For a lack of news from Gråsten, let's have a look at what they might very well have been doing.
There are quite a few activities all over the country during the summer and especially two might attract certainly Frederik and his two sons for a boys outing.
News often surface that members of the DRF have been seen at this or that event. And often they can get away with being unnoticed, especially at events with large crowds, lots of tourists and many dialects where they won't stand out. And mostly the locals leave them alone.
One was a tall ship race in the city of Esbjerg an hour or so away from Gråsten.
But the other might be of interest for the history buffs on this forum.
In 1918 what is now southern Jutland was a part of Germany and at the town of Tønder, about half an hour or so from Gråsten and 3 km from Schackenborg was a German airship base, consisting of zeppelins which flew out to partly bomb Britain and partly to fly reconnaissance over the North Sea for British ships.
That base was out of reach for the Allies. It was too far inland (and too dangerous) to shell it from the sea and it was too far away to be reached by bombers of the time. (At least if they were to carry any bombs and have enough fuel to get back as well!)
But by 1918 the Allies had a solution. The aircraft carrier.
At dawn on the 19th July 1918 the British air craft carrier HMS Furious sailed close to the Danish coast, off the town of Ringkøbing about 150 km further north. And here for the first time in history planes were launched on a bombing mission.
They reached the air base in the early hours and being in command of the sky, they could fly low enough to destroy the base, except for one major building.
But not without casualties though. One Sopwith Camel was shot down and the pilot killed, but there were considerable casualties among the surprised German sailors. (The zeppelins were under Die Kriegsmarine.)
The Tondern Raid as it is known in English is a little known first in military history.
There were lots of people looking at the reenacted raid, which included a Tiger Moth - Fly-worthy Sopwith Camels are not that easy to come by!
The reeancators have their own website here:
Præsentation - www.westfront1916.dk
The reeactors concentrate on German units, because some 30.000 ethnic Danes were enrolled to the German army during WWI - more than 6.000 died.
But back to the raid.
Around most airbases, even those they were considered safe, there were trenches, partly to defend against a land attack on the base, but also against air attacks:
https://images.jv.dk/65/1653365_1280_851_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
Shooting at planes with machine guns makes sense, rifles perhaps less so. But you'd be wrong. It makes a lot of sense firing at planes with rifles, - even today. After all it has been ascertained that the famous Red Baron was killed by a rifle shot from the ground, fired by an Australian.
Apart from that it's good for the morale to fire back. It does spook pilots in low flying aircrafts. After all few aircrafts today, and less so during WWI were armored. And intense fire from the ground forced planes further up, decreasing their chances of hitting their targets on the ground.
Machine guns on both sides during WWI were based on the same model, the water cooled Maxim gun, albeit with local variations.
https://images.jv.dk/62/1653362_1280_851_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
Perhaps you thought German soldiers stomped around wearing jackboots all through WWI? They didn't. Towards the end of the war, leather was a material that was in short supply. But jackboots are not that practical in muddy trenches, because they can easily become stuck in the mud and you are of little use in combat jumping around in your socks trying to pull your boots out of the mud! So the Germans studied the wicklers used by the British army. Leather strips wrapped around the calf combined with a heavy shoe. That was practical, easy to clean, and fairly waterproof and you mostly kept your shoe on in the mud. - But it takes a lot of practice to wrap wicklers correctly and if done incorrect you risk diminishing the blood supply to your foot and that is very bad in trench warfare! The Germans came up with various solutions, this however is basically a copy of the British wicklers.
https://images.jv.dk/63/1653363_1280_902_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
The archetypical Prussian officer, complete with a monocle. This one is staff officer, which you can tell from the red band around his cap and the red piping on his uniform, indicates he's from the artillery. By WWI the German military had very much developed an officers caste from the middle class and upper class, who had almost total monopoly on being officers. They were however generally very well educated! The German officers training and especially the staff officers training was second to none by 1914. - But just as well trained they were, just as arrogant they were towards anyone who were "not of their class". That was a general problem back then, with perhaps the exception of the French military. Their colonial officers could rise by merit, and they did and later became extremely competent and battle hardened medium level officers when recalled to France by 1915.
https://images.jv.dk/64/1653364_1280_851_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
The boy here is holding an artillery-Luger. The ever popular 08 Luger, was the standard pistol of the German military in WWI, only to be replaced in 1938 by the extremely well made (and until very recently still in use in many countries) P38 Walther.
For whatever reason the artillery version has a much longer barrel than usual.
https://images.jv.dk/66/1653366_1280_851_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
As mentioned before the base belonged to the Navy as you can tell from the uniforms worn by the sailor and navy officer. The two other officers are from the artillery. I guess they were used as additional base security.
https://images.jv.dk/67/1653367_1280_912_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
Here we have a private army soldier, no doubt awoken suddenly by the sound of bombs falling. He has donned he web-gear in a hurry, put on his jackboots, very sensibly put on his helmet which was introduced in 1916 and which was such a brilliant design that most modern armies use an updated version of it today. I believe the American nickname for their current helmet was The Fritz.
He is armed, unusually, with the carbine version of the Mauser 98 rifle. In WWI the full length version of the rifle remained the standard. The carbine became the standard rifle of WWII.
His is also carrying a hand grenade, which he perhaps hopes to lob at the planes?!? The stick grenade is an offensive grenade. (A lot of blast, few fragments.) While the pineapple grenade (Mills) that became the standard grenade of the Allies is a defensive grenade. (Little blast, many fragments.)
The stick grenade can be thrown longer than the Mills grenade and with considerable accuracy.
https://images.jv.dk/70/1653370_1280_851_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
And now my eyes almost tear up!
What you see here is a genuine rarity! Also among reenactors. A Madsen light machine gun.
Adopted in 1908 by the Danish army, it ended up being used by a number of armies, among them the Russian cavalry. Because it was among the very first workable light machine guns. With a 30 round magazine it was perfect for cavalry patrols and outposts, especially in the colonies. But less so, it was initially believed in European warfare, where heavy machine guns and field artillery would dominate the battle field. Well, by the end of the war, most armies had adopted a light machine gun. The Germans developed their own. And the British and Americans adopted the excellent, but heavy, Browning (BAR) and Lewis machine guns.
The Madsen remained in service with the Danish army until WWII. It had a major design flaw however. The breach tended not to work properly when at high or low angles. Which is why it was eventually discarded for use with the British army. But some of them also found their way to Germany for use in rear areas, like securing an airfield.
https://images.jv.dk/73/1653373_1280_947_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
The Germans being pioneers in the use of gas for warfare, naturally also made sure they had practical gasmasks at disposal. This, with minor local variations, ended up becoming the standard for all armies in the world.
The helmet is interesting. German helmets were initially greyish like their uniforms. But by the end of the WWI camouflage became a well developed art. And while this pattern and these colors may look silly, they are not! The primary function of camouflage is not so much to blend in with the surroundings, but to disrupt the outline of the soldier. The human eye is brilliant at detecting shapes! Even shapes that resemble the background. But remove the outline of such a shape, and the eye have problems seeing it. Hence the weird colors.
https://images.jv.dk/75/1653375_1280_921_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
Quite a few Germans were killed and wounded at the raid.
Here a nurse is treating a wounded sailor. The text on his cap reads Marine Luftschiffflotte (and probably Tönderen.)
https://images.jv.dk/77/1653377_1280_851_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
And finally we have the Sopwith Camel aka Tiger Moth that raided the base.
https://images.jv.dk/83/1653383_1280_822_0_0_0_0_2.jpg
The whole gallery:
https://www.jv.dk/toender/Se-de-dra...torien-lever-i-Soldaterskoven/artikel/2629486
and sleek coat. The brown dog is pretty special, too. Unusual.
