Gordon Williamson

There was NO intention of giving credance to the piece in the book. The fact that the piece was brought back from the region of Bielafed, dose preclude the Souval conection. His particular job was inteligence. His contacts and time in Germany were rather interesting.

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How does the place it was brought back from ( I presume its Bielefeld) preclude it being made in Austria ??

Making the remnants much easier to dismantle

In late 1945 the Royal Engineers drilled into the walls and inserted explosive charges. They also packed the bunker with unusued Luftwaffe bombs. Result ----------

Here is the Kilian bunker in Kiel. Survived the war almost intact.

Under construction during the war.

This opening was to have been the exit through which the completed U-Boats would leave the facility. It once led straight out to the river but was blocked off and the land outside reclaimed. The basin inside is still full of water though. The bottom few feet are concealed by the bushes. Its open but there is a steel mesh fence to stop anyone falling in. The path runs by right outside.

This is the opposite end from the photo above

The allies tried to bomb it but only did superficial damage. War ended before it was put into service as the intended construction works. After the end of the war it was decided that destroying it would be too difficult and expensive so it was retained as a storage facility by the Bundeswehr. The automobiles seen here give an idea of its size. The is the narrow end of the large rectangular structure.

At the front of this image is the memorial to those who died ( including forced labour) in its construction.

Here is one of the biggest "bunkers" still in existence. Known by the code name Valentin, it was to house a construction facility for the Type XXI U-Boat.

Super John. I visited the Channel Islands three or four years ago and would love to go back. As fascinating as they are beautiful, we were fortunate enough to get perfect weather too.

What was the castle that you reach using an old DUKW. I remember a good deal of WW2 German stuff, uniforms etc on display.

one was brought back by his uncle in 1948

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By which time the fake manufacturers like Souval were already churning them out. I have yet to hear of an example of this award with anything remotely approaching good provenancee or the faintest chance of being pre-May 1945.

I don't have one, nor have I ever seen one.

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George,

Just picked up an L/16 KVK2. I'll send you some images when it arrives.

and

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So you got it then ! Very nice Allan, well done.

Assuming that they are not 3rd Reich - (or they would have had the small eagle and swas emblems) what are the most likely awards that the two blue ribbons would have belonged to on this.

A certain best friend Bavarian he served with in Japan received a little more heavy version to weigh down his tunic.

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The Grand Cordon. usually only given to nobility and royalty. Very, very rare indeed !!

Came across this the other day and am assuming it is wrong. I believe the NOK document had only Hitlers signature and did not have Meissners ?

You can also find 1914 EK2s, one piece in zink though they are rare too. Just a matter of manufacturers doing things on the cheap during the early period of manufacture for retail sales pieces. When brand new they would have looked OK.

Stuff like this is the reason the authorites published a notice saying that anyone using anything other than the correct materials for an iron cross risked losing their license to produce them.

Spotted on E-Bay. Although these Japanese awards ( apart from the very rare high grades) haven't really been targetted by fakers (yet!!), some were apparently made outside Japan, France having been named as one country where some were made up for French nationals entitled to the award. These "foreign" made pieces are often innacurate as seen on the suspension of this piece.

and the marking...L/52

So Imperial style EK1 1914 were made in the TR era!

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Rich,

Am I missing something - was this ever seriously doubted ????

Clue - it has five rivets

Lets see if anyone can ID the manufacturer of this one.

Very interesting Dietrich. The one you have and mine share many frame characteristics, but the numerals are very different.

Given that Herr Escher was given the task of cutting all the original 1939 Iron Cross dies, it makes sense that S&L must have had the full range made, from EK2 up to GK, although it has been suggested that Juncker alone were given the contract to supply the PK (though I have never seen documented evidence of this).

There are several aspects of the GK I have that suggest "S&L" to me ( the tiny 800 which was an S&L characteristic, the use of Rhodium plating visible on the flat outer frame -also found on early S&L pieces, etc) Also, the existence of the original GK die frame tooling in the Ordensmuseum in L?denscheid which I suspect was donated by S&L.

I have seen a GK in the normal blue covered GK case in the style used for the RK of the KVK (unlike the red case with gold eagle used on the very first awards of the RK and the first GK to HG) which matched this possible "S&L" GK and was allegedly part of the Klessheim hoard.

Well spotted Marshall, typo on my part, should have been "A"

Clearly they made them, but has anyone come across a Steinhauer "4" or "L/16" marked KVK2 ?

This one is unmarked

Souval also has a substantially thicker "eye" with smaller diameter hole.

Souval's GK had a low swastika, with clear "pyramidal" sides, and a different "cut" to the frame corner beading.