Good Day, I am looking for help in trying to identify a possible military item. I am not even sure of the best placed to post this. The British Museum suggested that it may be Russian, But I otherwise have no additional information to give. It is currently attached to a pocket watch via chain. The pocket watch is dated back to approximately 1890, but I am not certain the two are originally connected to each other. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

My copy arrived 'down under' about the time I thought it would, but having said that eBay items do seem to take a lot longer.

Hi, thanks, no, I will get one soon, just wondering how covid is effecting the mail in your area, and covid and brexit in the EU. France to Germany 2-3 days no problem... UK to Germany may not arrive at all, or with great delays... bought a keyring off UK ebay, 2 weeks to arrive.

G'day Chris, Issue 8 arrived (Australia) with me today. Can I help you with anything? Regards, Ian

Illegal copies are not allowed to be posted here. The magazine survives by people paying to read it and would die if people chose to post illegal copies instead.

Try to download it from here:

Post is slow, I am keen to get it!

I found an interesting quote of a German man of letters. Hermann Otto Rudolf Presber said at the beginning of WW1: "Und mögen Orden gleißen,des Goldwerts sich bewußt, das schlichte Kreuz aus Eisen schlägt all sie auf der Brust. Kein andres ist zu achten,ihm gleich an seinem Wert, das in der Not der Schlachten,den Mann und Kämpfer ehrt." In Englkish it would read like this: "And even if medals glitter, aware of their gold and value, the simple cross of iron beats them all on the chest. No other is to be respected, nor equal to it in its value, which honors the man and fighter in the

Just remembered that I had this in the back of the drawer. A letter written in 1927 from a Mr Weisse who had promised to send a souvenir to an associate in England. The letter contained an EKII (which I still have). Quoting directly from the hand written letter: "here enclosed is one, an "Iron Cross." It is not easy to get them as the German braves are as proud of them as the British with the V.C." So, even getting on for ten years after the war, it seems as though the veterans held them in very high regard. As a side note the EKII was enclosed in it's own hand

The purpose of this section is what i am posting now... a correction... Some lucky research... Jakob Maier seems to have been the ring supplier for the prewar association rings. Different versions for different units. I am not sure if he was the actual maker, the ad offers everything from beer mugs to pipes... he may have been a retailer as opposed to maker?

Just catching up on this thread and two comments: 1. How do you know (Chris) that 5% were awarded postwar? I have seen a tonne of militarbooks over the years where the EK2 was awarded in October/November, 1918 when it was obvious Germany was done or upon demobilization. Are you going by tue Kleitmann statistics? 2. The EK2 noncom was a different animal than the PWMK. In 1870 it was clear that the ribbon denoted a newly minted ( Red Cross advocated) “ noncombatant” status rather than a rear echelon action. Almost nobody got the PWMK for actions under fire (ok- maybe trainmen or postme

Ummm... nope... that is wrong... I live in Germany... we all live with the consequences I had a helmet sent to NZ, took 6 months... apparently it gets pooled in asia somewhere before being forwarded.... and this was WAAAAY before covid. With Covid, to the USA ond overseas, due to the fact there are way fewer planes, the German postoffice offers premium airmail, or regular... premium costs eur100 and is basically the same service that regular was for EUR40 before covid... regular now goes by ship.

Just weeks ! You're lucky! I had medals mailed to me from Europe (to New Zealand), usually 2 -3 weeks. They arrived last month - mailed in March 2020!!!!!! No explanation but according to NZ Post arrived in country just days before local delivery. So much for "tracking" - European website went unchanged from time leaving the local Post Office!!! G.

This isn't really a fair point to make. Many Brits did not want to leave or people were expecting their government to negotiate a smooth transition. Like me in the USA I do not always agree with who is in power and so you can't really "blame" me for other Americans voting against my (or our) best interest. There is nothing wrong with being annoyed that suddenly mail takes 5 times as long...

No point in complaining - you English wanted to leave, now live with the consequences.

Yes that will be the issue, has to have a customs declaration now from UK to EU so if it was missing will either get seized or if lucky sent back.

for what it's worth, i don't think the problem is solely relegated to the UK or to national post offices. i'm still waiting for something from kuenker that was sent to the US on december 10th via DHL. it hasn't even made it to the US yet! ....investigation was recently begun, which takes 3 or 4 weeks....😟

I dunno, usually they would not check the contents... I am just wondering if somewhere out there there is a huge number of containers filled with mail.... the one that did make it through actually had a customs label on it from the book shop... maybe the customs pulls out anything missing the label?

International mail is slower to arrive in the UK it seems at the moment. I bought a low value item from the US and it took weeks to arrive (no VAT or customs charges due) but it was sent by USPS which is expensive and slow. Depends how things are posted. You are better off using a fast parcel service like UPS or Fedex for expensive items other than the post, more reliable and VAT and customs can be pre arranged. People importing stuff to the UK are getting caught out by VAT and customs charges on EU goods. I am surprised you have had issues with a magazine though, as that is not re

I have ordered the same issue of the IC Magazine and it came through without any troubles. It took roughly two weeks. So all went well. I am thinking of buying an expensive book from 18xx, besides the price I am not sure about shipping and customs, so I hesitate to order it, because if something went wrong with that it would be embarrsing and costly!

Without going into discussions about the pros and cons of Brexit.... I finally received a copy of Issue 7 today... third time lucky. Twice Magazines were sent from England and never made it, then I ordered one from Scotland and it made it through customs... Anyone else have similar problems with items from the UK? or in the other direction?

Great story, thanks for sharing it with us!

Still looks quite good actually, those things are robust. Thanks for sharing!

Rusted, Frame around the iron core loose, and Ring broken off. I have it in riker box mounted on wall with rest of his items...

Now I am curious how an EK looks, that was carried around in a pocket for a whole life...