Doc Wilson

You have a national treasure sir!

I am sorry I have to weigh in here ... I drank every last drop of my 1er RPIMa case of wine (last bottle consumed 29 Sept 2010 St.Michael's Day) vive les Paras!, vive les Rapas!

Drool!! It is very handsome...

Chris the only thing I have found and I am contacting the source is this

I have become so smitten with this project that I have found a book which I am now looking for and I believe it should hold the answers I am looking for concerning the 10th Jaeger Battalion the Reserve Battalion and its experiences in the Alpenkorps. If I am able to get this I will gladly share what I glean with anyone else who will swear the US Marines are full of nonsesnse and sailor molesters. Intersting Gunderian was in the 10 Jagers for a while !!! trey interesting! Airborne all the way ! Doc Wilson - Bücher, GOSLARER JÄGER IM WELTKRIEG

Well there you go then LOL

I think i am going to have to correct myself the Lieb Regiment may have gone to the Infantrie Regiment Nr. 74,77 or 79 I am still digging around another link is http://www.necasperaterrent.de/ Post Script: where I am lost is the 1866-1870 transition of the Hanoverian Army into the Prussian Army .... I made the instant mistake of associating Leib with Garde... not smart on my part .

another link http://www.koenigreich-hannover.de/ukindex2.html

Here is a badly spliced unit history diagram for the 73rd Fusiliers

Fusilier Regiment Field Marshal Prince Albert of Prussia (Hanoverian) No.73 (which is known as Les Gibralters and a descendant of the KGL Battalions that fought at Waterloo & Peninsula) http://www.kaisersbunker.com/gibraltar/ < there is a good online essay and photos... welcome to the admiration club! Ernst Junger's Regiment in the Great War ("Storm of Steel" is written while he is in the 73rd Fusiliers).

Additional reference

Well it looks like everyone beat me to it.... on my mothers side my grandfather is the descendant of the Kurhessens and Hanoverians that left the Prussian occupation behind in the 1860's and 1870s. I am waiting to get back over there to find which cousins fought in the great war. Though my interests go back further than that ... just trying to keep it within the forum perimeters here. I would like to mention there is a PDF online that talks about the history of the 73rd Fusiliers ( les Gibraltars that are descendant of the garde-regiment) it is found in the google library.

Well from my side of the street... the SVA is needed... especially in the Veterans community... to many posers out there. I could tell stories of the Force Recon Ranger Scuba Sniper I pounded on while in Benning (never lie to another ranger - Robert Rogers even wrote that rule down) .... but that isn't the point. There are some things that are sacred ( at least to me there is). Sometimes a line does need to be drawn in the sand.

That is a custom patch ... the tab and box are always separate.... Humm...it is vexing I think it is 50s early 60s

I would like to add to my question does anyone know anything about the Mountain training they had .. - How long was the course? - Which units had mountain warfare training? I have seen conflicting accounts.

That is a great photo

Thanks Gunner

Yeah the 1er CPMLE was Erwan Bergot's Company. There were I think 3 Legion Heavy Mortar companies at DBP

this is an example of the Marine parachute Badge (post 1958)

Thank you Gordon I have all of Nigel Thomas's Osprey works.... I am going to check out the Brassey's recommendation you have made. Doc Wilson

We have hit the very subject that fascinates me the most .... What broke ...what played a part in the rise of such a group. I have been reading many of the German authors of the period. Specifically those with front line experience. Thomas Nevin's Ernst Junger and Germany Descent into the Abyss 1914-1945... give a point of view that I am still trying synthesize. My initial take - The wounded french pride and treaty of Versailles , The League of Nations Plebiscites in Silesia, Prussia and else were... the French and Bolshevik confrontations in the Ruhr valley. The germans wanted order/security, they wanted their national pride returned, also I think they were newborn babes when it came to really using the liberal democracy that we take for granted. The Reichswehr's political knavery. By all accounts national socialism would have died in if its infancy if not for all these factors.

Italy-based soldier killed fighting Afghan insurgents By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Wednesday, October 5, 2005 An Italy-based soldier assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment was killed last week in Afghanistan, military officials confirmed Tuesday. Staff Sgt. John G. Doles, 29, died in Shah Wali during a battle with insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire on Sept. 30, officials said. Doles, who leaves behind a wife and two small children, was a native of Claremore, Okla., according to the Pentagon. There was no information available Tuesday as to where or when a memorial service would be held at Vicenza’s Caserma Ederle, where the 508th is based. At least 13 soldiers from the Southern European Task Force (Airborne) have been killed in Afghanistan in the last 6½ months. Doles’ father told a local Oklahoma television station that his son planned to join the Army Rangers when his tour in Afghanistan was over. John Doles was part of the 173rd Airborne’s combat drop into northern Iraq in March 2003, and was serving his first tour in Afghanistan. “Everybody’s concentrating on Iraq, which is understandable. But we’re still tracking down al-Qaida and trying to find bin Laden,” Gene Doles told the station. Doles’ grandmother, Mattieann Kay, was the matriarch of a family that included 26 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren. She remembered her grandson as a tough “all-American” kid. “He wasn’t supposed to go yet — I was. He completed everything he ever started. Even fistfights,” she said, according to The Argus, a Bay Area paper in her California hometown of Fremont. Doles was “able and fearless,” she recalled. Family members told the paper a memorial service was planned for Oct. 11 in Chelsea, Okla.

On September 30, 2005 in a forgotten corner of what was then a forgotten war a very dear friend laid down his life. It was orginally a Silver Star recommendation ( infact it was listed in the stars and stripes Europe edition in 2006) but was lost and then later in the end downgraded because of the political flap around a lawful military order. His widow who for years didn't recieve John's last testament to valor contacted me in the early spring of 2010. I used what clout I had left and expended the last of my military capital to achieve this. I share this because for all the certificates that are out there remember the military machine doesn't always recognize or due justice to the men who are gone. See the attached photo

I know Sal and I am also a 173rd Airborne Brigade Veteran. While I am proud for him, my brigade and the Airborne Community... I also know that during that time many men lost there lives ( I mention specifically SSG Larry Rougle) ... and I am hoping that Sal is a precedent for more to come.. If you haven't seen the movie "Restrepo" take a look I was at the VIP Showing at Nat Geo ( 28 June 2010), met Sebastian Junger again I first met him in 2005. It is apolitical and I think if you want to see what it is like over there in RC East ( I have served in RC East and South) Links: http://restrepothemovie.com/ (the DC reaction the big hairy beast is me)