Ulsterman

This thread is a pleasure to go through. 

I belong to a historical photography and film club up here. One of the guys told me recently that it was standard practice in the 1920s- 1950s to use a sky blue backdrape, as it offset the grey contrasts of the film well and could be easily lightened or darkened by augmenting lights of various strengths. 

Outstanding research efforts! bravo.

Outstanding find! 

Pretzskner? 

Well, Ed Haynes (not here-but on Facebook) would know and so would Nick Higton. Hilton has all sorts of odd Indian army records. Try them. 

No. I knew he was Stahlhelm-I have their provincial rank lists. But Ithought the badge was a form of a unit form of the Polish uprisings badge. I have a photo of a Freikorps chap with this type of eagle badge with the Prussian shield on the chest.Nice and rare Wehrsport oaks. 

Nope- an eery place indeed though. He is Irish and was invalided out of the Legion after 4 months when they had him jump out of a moving lorry " in full kit" and he landed the wrong way. 

It's about 300 yards from the Feldenhalle. 

Theres a LOT more- you should the 150 or so photos I had already deleted! EK regimental award certificates, medal bars, Regimental diplomas- amazing uniforms....and I only saw about 10% of it.

Hmmmm... you know. the middle and right ones are worth looking at. 

While there were a number of official BSUSA awards for wartime service, this is the first time I have seen an award -probably a local Council-or maybe even a state Council-award. Allegedly awarded for assistance during the great flu epidemic if 1919, when Boy Scouts helped as Red Cross assistants-or were attached to National Guard militias in some cities (acting as runners, sandwich makers, etc.) this medal is new to me. Anyone else got an idea? By the style I would guess 1930s-50s. Anyone?

Ah! My bad

A few more close ups of commercial commemoratives available on line...

.....and as with Weimar, the Falklands have now become a business opportunity for trophy/ medal makers eager to expand out of the Litte League/ school perfect attendance trophy/award market. Look at these offered for sale at this very moment! AND worn by vets marching on Malvinas Day!

Much to my surprise- whilst snouting around the internet I came across photos from an album I now own!

Another interesting fun fact is that if one googles " Medalles Malvinas" and makes one tiny little spelling error and clicks "images" you find some very odd pictures of glittery nude teenage vampirettes illustrating some sort of story about a sexy vampire on the islands during the war! The world has gone mad.

Ouch! Like the ribbon bar above it though

Hmmmmm....Glenn? Dave? 

I love these regimental diplomas. I reckon there is a whole untapped collecting/research area in these awards-" given when one could not get another EK2".  Hitler got one and I have seen a few unofficial private medals to commemorate such diplomas. 

very cool! I met a very old ex Legionnaire yesterday -in the elevator of the Dallas Book Depository of all places. 

24 minutes ago, bolewts58 said:

The last one is not Freikorps. It's Stahlhelmbund.

yes. but note the breast badge

wow! That is awesome. 

A few more iterations.... I do not know what is going on interwebs wise in Argentina, but litterally 80% of the military websites there I bookmarked five years ago are gone- poof! 

and another close up

The Munich City Museum is well worth the money and the antique shops at the exit contain a plethora of obscure and sometimes wildly underpriced ephemera. I picked up a postcard photo of a jr. NCO with the Bavarian Sanitatsmedal ! For 1€  ! This is the remains of the 300 photos I took-which used up all my memory. I could have easily taken a hundred more. 

A Chinese Officer ( Admiral?)  is mentioned in my local paper free at the local fish shop. Can anyone tell us what his ribbon bar signifies?

Ah! I did not realize you were behind an internet " Great Wall". hang on-I'll have a look and and detail what I find below. Then others here who have bigger libraries/Ancestry I am sure can add more. 

HUGE questions! There is an OMSA article about this topic and the OMSA Bronze Star monograph goes into great detail. Bottom line is -yeah-big differences. During the war specific machines were used and some collectors can actually tell which operator engraved the names by their 'writing' . War time issues tended to be for KIA or VIPs only.

the vast majority of these were awarded unnamed and lots of vets later had them privately engraved. I did my Dad and Uncles in the 1980s at our local trophy shop. 

Fakers of course try to augment unnamed pieces wit names, but honestly a guy like Carson was brace,but obscure. Finding the details of his award would take real work and would cost more to research than to engrave. The " profit" is not there-at least for BS or GC  or Merit medals.