GERMAN WWI BALLOON UNIT PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM AND ACCOMPANYING PAPERWORK

A very nice card-covered album containing 59 photographs from an Observation Balloon Unit, possibly attached to a Field Artillery Regiment in WWI. Images of balloons being inflated and raised, with all the equipment in view needed to raise the balloon. Observation officers with the balloon basket, the balloon is raised with the officers in the basket itself. Images from the balloon basket to the ground were taken by the officers. French villages. Bunker emplacements.  NCOs and officers in their mess. Officers in their Kaserne. Aviators wearing their Uhlan tunics. One magnificent large-format shot of a Maxim Machine Gun Unit of four soldiers with their sledge-mounted Maxim in an anti-aircraft role. Accompanied by 17 large-format, well-exposed images of the Balloon Unit in many guises, raising balloon, transporting balloon, and close-ups of the wicker basket. Good close-ups of a single observer in a leather outfit in a basket. A hanger for a balloon. Great detail of a trolley used for transporting the balloon anchoring wire. A field post letter with the stamp of the Bavarian Field Luftschiffer troop. Accompanied by a Third Reich period Luftwaffe issue wehrpass, the name unfortunately difficult to read, he was born in May 1894, with a photograph in civil dress. Pages 12 and 13 list the many units he was in during WWI, a total of 15 different units, mainly in Field Artillery Regiments, 5 entries for a Balloonzug 215. Page 22 shows his rank in 1915 as a Gefreiter and in 1917 as a Leutnant of the Reserve. Page 23 shows his 4 awards, which include the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class and the Bavarian Military Service Order. A highly interesting group for the balloon enthusiast. 

Ref; 96607