Unit Mark G.K. on 1914 Erfurt...

[nick.helms]

Hello,

First a thank you for what a great forum this is, I've been following the site for a few months and found just a wealth of information here, thank you, although not well informed I'm better informed when making purchases.

Now my question, I recently purchased a 1914 Erfurt with the unit mark G.K.211, serial number 2446ns. I should have it tomorrow and will post pictures, but I've been trying to track down the unit mark and was hoping for a bit of help. In Jan Still's Imperial Luger's he lists G.K. as Garde Kurassier which is the "1st" Prussian Heavy Cavalry, his note is that G.K.number is for staff of the unit, but he does have a couple question marks after so I'm guessing this is a tentative identification. The Seller felt the marking was for General Headquarters staff but wasn't sure. Does anyone else have a G.K. marked gun? Your identification? If it is the Garde Kurassier that'll be icing on already very nice gun and holster, the unit fought the whole war and was only dismounted in December 1917 which was somewhat unusual I believe for cavalry to keep their horses that long. May have been because they fought in Russia from 1915-17. Also, are there any good english sites that have histories on German units from WWI? I found a German one and did a rough translation for what I found so far but Google translator is far from perfect and my german is pretty rusty.

Thanks,
Nick