Kiel Navy 1918
 

A photo of navy recruits with their navy lugers, taken in 1918.

The owner of the photo, Fritz Philippe, is the one on the far right. Taken in Kiel.

He apperantly had planned to send it to his father, but it was never sent.

Interesting, I don't see a boarding cutlass! Not one...

I believe these guys are ground crew, not ship bound.

When I zoom in on the original, the hats read 'Torpedo Division' what I found:

Gerben, My cutlass is well marked 2nd torpedo. I was thinking of the late date, 1918, perhaps the cutlass was fazed out?

No idea, they are recruits and iirc this is where the navy upriding started in 1918. Perhaps it was safer to give them guns without ammo and no pointy things.

Actually, they are wearing their SeitenGewehr 1911s (cutlasses)
You can see the broad width of the end of the hilt on several of the men.

The two Torpedo Divisions in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, along with the Minen Abteilung in Cuxhaven were the only sailors who trained with P.04s and SG1911s instead of the GeW98 and its SG1898 bayonet.

That's because the other sailors received infantry training since they would be expected to serve as landing forces, while the torpedo men would only be serving mostly on torpedo or untersee boats where they would likely only every be in a small boarding party.

Here's a photo of a little informal "training".
Norm

Painted target and on brick at that. Is this odd or normal?