5th Guards Regiment on foot

5th Guards Regiment on foot
active	March 22, 1897 to January 1919
Country	Kingdom of Prussia
Armed forces	Prussian Army
Branch of service	infantry
Insinuation	Guard Corps
Former locations	last in Spandau
Nickname	White devils
Anniversaries	March 31, 1897

Motif postcard 5th Guards Regiment on foot (1904)

(Partly preserved) monument in Berlin-Spandau

The 5th Foot Guards was an infantry joined the Prussian army .

history

The association was formed by AKO on March 22, 1897 from the respective IV Battalion of the 3rd Guards Regiment on foot , the Guards Fusilier Regiment , the Queen Elisabeth Guards Grenadier Regiment No. 3 and the Queen Augusta Guards Grenadier - Regiment No. 4 established. On August 29, 1899, the foundation day was subsequently set to March 31, 1897.

The regiment formed the 5th Guards Infantry Brigade with the Guards Grenadier Regiment No. 5 , which was subordinate to the 2nd Guards Division . The place of peace was Spandau ; initially a barracks was occupied on Ringchaussee, later a move to Moritzstrasse took place.

On October 1, 1911, the regiment was an MG - Company expands.

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War , the regiment mobilized on August 2, 1914 and moved into neutral Belgium in conjunction with the 3rd Guard Division . Here it took part in the battle at Hingeon and the conquest of Namur . At the end of August it moved to the Eastern Front and fought u. a. in the battles at the Masurian Lakes and near Łódź . In February 1915, it took part in the winter battle in Masuria , the subsequent campaign through northern Poland and, from July 12, 1915, in the summer offensive in Russia . At the end of September / beginning of October 1915, the regiment relocated to the western front and, after a period of rest and training, entered the trench warfare in the Artois in November . This was followed by fights near Messines, Ypres, Lille and the Vimy Heights. From July 25, 1916, the association took part in the Battle of the Somme , which was interrupted by a deployment from September 14 to October 24, 1916 in the trench warfare in Flanders. In the meantime, on October 1, 1916, the regiment had received a 2nd and 3rd MG company. After the end of the battle, the unit was in trench warfare north of the Somme near Le Barque- Ligny-Thilloy , was then deployed before the Siegfriedstellung and fought in the spring of 1917 near Arras . From February 25, 1918, the regiment prepared for the German spring offensive that began on March 21, 1918 . The association made the breakthrough between Gouzeaucourt and Vermand as well as the pursuit battles in the Somme area. After the offensive ceased, fighting at Noyon and participation in various defensive battles followed. During the trench warfare on the Vesle , the 1st, 7th and 9th companies had to be disbanded due to the losses and the non- existent substitute position. The regiment received an MW company on September 14, 1918 . Most recently, the association fought in retreat from the Antwerp-Maas position from November 5 to 11, 1918 .

Whereabouts

After the end of the war , the remnants of the regiment returned to the garrison, where the association was demobilized on December 12, 1918 and then dissolved. In January 1919 the volunteer detachment "Maltzan" (also known as the volunteer battalion "Maltzahn") was formed from parts and was divided into two companies, an MG company and a light MW division. It came to the 1st Guard Reserve Division on February 27, 1919 and was deployed as a Freikorps in the Baltic States . With the formation of the Provisional Reichswehr , the detachment was added to the 2nd Battalion in the 115th Reichswehr Infantry Regiment.

The tradition in the Reichswehr was adopted by the 6th Company of the 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Angermünde by decree of the Chief of Army Command, General of the Infantry Hans von Seeckt , on August 24, 1921 .

Regiment chief

Rank	Surname	date
General of the Infantry / Colonel General / Field Marshal General	Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf	December 2, 1914 until dissolution

Commanders

Rank	Surname	date
Colonel	Wilhelm von Uslar	0April 1, 1897 to November 19, 1900
Colonel	Max von Eckartsberg	November 20, 1900 to August 17, 1901
Colonel	Oskar von Maltzan zu Wartenberg and Penzlin	August 18, 1901 to June 13, 1905
Colonel	Adolf von Waldow	June 14, 1905 to July 6, 1909
Colonel	Viktor Albrecht	0July 7, 1909 to December 17, 1911
Colonel	Werner Eugen von Voigts-Rhetz	December 18, 1911 to September 30, 1912
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Heinrich Schëuch	0October 1, 1912 to July 6, 1913
Colonel	Bernhard von Hülsen	0July 7, 1913 to August 29, 1914
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Ernst von Radowitz	August 30, 1914 to December 1917
major	Walter von Schleinitz	December 1917 to February 12, 1918 (in charge of the tour)
major	Friedrich von Kriegsheim	February 12 to December 11, 1918
Colonel	Ernst von Radowitz	December 12, 1918 to January 1919

monument

On May 6, 1923, a memorial was inaugurated on the Askanierring in Berlin-Spandau in memory of the 4085 fallen members of the regiment, which is now located on the Hohenzollernring (see Monuments in Spandau ).

literature

• Jürgen Kraus : Handbook of the associations and troops of the German army 1914-1918. Part VI: Infantry. Volume 1: Infantry Regiments. Publishing house Militaria. Vienna 2007. ISBN 978-3-902526-14-4 . P. 22.
• Albrecht von Stosch: The Royal. Prussia. 5th Guards Regiment on Foot 1897–1918. Klasing & Co. GmbH publishing house. Berlin 1930
• Günther Voigt .: The Guard and Grenadier Regiments 1–12 of the Prussian Army . In: Dermot Bradley , Hans Bleckwenn (ed.): Germany's armies until 1918. Origin and development of the individual formations . tape 1 . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1980, ISBN 3-7648-1199-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Conrad was appointed Prussian Field Marshal General on November 26, 1916 by Wilhelm II. Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: A-G. Biblion Publishing House. Osnabrück 1999. ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 . P. 273.
2. ^ Günter Wegmann (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Formation history and staffing of the German armed forces 1815-1990. Part 1: Occupation of the German armies 1815–1939. Volume 2: The staffing of the active infantry regiments as well as the hunter and machine gun battalions, military district commands and training managers from the foundation or list until 1939. Biblio Verlag. Osnabrück 1992. ISBN 3-7648-1782-8 . P. 14.