Noeske, Rolf/Stefanski, Claus P. Die deutschen Marinen 1818-1918. 2 Bände

After almost ten years of research, the authors present a standard work on the uniforming, armament and equipment of the German navies from 1818 to 1918 in a two-volume work with 1336 pages, including 304 colour plates. As background, the organisation as well as the personnel, career and rank structures of the persons of the soldiery as well as the military and civilian officials are presented in detail. Detailed information, for example, on operations of the Marines in the tropics or the Marine Corps on the land front in Flanders complete the comprehensive picture, which ranges from the Royal Prussian Navy to the end of the Imperial German Navy after the end of the First World War. An extensive pictorial section at the end of each volume provides vivid graphics of numerous items of clothing and
equipment.

The first volume first describes all Prussian "naval uniforms" from 1818 to 1848, the founding year of the Royal Prussian Navy, and then those of the navies of the German Confederation or the Imperial Navy. The uniforms, armament and equipment are presented in the context of the historical and organisational background. Subsequently, the organisation, personnel and rank structure, uniforming, armament and equipment of the Royal Prussian Navy including the Federal Navy of the North German Confederation and the Imperial German Navy under Emperor Wilhelm I and Emperor Frederick III in the period from 1848 to 1888 are dealt with comprehensively. Seafaring personnel, naval troops and naval officials as well as the individual ranks and careers are dealt with in detail. A detailed account of specific objects such as cap bands, blank and firearms has been omitted where extensive specialist literature is already sufficiently available. Where special additions and corrections were necessary, however, they have been incorporated into the relevant chapters. In the course of time, the ranks, the designations and - often in parallel - the spelling in the decrees and regulations changed. The same applies to the services and naval components. In the case of the ranks, even the last ones used (1918) often do not correspond to our present ones. In order to facilitate the reader's understanding, old rank designations and names of services within a chapter have been standardised as far as possible. The illustrations of the items of clothing and equipment are summarised in a separate picture section with numerous colour graphics at the end of the volume.