Royal Bavarian 20th Infantry Regiment "Prinz Franz"

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The 20th Infantry Regiment "Prince Franz" was an infantry joined the Bavarian army .

history

The association was formed by the highest resolution of September 20, 1896 on April 1, 1897 from the IV (half) battalions of the Infantry Body Regiment , 1st , 3rd , 13th and 16th Infantry Regiment in Lindau (staff, 1st battalion), Kempten (2nd battalion) and Landsberg am Lech (3rd battalion). Together with the 3rd Infantry Regiment , it formed the 3rd Infantry Brigade .

The first commander was Siegmund von Weech, who handed over command to Bernhard Graf von Spreti on February 12, 1901. In 1903 the III. Battalion relocated to Lindau . In the spring of 1904 two officers and some men volunteered for the protection force for German South West Africa . On October 31, 1907, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria was appointed the first regiment owner. In the summer of 1910, parts of the association helped during the flood disaster in the Allgäu . On 1 October 1912, the first was at the Second Battalion. MG - Company set up.

In 1914, Prince Franz of Bavaria was appointed the new regiment owner and from that point on the association had his name as an addition.

First World War

During the First World War , the regiment entered France on August 2, 1914, as part of the 6th Army , with a combat strength of 70 officers and 3,100 NCOs and men as well as 235 horses and remained on the Western Front until the armistice.

The regiment entered the battle of Péronne on 24./25. September 1914 from Dompierre towards Proyart , but was thrown back by far superior French troops before Proyart. On October 11, 1915, the regiment was thrown as part of the assembled division " von Hartz ", later the entire I. Army Corps , southwest of Vimy and had the onslaught of the French III. and XII. To intercept army corps. The French attack collapsed before the regiment's positions, and the few French who had broken in were thrown out again immediately. English attacks off Morval were all repulsed in October 1916. In the fighting on the Chemin des Dames in May 1917, an attack by the regiment failed bloody, and in defense the positions were held against all French attacks. At the end of the war the regiment was west of Givet .

Battle calendar

Memorial stone of a member of the regiment who fell in 1914; Main cemetery in Kaiserslautern
1914
  • August 27 - Battle at Doncieres
  • August 28 - Battle at Epinal
  • September 15th - Position battle for Epinal
  • September 15 to 24 - Battles near Péronne
  • September 25th - Battle of Dompierre-Foucaucourt (Regiment's Day of Honor)
  • September 26th to December 31st - trench warfare on the Somme
1915
  • 0January 1 to March 31 - Fights on the Somme
  • 0April 1st to 25th - Army Reserve
  • April 26th - coup d'état against the ivy grove
  • June 16 - Battle at Roclincourt
  • June 20 to October - trench warfare
  • from October 8th - autumn battle of Arras with subsequent trench warfare
1916
  • until May 10th - trench warfare
  • August 20 to September 30 - trench warfare around Verdun
  • October 15 to November 6 - Battle of the Somme
  • from November 12th - trench warfare between Meuse and Moselle
1917
  • until May 4th - trench warfare between Meuse and Moselle
  • 0May 7th to 31st - Chemin des Dames
  • 0July 9-23 - Army Reserve in Charleville
  • End of July to November 3rd - in the Cheppy forest
  • from November 9th - before Verdun
1918
  • until January 13th - before Verdun
  • January 16 to March 23 - preparation for the Great Battle of France
  • March 24th to March 31st - advance towards the Avre
  • 0April 1st to 3rd - Forest fighting in the Moreuil-Morisel-Senecat area
  • April 18 to May 5 - Fights between Luce and Avre
  • 0June 8-30 - Battle of Noyon
  • July 10-22 - Battle of Champagne
  • July 23rd to August 3rd - defensive battle between Marne and Vesle
  • August 24th to September 29th - Trench warfare on the Vesle
  • September 30th - Counterattack to recapture the "badger building position" near Romain-Montigny
  • 0October 1st - retreat behind the Aisne
  • 0October 2nd to 12th - on the Aisne
  • October 19 - Fights for La Selve

During the war the regiment suffered the following losses:

  • Dead: 68 officers, a doctor, 290 NCOs and 2,568 men
  • Missing: two officers, eight NCOs and 164 men
  • Those who died due to illness / accidents: three officers, six NCOs and 93 men

At the end of the war, ten officers, 70 NCOs and 503 men were in captivity.

Whereabouts

After the Armistice of Compiègne , the regiment began to march back home on November 11, 1918. At Brohl it crossed the Rhine and first came to Wetzlar . In December 1918 the regiment reached the demobilization sites. The 2nd Battalion was demobilized from December 16 in Kempten and the rest of the regiment from December 18, 1918 in Lindau and finally disbanded. In April 1919 , the Volkswehr Company, which was active as a free formation and was deployed in the Free Corps “Bodensee”, was formed from parts . This went in June 1919 in the III. Battalion of the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 43.

The tradition in the Reichswehr was adopted by the 9th Company of the 19th (Bavarian) Infantry Regiment in Lindau by decree of the Chief of the Army Command, General of the Infantry Hans von Seeckt , on August 24, 1921 .

Commanders

Rank Surname date
Colonel Siegmund von Weech 0April 1, 1897 to February 11, 1901
Colonel Bernhard von Spreti February 12, 1901 to June 29, 1903
Colonel Philipp Goetz June 30, 1903 to May 10, 1906
Colonel Karl Völk May 11, 1906 to June 5, 1907
Colonel Maximilian von Lachemair 0June 6, 1907 to December 19, 1909
Colonel Ludwig von Hetzel December 20, 1909 to November 22, 1911
Colonel Oskar Reuter November 23, 1911 to October 27, 1913
Colonel Karl von Reck October 28, 1913 to July 29, 1916
Colonel Maximilian Schaaf June 30, 1916 to August 26, 1917
Colonel Anton Hoderlein August 27, 1917 to September 24, 1918
Colonel Alfons of Bram September 25, 1918 until demobilization

literature

  • Hugo Höfl: The Infantry Regiment Prince Franz. Verlag Max Schick, Munich 1929.
  • Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen , Friedrichfranz Feeser : The Bavaria book of the world wars 1914-1918. Volume I, Chr.Belser AG, publishing house, Stuttgart 1930.
  • Günter Wegner: Germany's armies until 1918. Volume 10: Bavaria. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1984.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen Kraus : Handbook of the units 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. 457.
  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. 482.