterricht des Kniglich Schsischen Infanteristen (literally, Duties of the Royal Saxon Infantryman) published in 1915, and was kind enough to send it to me. As a result, much of the detailed low-level information contained in this officially-approved handbook has been incorporated in The Kaisers Army or used to verify, validate or clarify the less clear or conflicting material found in some other sources. In similar vein, I was most grateful to Jeremy Whitehorn of Heartland Old Books in Devon for providing me with a 1914 English-language edition of Count von Baudissins controversial and revealing book Life in a German Crack Regiment, originally published in 1904 under von Baudissins pen name of Baron von Schlicht.

Once again, I am indebted to David Green in the United Kingdom, Terry Hughes in Australia, and my wife Prue for carrying out the preliminary editing of the draft manuscript. I am aware that the organizational complexities and ambiguities of the Kaisers army, together with my wide use of contemporary German terminology, made this task particularly challenging. Their critical comments, corrections, and suggestions for improvements were truly invaluable and have added very significantly to the accuracy, readability and overall quality of the finished work. An especially helpful outcome of their separate analyses and suggestions was the amplification of some parts of the text to ensure the books overall accessibility not only to specialist readers or students of the subject but also to the more general reader. I was also most appreciative of the access and research support afforded to me by the excellent Militrhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr at Dresden. In earlier times this was provided by Oberstleutnant Ferdinand von Richthofen, but in 2012 and 2013 I was most grateful for the support of Dr. Oberst Matthias Rogg, Dr. Gorch Pieken and Dr. Gerhard Bauer. I also wish to acknowledge the support of the Wien Museum and the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna during 2013. The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum provided a wealth of information on the part played by Austria-Hungary as Germanys principal European ally during the war, as well as a particularly valuable insight into aspects of the Home Front 191418; this included the changed responsibilities, new challenges and often uncertain futures of those women whose menfolk had answered the national call to arms.