Westpreußisches Fussartillerie-Regiment 11, Thorn

[Fritz]

Westpreussisches Fussartillerie-Regiment No. 11, based in Thorn a.d. Weichsel, West Prussia, XVII. Armee-Korps.


A photo from album of uniforms previously in my collection, and a uniform type that is seldom encountered.
The tunic is in similar cut to the infantry pattern, but with the red-piped black facings of the artillery, it has the typical
"Brandenburg" cuffs of the infantry. The cuff patch is of dark blue tunic cloth, the remaining cuff black with red edge
piping as shown. The shoulder straps for all foot artillery regiments were white with a red regimental number. A shoulder
button with the company number was also worn.  The foot artillery was issued with the same basic equipment as the infantry,
however, belt and leather equipment were white, cartridge boxes were always black (bayonet frog in picture should also be white).
They were usually armed with the standard infantry rifle, a carbine is shown in the photo. The helmet was of same pattern
as per infantry, but with a non-removable ball-top fitting, as no plumes were worn. As from 1897 leather chinstraps were
worn, whereas the field artillery units wore chinscales.

 

[Fritz]

Original pre-WW1 photos from Fußartillerie-Regiment 11 in Thorn. In the first picture, the man on the far right is Gefreiter (or Obergefreiter? Large button) Albert Bohn, who served in this Regiment during the Great War. I was told, while he was taking part in a pre-war manoeuvre, he stood on a bridge during a pause to smoke a cigarette. His helmet fell over the bridge and was lost in the river (probably the Weichsel). His parents were obliged to buy him a new helmet. This was told to me by his son nearly 40 years ago.