Tony

Just a thought, perhaps he wore his medals but had strong thoughts as to whether it was a Great War for Civilisation. Tony

I suppose they had their reasons and they may well be somewhere in his 90 page service record.

He was also recommended for the VC twice! His WWI and WWII records are online - he volunteered again in Sept. 1941 and states his trade or occupation as Cleaner. Tony

And Chris, if there's anything you have that you don't want well, you know where I am Tony

I have a couple of named crosses without docs. and also four crosses that belonged to the same person (his EKI certificate exists, the EKII certificate doesn't) but, if the group didn't come directly to you from the family of the recipient there's no way of knowing if the cross/crosses were separated years ago and recently put together with any old document. Tony

You'll have to keep searching then, local history is always interesting whether or not it's where you were brought up. Isn't it all small villages and the odd mass burial ground up that way? Small villages must be very interesting if you get to know the old locals. Tony

A box for a watch? I've never thought of them being for different retailers but yes, that's very possible. A nice patriotic item for the time. Whatever it was originally for it's always great to find a local piece of history even if you're only there temporarily. Tony

A collector (that's what we are) usually prefers to buy medals or even coins in good condition and there’s nothing wrong with giving a silver coin or medal the odd clean if you want to. An old soldier is usually proud of his medals so keeps them shiny and if he’s still serving then the RSM or similar will make sure they stay clean and that’s why they could possibly sometimes end up looking like the one pictured. I think we’ve probably all seen memorial plaques, silver medals and 1914 / 14-15 stars polished to death and I know that’s the opposite extreme but they ended up like that through polishing but as I said, in my opinion the odd clean is ok and removing patina should be left up to the person who presently has the medal in his or her possession. Tony

My father-in-law had one of those German para knives, the blade had been shortened by constant sharpening over the years and when I asked why he did it he laughed at me and asked how he was supposed to cut anything with a blunt knife. I told him what an unsharpened para knife might be worth and he laughed at me again! I've no idea what happened to it, it probably ended up in the bin with a broken blade. Tony

A rusty gun probably won't save your life in a war so I'd definitely go for a clean one but, if you want to go to war wearing medals then it's probably best not to wear shiny ones. I'm in the leave as camp however, if someone wants to clean them then so be it. Tony

Yeah I noticed that but don't know why he did it as he explains which parts are original and which parts he made himself. So, nothing to hide really unless his workshop was very untidy. Tony

I like the bunker in the third photo, they obviously had the time to do a little architectural artwork, typical of that period in time. Tony

I was checking some silver war badge numbers and came across a soldier whose cause of discharge was mental deficiency and wondered if it may have been shell shock. Tony Ooops, forgot to add the scan.

Depending on the state of deterioration I'd clean a disc. I had one with zinc pest, it was bad enough that the details couldn't be read so I went over it with 0000 wire wool, then coated it in WD40. Tony

There was an officer’s hospital in Scotland where Dr William Halse Rivers pioneered a new kind of treatment in the second half of 1916, this new treatment involved the men talking about their illness. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Rivers/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1484566/ http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/rivers1.htm From http://pb.rcpsych.org/content/24/6/225.full Important practitioners working along psychotherapeutic lines included Rivers, William McDougall, Charles Myers and William Brown, all of whom later became well-known in the field of academic psychology. Their principles of treatment are very similar to current ideas about how post-traumatic problems should be tackled. Prompt treatment (preferably close to the front line). The necessity to re-experience and/or go over the events (i.e. to acknowledge them, bring them into awareness). An emphasis on the meaning to the individual - based on an individual psychological analysis. The use of cognitive restructuring (see particularly Rivers's ( 1918a) own examples in The Repression of War Experience). A collaborative approach between therapist and patient (the importance of a therapeutic alliance). The importance of previous experience in determining whether and in what way a person might break down.

That goes to show what I know about French stuff. South Germany eh, I hear they have an accent down there Tony

I found this online http://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Verzeichnis:Soldatensprache It’s mainly modern and WWII slang but there are two examples of artillery shell slang in the WWI section - Koffer and Kohlenkasten (Kohlenkasten - which I would translate as coal scuttle or coal box was also being used by the Brits). According to the book The Long Trail by Brophy and Partridge (1965 edition) a Minnie was a Great War slang term/colloquialism for a mine, a thrower and the bomb itself. Coal box and a Jack Johnson are apparently the same thing.

Or the marital status (or soon to be marital status) of the bloke who gets the winning bid???

This might look good in the lounge http://www.ebay.de/itm/Messerschmitt-ME-Bf-109-G-Motor-DB-605-A-Cockpit-1944-45-kein-Bodenfund-/181315230930?pt=Militaria&hash=item2a373adcd2 Tony

It's mentioned on another forum that the General Service Corps had two block numbers - 14005001-14200000 and 14200001-15000000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Service_Corps It seems men of the GSC are specialists in a holding unit waiting for their posting and that the GSC appears to be a wartime only unit. Tony

I'd have thought the Germans were too practical to make up names and can imagine them doing a 4 week theoretical course on the correct names for incoming artillery according to the sound it made and colour of smoke during training Tony

Did you manage to free it up? Was it a flea market buy in Germany? I like the Lebel, my wife found a Lebel rifle in France on a field near Combles when waiting for me while I was going round a market. It looked like it had just been ploughed up but I straightened the barrel and still have it. Tony

I bought one of these a long time ago, it's slightly different than your one Jock as the word Police isn't written on a black background. Tony

Just found these http://www.ebay.de/itm/NAHZEUG-der-Deutschen-Armee-u-Deutschen-Marine-um-1900-1930-/161207009047?pt=Militaria&hash=item2588afbf17 http://www.ebay.de/itm/Original-Blechdose-Naehzeug-der-Deutschen-Armee-Marine-um-1910-/191032299410?nma=true&si=0Mfz7Xu57oWFt2A3Isbrn9ka1kQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/dhm.php?seite=5&fld_0=KO301204 Perhaps they were used at a later date than I thought.

Thanks, I like it too and bought it quite a while back from a bloke at an antique market selling advertising items and tins. Any idea of the age? I'm thinking no later than about 1890. Tony