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Lots of shiny Gew. 98s's

You can bet the answer isn't 'all of them'. I'll say they look pretty strack. Even their 'route step' when they leave the train in the dirt is pretty tight.
 
Maybe we could get an idea of the unit based off of their pickelhaube and uniforms. Best we could possibly get is a percentage on losses.

fireman said:
Wonder how many of these guys survived until Christmas of 1914.
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On a side note, I have always enjoyed the story of the 1914 Christmas truce. It’s still my favorite event of the entire war.
 
OzzMan said:
Maybe we could get an idea of the unit based off of their pickelhaube and uniforms. Best we could possibly get is a percentage on losses.


On a side note, I have always enjoyed the story of the 1914 Christmas truce. It’s still my favorite event of the entire war.
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Agreed.
 
I wonder if this is a reserve unit. I noticed lots of older pattern ammo pouches combined with the dark blue? trousers.

Also, S98 quillback bayonets.
 
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SG98s would have still been standard for infantry in 1914, and the older pouches aren't that unusual. I find it odd that there are no markings on the shoulder straps. Perhaps that was lost when it was colorized, which didn't turn out great on the uniforms, they are way too gray.
 
fireman said:
I wonder if this is a reserve unit. I noticed lots of older pattern ammo pouches combined with the dark blue? trousers.

Also, S98 quillback bayonets.
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These are guys who just graduated from unteroffizier school. Reservists had different pickelhaube wappen.
 
OzzMan said:
Maybe we could get an idea of the unit based off of their pickelhaube and uniforms. Best we could possibly get is a percentage on losses.


On a side note, I have always enjoyed the story of the 1914 Christmas truce. It’s still my favorite event of the entire war.
Click to expand...


You'll enjoy this anecdote, found in Till the Trumpet Sounds Again, Volume 2, pp 108-109

This was early 1917, 1st Batallion Scots Guards near St Pierre Vaast Wood in France.

However, shelling apart, a very informal truce was going on. The state of the ground, the condition that the former French trenches had degenerated into and the fact that the Germans were, if anything, worse off still, as their trenches sloped away downhill into St Pierra Vaast Wood, had led to an unspoken agreement between the infantry not to fire at each other. Between Rancourt and Sailly-Saillisel which side could see more than the other varied along the line. Captain Lyttleton described how "The motto of our predecessors... had been 'Nous ne faisons pas la petite guerre' and the result was neither side fired at one another during reliefs or at night. Water parties, ration parties, and relieving troops had all to move about above ground, and did so unmolested." For the British this informality of not using infantry weapons against the enemy could usefully continue for as long as it took to put the trench system into such good order that it could be managed and repaired with relatively little additional effort. However once they were ready it was going to be very harsh simply to open fire without warning on any Germans showing themselves. Lieutenant Dundas wrote home on the 21st "Out of the line once more after an amusing sojourn, which included a visit to the Germans. On the Brigade frontage the line was very close on the right. Up till two days ago a reign of absolute quiet prevailed. Perfect peace. Every one walked about on both sides. There are no trenches: merely a series of 'islands' and no communication trenches. The other side are in a similar position, except that their islands are on the top of a ridge and we can't see anything behind. They, of course, can sweep all our islands and the approaches to them, so quiet was essential if any work was to be done, or indeed if any existence was to be continued. So peace reigned. People waved bottles at each other across No Man's Land - wha' a bond is John Dewar even between enemies - and life was very pleasant. We used to walk round inspecting the islands on the top all the time with the Germans thirty yards away. But gradually the Divisional Staff decided that this state of affairs must cease. This being so, the Brigadier decided that the Germans must be warned. Accordingly Brodie and I, about seven in the morning, sallied out of our posts across the Boches' I with papers inscribed with a message to the effect that 'after dawn on the 19th all Germans exposing themselves would be shot' (printed in English usefully enough). We stayed on their wire shouting for an 'Offizier'. At last, after much excitement, a small man looking like Charlie Chaplin appeared, with whom Brodie chatted for about twenty minutes, saying how sorry we were that this state of affairs must cease - telling them that all would be well if there were only head-keeping-down by both sides. And so away - not unamusing." Lord Henry Seymour had detailed Lieutenant Brodie to carry about this tricky task: Lieutenant Dundas went for the fun of it. This notwithstanding, a degree of informality continued.
 
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heavy_mech said:
You can bet the answer isn't 'all of them'. I'll say they look pretty strack. Even their 'route step' when they leave the train in the dirt is pretty tight.
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STRAC!

There’s a term I haven’t heard in many years. Is it still part of the vernacular In the Army?

Most of the troops in the video are Prussian, but I did notice a Baden officer.
 
OzzMan said:
Maybe we could get an idea of the unit based off of their pickelhaube and uniforms. Best we could possibly get is a percentage on losses.


On a side note, I have always enjoyed the story of the 1914 Christmas truce. It’s still my favorite event of the entire war.
Click to expand...
Those are all Prussian wappens on those helmets in the still shot...
 
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