Tony

If you ever fancy doing a straight swap for one of those EKIs Gordon, just give me a shout. Tony

Hello, Those that do not wish to join the Bundeswehr have to do civilian service which amounts to looking after disabled people, working in hospitals, helping the aged etc. I think if conscription was stopped, those who until now have done their civilian service (which is as far as I know, longer than the 5 minutes spent in the Bundeswehr) would also want it made voluntary. This would cost the German tax payer far too much money and so probably won?t happen in the near future. I think German conscripts serve less than a year now (about 9 months) so, if you subtract their leave (6 weeks?), training and one exercise they are only in the barracks for a few weeks before returning to civilian life. Tony

Hello, Can anyone tel me if this aeroplane is a Lancaster or not? I've always wanted a pic of a Lancaster with its crew only this crew will have to do for the time being. Tony

Hello Gordon, I don't have one with the spange attached but this one came with the packet. Do you know if these were the official packets or do you think it was just put in any old paper bag before I bought it? Tony

Here's the reverse.

Hello, I picked this up in Feb. I think as I thought it was cheap and so couldn't resist it. The person who sold it to me had sticky labels on the 12 O'clock and 9 O'clock arms that took the paint off when I removed them. Just out of interest, does anyone know who the maker may have been? Cheers Tony

I don't have those brown pieces of paper though Jim. I found my 2 100s in the cellar. They had been given to my wife's grandad in Oct. 44 (I have the paperwork too) to be awarded to soldiers not expected to survive their wounds. I think one of them was awarded several times as the ribbon has a safety pin and is folded the way they probably would have been when put through the button hole. Tony

I read a German book a few years ago, I think it was written by a machine gunner but am not sure anymore. Anyway, they called flies "raisins" as so many were breeding on the dead between the lines that they ended up at the dinner table too. I wished I still had that book, it was a real good read and had a gynaecologist's practice address (in Hamburg) stamped on the inside of the front cover. I suppose it was also a good read for the women waiting to be seen. Tony

That's the one Dave, LV. You had your hands on one of those 39 EKIIs a while back too. Tony

My favourite EKII. Although the non com ribbon doesn't glow, it's probably a modern copy. Tony

Here's my favourite cased cross. Tony

Note the way the ring is soldered slightly off centre of the blob on the reverse of this one. Was this common or did this one slip through quality control? Tony

Yes, there's some very nice stuff there and as we are showing off some of our nice EKs I'll add a few of mine. They are not all 3rd Reich mind you. Tony

Well I have quite a handful of EKs, mainly from the Great War, the others are 3rd Reich and 1957. There's about 30 odd altogether. I've never ever seen a Schinkel apart from in books or on the net. I know Dave B always has some nice examples (no Schinkels though) but I don't know where he hides them. Tony

Dave told me about this forum and I'm quite enjoying it. He passed the link you sent on to me. Tony

Hello Jim, Do you remember me? I had that strange ugly Iron Cross with the die flaw and different 3. Tony