Some Chevauleger Illustrations

Nothing too technical today, below are a few illustrations of Chevaulegers at the outset of the war in 1914:

By Angelo Jank, 1914. This is a nice study of two Chevaulegers. The leather equipment is in the honey-brown color that was used in 1914. The Chevauleger to the left is an NCO from the rank disks on his collar. It's hard to make out the specific regiment.

Anton Hoffmann. Another early war Chevauleger.

Anton Hoffman. Another view. In this picture, the rider is wearing his carbine slung over the shoulder which was a wise move since that was his primary weapon and if unhorsed, he would still have it (although it would have been painful).

Trenchworks #1

For reenacting and living history, the 2 Chevauleger's primary impression is 1917-18. By this time, the 2 Chevauleger and the 3rd Squadron in particular spent a good part of its time rotating through the front lines like their infantry brethren. To reflect this, the 2 Chevauleger is building a bunker and accompanying trenchworks along with its companion Central Powers units of the Great War Historical Society (GWHS) at the GWHS' battlesite- a piece of land that the organization is renting.

Right now, the plan is to focus on building a suitable bunker that can be used as a central position as well as a sleeping area for the unit and towards that end, we will be building a bunker. Construction finally got underway yesterday after a long delay and below are some pictures illustrating it. While it may not look like much, there was a lot of work that had to be done first before the walls could be built. In particular, we had to level the bottom of the pit and drill holes for the posts with a gas-powered auger. Unfortunately, the entire area is incredibly rocky and hard and we were not able to drill down much more than a foot. This in turn altered the construction approach and that presented challenges that had to be overcome.

We anticipate that by Spring 2015 we will have the walls completed and we will then be able to focus on installing a floor and a roof. It's a work in progress and while it may look raw now, it will get better in time- trust me! In the following months I'll be posting more progress updates along with pictures of some original trenchworks.

Horrido!

Corner View - Tarpaper had been added to repel moisture once the sides have been filled in.

After all the walls are installed, we will back-fill behind them and then pile of sandbags along the walls to camouflage things. It was not anticipated that the walls would be so high.

King Ludwig II

Below is a commemorative post card of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Some called him crazy but I think it was nothing more than a monarch having to deal with a lot of personal and political issues. His biggest legacy is, of course, the massive palaces he had constructed which at the time were criticized for their expense. Ironically, with the revenues brought in from charging tourists to visit them, the costs of construction have been more than recovered.

Commemorative post card on the 20 anniversary of his death.

Neuschwanstein - One of the castles that Ludwig II had built.

Portrait of Ludwig II as a young man.

Ludwig II and Richard Wagner. Ludwig was Wagner's patron.

The Chevaulegerlied

March music has always been a staple of every army and the German Army was no exception. Many marches were naturally "military", composed for the Army's use. However, popular musical pieces were also adapted for use as marches. One official march of the 2 Chevauleger was adapted from the opera Das Nachtlager von Granada by Konrad Kreutzer. If you want to hear the tune, you can listen to it below.

Sabrage...

Throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, the cavalries of the major military powers cultivated their own traditions that went a long way towards projecting an elite image of themselves that sought to set themselves apart from the other branches of the service. The German cavalry was no exception and one tradition that was adopted was Sabrage or the art of opening a bottle of champagne with a saber. 

Supposedly this tradition originated in France during the Napoleonic Wars by cavalry officers that were in too much of a hurry to open a bottle of champagne by ordinary means. Essentially, Sabrage calls for using a saber to open the bottle, exploiting the weakest part of the bottle where the side seam meets the lip ring. Combined with the pressure of the Champagne, hitting the bottle at its weakest point will crack the glass and the pressure will do the rest of the work.

The following passage explains Sabrage more fully:

There are several legends of the story of Sabrage or Sabering Champagne.
One says that when the officers of Napoleon’s army returned home after a victory, cheering townspeople would hand bottles of Champagne as tokens of their appreciation for their victory and gallantry. 

Since the soldiers were mounted on horseback it was difficult to hold the reins of the horse and remove both the foil, wire basket (muselet) around the cork and the cork (bouchon) at the same time, so the soldiers simply took out their sabers and struck it against the lip of the bottle with an upward blow and sabered off the cork. Voilà!

Another says Mme. Clicquot (the widow Clicquot), in order to have her land protected, gave Napoleon's officers Champagne and glasses. Being on their horses, they couldn't hold the glass while opening the bottle. 

Consequently, they tossed the glasses away, and took their sabers out and sabered off the top and cork and drank from the bottle. Voilà!

In more scientific terms, it is the meeting of the glass lip (annulus) at the top of the bottle just below the cork (bouchon) with a firm tap of a sabre's edge and at the weakest point of the glass seam in the bottle. When performed on a suitably chilled bottle of Champagne, the cork and glass annulus fly away, spilling little of the precious Champagne. The pressure inside a bottle of Champagne (100 psi) ensures that no glass falls back into the bottle making it safe to drink the spoils. 

For more information, click HERE. Below is a short "how-to" video. Horrido!

Cavalry Humor

Like other nations, the cavalry had many traditions and practices that gave it an image of dash and flair. Here's an Austro-Hungarian post card.  I call this one "Crashing the Party"...

"A Snack with obstacles".

Das Kochgeschirr - The Mess Kit Part 2

In a previous post I gave an overview of the basic 1910 pattern mess kit and its unique variant that was issued to the cavalry in 1914. As the war progressed, the cavalry was increasingly issued with the same type of equipment as the other branches of the army, a trend driven by the need to standardize war production (yes, I know I've been harping on this for a bit).

Below is a set of illustrations from Die Feldgraue Uniformierung des Deutschen Heeres 1907-1918 by Jurgen Kraus (probably one of the most authoritative works on German Army uniforms and equipment).

In viewing the mess kit, there is a gradual process of transformation beginning with the handle in 1915 as illustrated above in Nos. 4 and 5. Below is what one could term the "1915 Pattern Kochgeschirr" (my terminology).

This example is made of aluminum but the handle type makes it the 1915 pattern.

By 1917, the mess kit was being made out of enameled steel as shown below. This is a particularly good example with the enamel completely intact. Most examples found today tend to have major cracks and dings with the exposed steel rusted.

 

1917 Pattern - Front View

1917 Pattern - Rear View

For living history purposes, it is best to try and locate originals in the aluminum. The distinct cavalry version are rare and probably best left as display pieces but the standard pattern can be readily obtained. Also, there are several substitutes that can be successfully employed for living history purposes. Please contact me for further details.

Das Eßbesteck or Spork

Each German soldier was issued the Spork or Das Eßbesteck was eating ware and they came in two sizes. The larger size was issued to the infantry, artillery, and subsidiary arms while the smaller size was issued to the cavalry. What is interesting is that the smaller size will not fit into the Kochgeschirr so it is presumed that it was probably carried in the bread bag or perhaps the pommel bags. Below are illustrations of both:

Infantry and cavalry pattern Sporks in closed position.

Infantry and cavalry pattern Sporks in open position. There is not much of a size difference.

Like a lot of specialized equipment, as the war went on production was standardized and the cavalry were also issued the large size along with everyone else.

Das Kochgeschirr - The Mess Kit Part 1

In the German Army each soldier was issued a mess kit or Kochgeschirr and the 2 Chevauleger was no exception. At the outbreak of the war in 1914, the 1910 pattern mess kits were made from aluminum and came with a metal lip to rest the soldier's spork (a combination fork and spoon that each solider was also issued). In practice, the spork would often come loose so soldiers often stuck them in their pockets or bread bags. For the cavalry, mess kits were unpainted since they were normally kept contained in a leather case with attached to the saddle. Below are a few pictures of one such mess kit what was issued to a soldier in the 2 Chevauleger:

1910 Cavalry Pattern Kochgeschirr - Front view

Close-up of the handle attachment

1910 Pattern Kochgeschirr - The back side

The regimental marking was stamped on the top part. All prewar equipment was marked in some way with the unit it had been issued to.

View of both parts. On the top of the bottom piece to the right you can see a small metal lip where the spork was locked in. For the infantry and artillery, the issue mess kit in 1914 looked like this:

The cavalry mess kit was carried in a leather case, Das Kocheschirrfutteral which attached to the saddle:

Bottom view- the mess kit would slid in and be held in place by two straps. This example is a reproduction.

Side view - The case was attached to a staple set in the saddle that slipped through the leather ring in top. A leather strap then was passed through the staple, securing the case to the saddle.

For the infantry, artillery, and other subsidiary arms, the mess kit was issued in black. Below is another example with the spork set in its holding place:

The spork in its resting place in the mess kit. This particular mess kit is an infantry pattern which is readily identified by the loop on the handle that allows a strap to pass through, which attached it to the soldier's knapsack.

As the war progressed, there was a strong drive towards standardizing equipment as much as possible as a means of simplifying production and once the initial stocks had been used up, the cavalry was issued the same pattern mess kit as the rest of the army, especially since most of their work was being done dismounted and the mess kit would be exposed to view since the saddle carrier wouldn't have been used.

Chevauleger Beer Steins!

And now for a brief advertisement...we have a small supply of Chevauleger beer steins that we had custom made. They're a bit understated in design but do an excellent job of hold your beer. Only $30 each plus shipping (or I can deliver to the next event). If interested, please contact me at adam@2chevauleger.org.

2 Chevauleger beer steins for sale now!

Cockades/Kokarden

The German Empire was actually a federal state consisting of various German kingdoms, duchys and principalities. Prussia was the leading kingdom in terms of physical size, resources, and political stature followed by Bavaria. As part of the uniform, two cockades were worn on various headgear: the national or Reichskokade and the one for the individual kingdom, duchy, or principality. You will typically find these on Picklehauben and Feldmutzen.  Below is a chart illustrating the various cockades:

Cockade Chart

Bavarian Feldmutze

Prussian Feldmutz

2 Chevauleger Picklehaube. The cockades were mounted on the sides, you can make out the Bavarian cockade on the left side.

Reproduction Feldmutze for the 2 Chevauleger. This is what we wear. The piping and hat band are in carmine, the official facing color of the 2 Chevauleger. The Reichskokard is on top and the Bavarian one on the bottom.

Cavalry Missions During the First World War, No. 1

Below are a few pictures of one of the cavalry's primary roles during the First World War, POW escort.

Captured British soldiers being marched to the rear.

Captured Russians being escorted to the rear by Uhlan in Galicia.

The 2 Chevauleger's Wartime Role

And so now you are probably wondering just what was the 2 Chevauleger Regiment doing during the First World War. To find out, click HERE for a document that should explain it.

A Note on Cavalry Organization

During the First World War era, cavalry was employed in two ways. First, cavalry regiments were grouped together in divisions and intended for use as a striking army. Second, each infantry division has cavalry assigned to it for use as a reconnaissance element, usually a regiment. As the war progressed, the cavalry divisions were either disbanded completely or they were dismounted for use as infantry.

For the Germans, the horses were assigned to the field artillery since the loss rate of horses was horrendous and horses were, for the most part, the only way to move guns. Also, the dismounted cavalry regiments were reorganized, having machine guns units assigned to them to increase their firepower. Also, by 1916, the divisional cavalry regiments were reduced to a single squadron with the other squadrons being assigned to newly-forming infantry divisions.

In future posts, I will be expanding on this some but that should give a basic idea of cavalry's position in the army.

Cavalry: Tactical and Strategic Use During the First World War, Part 1

When we go to public events, we often get the question "Didn't cavalry disappear after 1914, at least on the Western Front because of machine guns?" Well, the answer is yes (sort of) and no. There is no doubt that the days of the full-blown cavalry charge into massed infantry or guns was over and officers in all of the major armies recognized it, in spite of the protestations of more traditional-minded officers. The experiences of the Boer War, and to a lesser extent, the Russo Japanese War, had driven home the idea that cavalry's utility was in its ability to conduct scouting operations as a means of assessing the strength and location of enemy forces (a function that would be ultimately supplemented by aerial reconnaissance). Also, to a lesser extent, cavalry was still useful for conducting raids against the enemy's logistics infrastructure or attacking targets of opportunity.

The one major lesson drawn from the Boer and Russo-Japanese Wars was that now cavalry was basically nothing more than mobile infantry that would use their horses to get to a particular position and then dismount and fight. It was this last idea that cavalry officers had a hard time grasping because it meant that cavalry as an arm of decision was no longer viable. The reality was that changes in technology and especially with the advent of rapid firing artillery and machine guns had negated the cavalry's function as being the arm of decision. At best, fighting would be between cavalry forces as each attempted to prevent the other side from fulfilling its scouting mission.

During the initial campaigns of the war, cavalry fulfilled its traditional role as the "eyes and ears" and there are numerous examples of this both on the Western and Eastern Fronts. And cavalry's failures were also amply demonstrated, especially when it failed to carry out its primary mission. For the Eastern Front, in the north were the remarkable Battle of Tannenberg and  the follow-on Battle of the Masurian Lakes which pretty much brought the Russian Army to a screeching halt, giving the Germans breathing space while they attempted to defeat the Allies in the West. To the south, the Russians, with the aid of Austrian military incompetence, managed to wreck the Austro-Hungarian Army and drive it back to the edge of the Carpathian Mountains. The Germans then attempted to relieve the Austrians by launching a drive on Warsaw that ultimately failed. By December, both sides were too exhausted to conduct any major military operations and the front settled down to a state of inactivity.

On the Western Front, the Germans narrowly missed defeating the French and gaining a decisive military decision with the Battle of the Marne and then through the Fall attempted to gain a decisive result during the feverish "Race to the Sea". In the end, the Germans failed due to a variety of factors and by December the front had stabilized with both sides too exhausted to conduct major military operations.

So what changed? Well, besides the overall exhaustion of the combatants on both fronts, there was the added problem on the Western Front that there were too many troops in relation to the existing space- the Western Front was roughly 465 miles long while the Eastern Front was over a 1,000 miles long. In the west, armies could easily concentrate firepower to defeat any frontal attack and flanks were non-existent.

German vs British cavalry charge, 1914. A somewhat idealized picture.

For cavalry, this pretty much meant that they would be unable to fulfill their major wartime mission of scouting. So what was left? Mostly rear area security operations, cooperating with the Feld Gendarmerie. As the war went on, the now idled cavalry was looked upon as a source of manpower for the infantry and the horses for the field artillery. Also, what reconnaissance operations that were conducted were now conducted on foot and the troopers functions pretty much as their infantry comrades.

In the east, the situation was more fluid and the scope for major cavalry operations remained. The front was never as solidified as was the case on the Western Front and once this thin shell was pierced, cavalry could be used to exploit and wreck havoc in the rear areas. This was especially the case when the Russians were able to successfully breech the Austrian front such as during the Brusiliov Offensive in 1916.

Russian cavalry charge, allegedly at Tannenberg in August 1914 but in reality it could have been anywhere on the Eastern Front once the front was breached.

So, in the end, on the Western Front cavalry never completely "disappeared" but rather its tactical and strategic role were redefined. The traditional rear area security operations never really changed and in the front lines, the cavalry acted in a dismounted role either performing reconnaissance operations in no-man's land or acting as a reserve to be thrown into the front line as needed.

However, it must be noted that even after the war attrition settled in on the Western Front, the British and French still maintained large bodies of cavalry up to division-size in the rear, waiting for the perfect opportunity to arise where they could be used to exploit any breech. There was some limited success with the Battle of Cambrai in 1917 and later battles in mid to late 1918 as the Germans fell back through Belgium.

British cavalry charge at Arras, 1918. With the horrendous casualties sustained during the Spring offensives, the German Army was exhausted and lacked the replacements to make good the losses. As the German Army weakened in mid 1918, the Allies were able to launch a number of offensives that steadily pushed the Germans back and opportunities for cavalry use increased although it could still be a hazardous undertaking.

For the Germans, they could not afford to keep large numbers of men and horses idle while fighting a multi-front war and suffering from the Allied blockade and having to lend greater amounts of assistance to the Austrians.

On the Eastern Front, as noted before, cavalry was able to maintain its traditional role to a greater extent with full-blown charges being done on occasion, With Russia's exit from the war in 1917, the Germans used cavalry to patrol the large expanses of their newly-won empire in the Ukraine, keeping a lid on the increasing turmoil generated by the Bolshevik Revolution until the Armistice.

There are never any absolutes in this is especially so with military matters and when it comes to cavalry. The key is to dig deeper with the research and make every effort to bring this information to light. For living history purposes, it helps to document that like the other branches of the German Army, the cavalry also evolved in its tactical and strategic roles and it is our job to bring these ideas to the public's view.

Horrido!

And More Grunblau Pictures...

Here are some more illustrations of the older "Grunblau" uniform:

This is more of a field uniform, the Chevauleger is wearing the regular picklehaube with no plume and the horse furniture and tack are in field configuration. Judging from the pennon on the lace, this soldat is an NCO.

The above uniform is for parade with the additional plume and the shabraque covering the saddle and depicting the regiment colors (Green trimmer with red in this case). 

In this last picture, the Chevauleger is holding the regimental standard.

More on the Grunblau Uniform

Just to continue the theme a bit further, here are some more pictures illustrating the use of the pre-feldgrau "Grunblau" uniform. What is interesting is that the Bavarians wasted nothing and and these older uniforms were still issued, at least in non-front line situations.

Frontal view of a Chevauleger trooper, regiment unknown. What is interesting here is that he is wearing the feldgrau cavalry breeches, probably the 1915 pattern.

Formal portrait with a sergeant and what looks like a gefreiter.

A more casual portrait of the 4 Eskadron, 8 Chevauleger.

And another one...note that the officer's uniform is the later pattern.

Based on the above, I would venture to guess that at least during the early part of the war, incoming recruits were issued whatever was available due to shortages caused by the rapid expansion of the German Army during 1914 through 1916 and there was probably even mixed issues of feldgrau and grunblau.

Bavaria

For your enjoyment are some pictures of Bavarian places and things.

The Bavarian flag.

The Bavarian Royal standard.

The divisions of Bavaria.

A couple of patriotic postcards.

2 Chevauleger Organization

Like all military organizations, the 2 Chevauleger had a prescribed organization. While often times a unit's actual strength was much lower than its paper strength, it still is relevant in that it gives an idea of the organization's capabilities. Below is an organization chart for the 2 Chevauleger and compared to infantry organizations of an equivalent level (i.e. regiment and company), the cavalry was a lot smaller.

In the cavalry, there was no battalion level but rather the individual eskadrons, or squadrons, reported directly to regimental headquarters (the squadron was the equivalent of a company). Essentially, the 2 Chevauleger, like all Chevauleger regiments, consisted of four field squadrons and one depot squadron or Ersatz Eskadron. The Ersatz Eskadron remained back at the regiment's home station which was Regensburg and was responsible for the processing and training of new recruits.

Each squadron consisted of four platoons or zugs and each zug consisted of four eight-man sections or gruppe. The gruppe was the lowest level of organization. We portray a Gruppe belonging to the 3 Eskadron.

More on the Grunblau (pre-feldgrau) Uniform

Here are some pictures that illustrate the Grunblau uniform: