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| I have no idea which unit this is and family stories tell me nothing |
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| The rugby team |
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| My great-great aunt (or thereabouts) met her husband in this hospital |
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| Or possibly in this one |
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| My great-grandfather and great-grandmother in France in 1918 according to the writing on the back of the photo |
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| When in France on holiday, one buys postcards of big guns! |
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| It is important to have your photograph taken with the subject of some of your postcards |
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| Once also buys postcards of ruins |
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| And of destroyed forests with a crashed plane in them |
I guess that by then people were slowly coming to grips with how historical and world changing the war had been. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYes, it changed a lot of things. There is still something in these photos of the old ways, I think, but they also show some of why they changed.
DeleteThe first photo:
ReplyDeleteThe guys in service caps are Americans. The service cap, cut of the tunic and greatcoat all seem to match the Osprey photos and illustrations. They were only deployed on the Western front during WW1.
The guys in peacked caps and greatcoats are probably Russians sent to the western front (a symbolic act). The Czech and Polish legions were equipped by the French, so would have looked similar to French infantry not the more eastern european garb shown here.
An outside chance is this is a photo from RCW, the Americans deployed in the far north of Russia and in Vladivostock along the trans-Siberian. Of that is the case then again the guys in greatcoats could be Russian, Czech or possibly Polish.
HTH.
Hmm, Americans. I had not thought of that. Thanks for the ideas. The only thing I know about these photos is that my great-grandfather took them and that he was in France and Belgium in 1918-19, when my great, great aunt married a Belgian whom she had nursed in one of the hospitals. I had assumed that the military units were related to him, but it is entirely possible they are other units as you suggest.
DeleteThe first photo most possibly shows Belgians, who served as volunteers for Russia in Galizia with a unit of armored cars. The fellows with caps are all Russians, possibly some of the ca 30, who served with the Belgians. The picture possibly taken in Kiev after the revolution had been going on for some time, as some of the Russians do not wear their Russian cocardes on the caps. See eventually further on LAF http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=64353.0
ReplyDeletePossibly you should look for the name of the Belgian, who your great, great aunt married. Possibly he is one of the Belgians on the photo from Kiev ca 1918.
T. Snorrason
The first photo most possibly shows Belgians, who served as volunteers for Russia in Galizia with a unit of armored cars. The fellows with caps are all Russians, possibly some of the ca 30, who served with the Belgians. The picture possibly taken in Kiev after the revolution had been going on for some time, as some of the Russians do not wear their Russian cocardes on the caps. See eventually further on LAF http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=64353.0
ReplyDeletePossibly you should look for the name of the Belgian, who your great, great aunt married. Possibly he is one of the Belgians on the photo from Kiev ca 1918.
T. Snorrason
The first photo shows Belgians (can especially be identified by their cap tassels) and Russian soldiers, possibly in Kiev ca. 1918. The Belgians were all volunteers serving with an armoured car corps, which fought in Galicia (Ukraine). The Russians shown possibly some of the about 30 Russians serving with the Belgian Corps.
ReplyDeletePossibly one of the Belgians on the photo is the husband (or his comrades) of your great, great aunt. If you has the Belgians name, most possible more information on him can be found via Belgian sources.
The picture must be taken after the revolution had broken out, as some of the Russian do not wear the Russian cocarde on their caps.
For further information on the Belgian Corps you can look at LAF http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=64353.0 , Wikipedia and searching via the Belgian (French) name of the Corps.
Regards
T. Snorrason
The husband of your great, great aunt can have met her Belgian in a hospital in USA, as the Belgian Corps went home to Belgium over Siberia, Vladivostok, San Francisco to Belgium.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your comments. I need to check up on these. His name was Baron Joseph Hoeven according to my mother. I get the feeling it should be van der Hoeven or van Hoeven though. If I can find out more about Baron Joe's service with the Belgian army then I can find out a bit more.
DeleteHospital 1: the war-time hospital closing down, shows the staff employed, one of those is auntie. 1919?
ReplyDeleteHospital 2: the hospital in use, showing wounded with your auntie and perhaps uncle in bed with a head wound. 1918?
Holiday 2 France, not holiday, but perhaps the men commanded by uncle 1918, when the gun was captured. "The 38 cm SK L/45 "Max",[A 1] also called Langer Max (literal translation "Long Max") was a German railroad gun used during World War I. Originally a naval gun, it was adapted for land service when it became clear that the ships for which it was intended would be delayed and that it would be very useful as long-range, heavy siege and coast-defense gun on the Western Front. The first guns saw service in fixed positions, but the lengthy preparation time required for the concrete emplacements was a severe drawback and a railroad mount was designed to increase the gun's mobility. It participated in the 1918 Spring Offensives and the Second Battle of the Marne. One gun was captured in Koekelare (16 October 1918) by the Belgians at the end of the war and the seven surviving cannons were destroyed in 1921 and 1922." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_cm_SK_L/45_%22Max%22
Big guns 2: same gun visited by uncle and aunt with their 2 daughter and nurse ca. 1923-24.
Holliday 2 France 1918: Not France, but Belgium 1918 (?), photo by uncle. The text says: Passage/Road through the Houthulst Wood (Belgium - http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-houthulste.html ) and in the road ditch a crashed aero-plane.
Holliday 1 France 1918: Not 1918, but 1923-24, the family on an old battlefield in front of a smashed English tank.
Uncle seem to have been Belgian, not Dutch. Belgians in Russia and Belgians capturing monster gun.
It should be rather easy to find the military career of uncle and his family in Belgium?
My great great aunt is the nurse in the centre in photo 1 of the hospital and is the standing nurse in photo 2. I don't actually know which is her husband-to-be but I suspect he is also standing in photo 2 of the hospital.
DeleteBig guns 1 is actually a postcard and not a family photograph. Big guns 2 is my great-grandfather, great-grandmother with their children (my grandmother and great aunt) and my great great aunt.
The date for all of these photographs has to be 1918/19 because that is the only time the family were over there together. The photographs have 1918 written on them but other records indicate 1919. Some photographs have France written on them as an indicator of location too but others do not. Both France and Belgium are probably locations for travels. I have no record of my great great aunt working in a hospital in the USA at all but that does not preclude it happening.
I know that my great great aunt married a Belgian and that his name was Hoeven. However, I suspect that his name requires 'van' or 'van der' in front of it, being Flemish and a baron. I do not know which records offices to begin the search for his military career in or even where to find it online. He and my great great aunt had no children so I cannot reach out to their descendents for help. I suppose the Belgian war office or similar might have some ideas for beginning the search?
Thanks for the additional comments. It is all useful material to help me pursue it further when I have a bit more time.