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NEW (29/08/2024): I recently acquired this undated photo of German troops loaded onto barges (towed by a tug) at Brăila for transport on the Danube to Cernavodă.

According to the regimental histories, the foot troops of 212.ID travelled just like this on this exact route in April 1918, and I believe that this photo records the departure of one of those contingents. At Cernavodă the Bucharest-Constanța railway line provided onward transportation to the coast. As for the mounted troops of the division, the hussars (5. / HR 18) travelled aboard the transport steamer Margarita from Brăila along the Danube and onward to Ukraine in mid-May. Some elements of FAR 279 came by the same route as the foot troops, others by rail through Bessarabia (ex-Russian territory under Romanian occupation, where Central Powers troops were permitted transit as per the peace agreement with Romania which was then in force); the artillery regiment did not complete its transit to Ukraine until the end of May.

These next two photos depict the division's voyage from Constanza (Constanța) on the Romanian Black Sea coast to Ukraine, a process which began in late April and was not complete until the end of May. The regimental historians whimsically describe this adventure as an Argonautenfahrt ('Voyage of the Argonauts').

As explained in the article, some of the divisional artillery came by rail via Romanian-occupied Bessarabia (under the terms of the peace agreement with that nation).

Above: IR 182 (minus its III. Bataillon) deployed for embarkation at Constanza aboard the General, an 8000-ton vessel of the Deutsch-Ostafrika-Linie. This photo was probably taken on 20th April 1918, as the regimental history records that their embarkation began on that day; the ship departed on the afternoon of the 22nd escorted by two Turkish torpedo boats, and reached Nikolajew / Mykolaiv on the 24th.

Visible in the background on the right is Kazak, a former merchant steamer built in Newcastle in 1890 under the name Kazan and in Russian naval service as Transport No. 35 since 10th March 1915. She was captured by the German submarine UC 23 off Sevastopol on 14th April 1918 and immediately pressed into service (see our detailed discussion of this photo on the Great War Forum).

This and all of the following photos belong to the Andrew Lucas collection unless otherwise specified.

Above: The Nachrichtenzug (signals platoon) of II. Bataillon / IR 182 posing on the deck of the General on 23rd April 1918, when the ship docked at Odessa before proceeding along the coast and up the Bug to Nikolajew / Mykolaiv. Note the preponderance of Iron Cross 2nd class ribbons, testament to the regiment's long and impressive combat record.

CREDIT: Jürgen Schmieschek collection