Anyone know anything about WWI uniforms or machinery of that era?

[udoittwo]

I have a small lot of original military photos dated 1914-1918. None are American or English.  Many have handwriting that I THINK is German but it's often hard enough for me just to read handwriting in English.

What are these 2 machines? The one looks like a portable still. Is it for fire fighting? What is the other? It's not self propelled but might it be a generator , a pump or something?

What are these uniforms?

Thanks again for any help,

Karl.

[argon38]

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@udoittwo wrote:
Many have handwriting that I THINK is German but it's often hard enough for me just to read handwriting in English.

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Can you show some examples of the handwriting?

[md1919]

kriegsmarine on the sailors hats certainly is from germany

[udoittwo]

These are some basic postcards but many have more writing on them.

[rock.star]

The uniforms appear to be from Austria Hungary who of course spoke German.

[udoittwo]

I don't even know where to begin with this stuff. I bought them because I think they're fascinating and hoping they have some value but I don't even know where to begin. Questions like, what is this car, what does this mean, or what is this thing? I see some are a little earlier around 1906.

I paid between $3-5 per picture and now I wondering did I eat the bear or does the bear eat me today?

[udoittwo]

In probably half the pictures the soldiers have the 3 stars on their collars. If I can ID that nation, that would be a good start but this guy, to me anyway, looks Russian.

[guangxi_hone]

Piece of history here. Very interesting. Show it on the stamp forum to make their day.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/The-Stamp-Board/gp-p/TheStampBoard

KUK felpost stamps and cancellation used by Austrian military for occupied territories 1915 - 1918.

Rare card. Austrian soldier, prisoner of war in Russian camp in Irkutsk (by the Baikal lake) is writing in German to Wien.

The card is censored by Russia (stampel of left) and then Austria.

[c*me*4*lefton*info]

My advice - I would start with a single item. Shows us the front and back. One of the postcards would be a good start. Showing us a random mixture of fronts and backs of items is confusing as is the mixture of different languages and dates.

[c*me*4*lefton*info]

Lots of clues, hard to make sense of so many at a time.

Prisoners of war - written on one item in French. Red Cross emblem shown in others.

[guangxi_hone]

k.k langstrum baon no 83 one of baons formatted by Austria 

https://www.translatetheweb.com/?from=it&to=en&ref=SERP&refd=www.bing.com&dl=en&rr=UC&a=https%3a%2f%...

[argon38]

.

[maxine*j]

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@c*me*4*lefton*info wrote:

My advice - I would start with a single item. Shows us the front and back. One of the postcards would be a good start. Showing us a random mixture of fronts and backs of items is confusing as is the mixture of different languages and dates.

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Agreed!  I'm feeling as overwhelmed as OP says he is, presented with this array of fronts, backs, photos, cards, French, German...  Don't know which  backs go with which fronts, if any do.  Too much for me to sort through, to offer help.

Also don't know what research OP has already done with this stuff.  Has he started with the obvious, like a Google image search on that Red Cross wagon that holds some sort of equipment (steam sterilizer..., as a wild guess)?  Research on visible insignia and patches?  Too big a job for me to care to duplicate efforts.

[guangxi_hone]

Just noticed : the Russian-French-German-English writing card:  Abcmpia above the address = Austria in Russian

[argon38]

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@guangxi_hone wrote:

Just noticed : the Russian-French-German-English writing card:  Abcmpia above the address = Austria in Russian

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Ah! That is a brilliant observation. I was going to add a few details about this card, but I wanted to figure out that word first, and I couldn't.

The simple greeting on the left of the card says:

Herzlichste Grüße sendet

Euer Georg

(Your Georg sends kindest regards)

The card is addressed to a Georg Rosenkranz in Vienna (same first name as the soldier, so likely his father).

Someone has added a cross mark on the back, with the comment Georg als Feldwebel (Georg as a Feldwebel). This link has some information about the rank of Feldwebel:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldwebel 

There's a corresponding cross mark on the leg of one of the soldiers on the front, so that must be the sender of the card, the prisoner Georg. And as you've already pointed out, the card bears censorship office stamps for Иркутск (Irkutsk) and Wien (Vienna).