Troddeln 

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These bayonet knots used to say a lot about where a soldier came from. Due to the harsh conditions combatants had to put up with in the trenches, they're now hard creatures to find. So what did a Troddel actually do, and how did it do it? (Sorry, no pics yet...)

The Imperial German Army employed a colour-coded system of bayonet knots to help quickly distinguish a soldier's position up to Battalion level within a Regiment. These were known in the infantry as Troddeln, and in the cavalry as the Faustrieman. Commissioned Officers in all arms of the Forces wore a version known as the Portepee. The division between the wearer of the Troddel and that of the Portepee is easily seen in the formal title given to non-commisioned officers - Unteroffizier ohne Portepee - or nco's without the sword knot. However, they were afforded some distinction from the rank and file; non-commissioned officers wore their state's or kingdom's colours woven into the cloth covering of the slider and the crown. Jäger or light infantry wore the same knot, only taking the distinction of it being completely in dark green. The Jäger were not organised in regiments, but in independant battalions of five companies plus a machine-gun battalion. The Faustriemann, or cavalry equivalent of the Troddeln, followed the same basic design, but differed in that the crown was constructed from woven or plaited leather, as was the slider. The Officer's version was the Portepee, without the tassels. This was like to the form of the classical sword knot or 'acorn' used by many armies and more resembled the knot worn by German soldiers in the period before and during the Second World War. The bayonet knot's strap and tassel was originally white in pre-1914 peacetime, after which it was changed to grey to reduce its visibility. Due to the dirty conditions in the trenches of the Great War, Troddeln quickly lost their ability to identify a soldier's unit. Combined with raw-material shortages and the ever-increasing need for camouflage, the bayonet knot gradually fell out of favour during the war.

A simple scheme involving a rotating sequence of four colours identified a soldier's position within a Regiment. The colours were white, red, yellow, and blue in that order. To understand the sequence of colours it may be helpful to have a basic understanding of Imperial German Regimental Organisation. The bayonet knot could only tell a soldier's place within a regiment, it did not identify his regiment, nor any higher formation. But in combination with other distinctions of uniform it was very effective as a means of telling a man's place in the army structure.

The Troddel consists of the following components:

• Das Riband or the strap
• Der Schieber or the slider  (table1.i)
• Der Stengel or the stem    (table1.ii)
• Der Kranz or the crown     (table1.iii)
• Die Quaste or the tassel

The stem of the bayonet knot was white for the 1st Battalion, red for the 2nd Battalion and yellow for the 3rd Battalion. The crown and the slider of the 1st Company was white. For the 2nd Company they were red, for the 3rd they were yellow, and for the 4th they were blue. This sequence repeated itself for each Battalion. Finally, the 13th or Machine-gun Company's stem was blue, and the crown and slider were white.

  

eg. The 10th Company (2nd Coy., III. Battalion) would have the colours red-yellow-red. The 3rd Company (I. Battalion) would have the colours yellow-white-yellow. And finally, the 13th MG Company's colours would be white-blue-white.

A pre-war Infantry Regiment consisted of three Battalions, numbered off with Roman numerals;  I, II, and III. Each Battalion consisted of 4 Companies. In Battalion I. the Companies were numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. In Battalion II. the numbering of the Companies continued to ascend, numbering 5, 6, 7 and 8; and so on, up to 12. So, the 3rd company of the II. Battalion would be the 7th Company, and the 4th Company of the III. Battalion would be the 12th Company of the Regiment. In addition, every Regiment was equipped with a Machine-gun Company, which was numbered the 13th Company.

Each company consisted of 3 Züge or platoons, which were numbered off in each company as 1, 2, and 3. The 4 sections or Korporalschaften that made each platoon were numbered in ascending order within the company. So 1. Zug consisted of Korporalschaften 1 to 4, then 2. Zug consisted of Korporalschaften 5 to 8, and so on. Each Section consisted lastly of 2 Grüppen, whose strength stood at 8 men and a lance-corporal. The Regiment would have been commanded by an Oberst, the Battalion by a Major and the Company by a Hauptmann. The Zug was commanded by a Leutnant, and the Sektion by an Unteroffizier. The smallest tactical unit considered was a Company for Infantry, a Squadron (Cavalry) or a Battery (Artillery).

Some Regiments had a 14th or Fortress Machine-gun Abteilung attached to them. These had become Imperial FMG units by the start of the Great War. Also, during the mid to late 19th Century certain Regiments had an extra or IV. Battalion added to them for a short period. These 4th battalions  were identified by a light blue stem. ...go back to colour identification?