Imperial German Buckles.

[Lenny Warren]

The indentations, I reckon they are from a telegraphist's buckle... Which state would 8th Field Art. Reg. be???

[HERVEPARIS]

Hello Lenny,

Feld Artillery Regiment 8 "von Holtzendorff" is a prussian regiment, garrisonned at Saarbrucken and part of the XXI A.K. (army corps)
Artillery soldiers wore different kinds of belts and buckles, mounted men had the "open" cavalry buckle worn with a special belt specially made for this t
ype of buckle

Non mounted personnel wore the standard infantry belt and buckle and people assigned to communication duty wore the special "telegraphist" buckle which is not distinctive to telegraph battallions, but is a piece of equipment which was given to people whose task was to reel and unreel wire with a special tool affixed to the buckle

[Lenny Warren]

Many thanks, looks like I really owe this belt a telegraphist buckle then....

[CCMJR]

Lenny,

Your belt is not from a Prussian regiment, but rather the 8.Bavarian FAR. The square box with the code number on the left, would have had "B.D.III" on the right side of the box (now nearly rubbed off). This type of mark was only used by the Bekleidungs-Depot of the III.b.A.K. Somewhere along the line, it got mismatched with a Prussian buckle. The 175 is a manufacturer code.

Regards,
CCMJR

[HERVEPARIS]

Hello,

if you want to match this belt with a buckle, it will be very difficult, as the bavarian telegraphist buckle is a very hard to find one, either in the brass with nickel silver medaillon version or the ultra rare 1915 steel version

The existing telegraphist buckles are to my knowledge prussian, bavarian, saxon, marine and turkish in the M95 version and only prussian and bavarian in the M15 version

All the non prussian telegraphist buckles are extremely rare to find nowadays and the ones i own are in my collection for more than 30 years

[CCMJR]

Lenny,

What are these "indentations" you are talking about? I went back and looked at your photos and I don't see much of the belt, much less indentations. Did I miss something?

Regards,
CCMJR

[CCMJR]

The existing telegraphist buckles are to my knowledge prussian, bavarian, saxon, marine and turkish in the M95 version and only prussian and bavarian in the M15 version.

Herveparis,

I saw a Württemberg M95 example at the Stuttgart Sammlerbörse back in the early 1980s. At the time, I was not familiar enough with buckles to make an educated judgement on it. Besides, it was very expensive!

Regards,
CCMJR

[HERVEPARIS]

Hello CCMJR,

concerning the "indentations", two faint circular spots can be seen under the steel hook of the belt which can supposedly have been left by the inside rivets of a telegraphist buckle

Concerning a wurtemberg telegraph buckle, it is very probable but i personnally never saw any and never heard of the existance of such a buckle

Furthermore, any M95 prussian telegraph brass buckle can very easily be changed into an "ultra rare" item just by soldering another nickel silver medaillon, so you must be very careful when examining such buckles

[Lenny Warren]

Lenny,

What are these "indentations" you are talking about? I went back and looked at your photos and I don't see much of the belt, much less indentations. Did I miss something?

Regards,
CCMJR

It's hard to see in the pics, but there are indentations that look made from a telegraphists buckle. They are to the right of the hook and couldn't be made by a standard size buckle... They are actually deep enough and seem to have been there for a while...

[Lenny Warren]

Hi guys,

Just got this Prussian buckle and belt. the buckle is marked DRGM, I know what that means, but was it only put on private puchase buckles? I'm also thinking the prongs have been repaired by the looks of it.

The belt is maker marked and dated 1913, also pencilled name and unit marked. Unit looks like JR III and a 1913 date. Is there a good web resource for Imperial unit id? Is Jager Regiment 3 Bavarian rather than Prussian?