The photograph may have been taken during training. Units like this served on the Western Front in Flanders as part of the Marinekorps Flandern.

The two officers in the centre wear the dark blue double breasted naval officers jacket and matching caps. The senior officer on the left has his rank shown in the form of yellow metallic lace bars on the cuffs while the junior officer with the sword on the right has a chevron to denote his rank.

The other ranks Matrosen wear the field grey naval top introduced in 1916. Their trousers and other ranks caps are also in field grey with black tallies. Note that some of the Matrosen wear specialist insignia on their left arms. Many of the Matrosen are seen to carry the naval Luger pistol with it ammunition and cleaning kit worn strapped across the breast.

The back of the postcard is shown below. This interestingly shows a unit stamp of the II. Matrosen Division and a postmark showing the date and location.

Thanks to Steve Bombowsky for sharing this family photograph with us. Please respect his generosity by not reproducing it without prior permission.