Hey all! I'm currently trying to solve a family mystery. I recently came into possession of a family relic- a picture of my uncle who was a Polish conscript into the German army from what was then referred to as Pommerania as well as an envelope that has a blood-stained bullet hole (made by the bullet that killed him according to his immediate relatives).
Numerous family members claim that he was killed on the 21st of July 1916 during the battle of Verdun. However, as can been seen in the photos posted below, he was part of the 54th regiment (see shoulder board) which, to my knowledge, was at that time part of the third division. From the sources that I've found, the third division was not at Verdun at the time.
Another layer of the mystery is that the letter appears to have a feldpost stamp of the 87th Infantry Divison from July 10th 1916. To my knowledge, the 87th at this time was on the Eastern front. So- would it be somehow possible for a member of the 54th Infantry Regiment to be at Verdun? If the date of death was around the 10th of July as indicated by the envelope's stamp, then I guess he could have died during the assault on Fort Souville. The stamp from the 87th does not make any sense though since there was no 54th regiment attached to that division (to my knowledge) and the 87th was not in the area of Verdun. Any help with finding information about the divisions and/or regiments present at Verdun in July of 1916 as well as where the 3rd was exactly during this time would be super appreciated!
I do not want to take the photos out of their (original) frame and risk damaging the envelope, so I apologize for the poor quality.
Photos of the deceased, the envelope, and a closeup of the stamp for those interested
Update: so, after some scrummaging and wonderful contributions I have found the listing of Franz Przybyla's (RIP) untimely end: http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/4582057 A novel layer to the mystery is that he is listed as a member of the 5th company of the 149th regiment, which in fact had fought at Verdun as part of the 4th division after being transferred from the Eastern front. Does anyone know if it would be possible for a man to somehow get moved from the 54th regiment to the 149th? Were such transfers between divisions commonplace under particular circumstances, and would there any good resources around that list such transfers?
additional details: Franz was born Franciszek Przybyla in 1886. He was not married at the time of his death, but had a sweetheart that he had been courting up until before the war broke out. He hoped to become a school teacher, and liked to wrote poems in his free time. He was the eldest son of the local postmaster. I thought I would add these details since, as the 100th anniversary of his death approaches and WWI might seem so distant now, it seems fitting to emphasize the humanity that was lost.
I suspect the confusion is between that of the 54th Infantry Division (which fought in Verdun) and the 54th Infantry Regiment (which fought in the Baltics) in 1916. The 54th Infantry Regiment was part of the 36th Reserve Division, which was curiously seeing action in both Ukraine and near Riga around this time. It is likely that the division was temporarily split (probably due to the Brusilov Offensive, where many German units were sent as reinforcements to stop the Russian attack in West Ukraine) and your uncle may have remained in the Riga area, which was also where the 87th Infantry Division was serving at the time. If the main divisional HQ and rear area units had moved to Ukraine as well, they would likely rely on the postage of whichever nearby divisional post office was available, which in this case would have been that of the 87th.
Most of the documents from the Prussian Army were destroyed when the military archives of Potsdam burned down in 1945, so it's hard to find accurate troop movements. If you wouldn't mind telling me your uncles name, I could search the Verlustlisten for WWI for you. They were kind of like daily newspapers listing names of wounded, killed or missing troops.
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!