Claudius

A wonderful little gem. The obverse with its crisp metal lettering and the reserve with its delicate gold script dates and coat of arms. It's hard to choose which side to show. Great order. I think it would look really nice next to its little brother -if you would ever part with it. ;)

Ich bitte Ihre entschuldigung. I will look at page 149 tonight with great interest!

hahaha all comedians need a great "straight-man" to set up their punchlines. I added some information germane to this group under the "Bavarian Gold Bravery Medal Mystery" thread. I added photos of the award document. Very nice. Great group. Did the family have any other documents to this man?

The formal citation for Redenbach's Bav. Gold Bravery Medal from Neal O'Connor's AAOIGIWWI-Vol I Bavaria. Earned on November 8th, 1914. Awarded April 1, 1915. Formal write-up on the meritorious action signed on October 15, 1918.

Here is that award document the Schießplatzmeister is referring to. This was bestowed to Redenbach, dated April 1, 1915 and countersigned on April 9, 1915. What is very interesting to this specific discussion is the next award document, also for Redenbach's Gold Bravery Medal but dated October 1918. It describes the actions he took to earn the award back in November 1914.

Neal O'Connor's AAOIGIWWI-Vol I Bavaria has this to say about it, pg 115 paragraph 2: "Originally, all Gold Bravery Medals were made of the genuine material. As the war progressed, Germany suffered from a shortage of precious metals. By the fall of 1916, the Reichsbank was no longer able to supply the makers of orders insignia with sufficient gold for their needs. As a consequence, in an Imperial Decree on November 16, 1916, Kaiser Wilhelm II authorized the manufacture of orders and decorations that heretofore had been made in real gold to be made in silver-gilt. In the Hessenthal and Schreiber total of 1,198 Gold Bravery Medals, the breakdown they give is 745 in the real material and 453 in silver-gilt. The first recipient of a Gold Bravery Medal in World War I was Obermatrosen Bruno Geist. He received it on November 6, 1914 as a crew member on the U-9....//...awards of the medals continued to be made retroactively after the Armistice. The last were approved in March 1920."

or maybe you just need more time to Photoshop the Bav. Gold Medal. That's fine. Take your time. You want it to look really believable. or maybe you are not going to release photos....just tell us you have a DNA match. :lol:

Thank you Fortech and tsarenko1975 for your translations and insights. A Webley-Scott revolver -that was misidentified to me. Outstanding. This document would look great next to one. Now I know what to ask for for Christmas! I didn't know about Petlyura in relationship to this date. Thank you for the information. and to other inquires...yes, it does look like him, but no, that isn't Jeffery Jones from the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"... http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ferris+bueller%27s+cast+jeffery+jones&view=detail&id=CB4B5ED8DE90BF93EE333A5CA462E3C52D1DD4DF&first=61&FORM=IDFRIR

reverse...

I have had parts of this document translated, but noone could quite tell me what it was exactly for. Why it was issued? etc.

Nice medal bar, but it could really use a replacement medal. Without its Prinzregent Luitpold medal it is like a smile with a missing tooth. Shouldn't be too hard to find one. It's almost special as a bar to a WWI vet who DIDN'T earn an EK2.

Thank you all for your added information and your photos. It is all valuable in understanding this lightly known area of the Kaiserliche Marine.

Hallo David; Rick R. suggests that the "second" Osmanische award may be the Silver Liakat Medal w/swords but without the ribbon bar or medal bar it would be hard to confirm. Another possible identification source may be your great-grandfather cousin's Militarpass or the actual award documents. I know of no known instances of the "Gallipoli Star" or Halbmond being awarded twice. The other Turkish War Medal is just that...another Turkish war medal. The administrative person who recorded the awards for this gentleman may not have been knowledgeable of what it was either and merely noted it as an "Osmanische Kriegsmedaille". (I have a Naval group where the gentleman earned both the Halbmond Star and a Silver Liakat Medal w/swords for his medal bar.)

Hello; When the badge was finally issued in 1920 it is generally recognized that an airman would qualify for the Zeppelin Badge if he serviced on board a Zeppelin during WWI. But does anyone know what actually qualifies the airman to receive one. Is it after completing training, or after and one flight over contested ground/water? Two flights? Don Chalif's book only mentions: "Of all actively flying German personnel, the Arm and Naval airship personnel had no distinctive flight qualification badge once they qualified and had been accepted into the airship services. This exception ended when a commemorative flight badge was authorized for issue almost two years after the end of hostilities to those airmen who flew in those majestic giants of the air." That is a bit thin on the specifics of WHO qualifies and HOW you qualify.

Great medals Rudi. You have a remarkable collection of Hessen medals.

Thank you Les. This helps a lot.

Can someone explain what exactly a Werft Division is? What was their role? What was their compliment? And any other general characteristics. Thank you

Great group and nice detail here. What book had this valuable tidbit?

Now, what little display do you have here? I can't read the document. Who is it for? What unit?

Outstanding. (Nice bar, I like it even if it does remind me of a problem I have with a bar of mine...MIA either a; SEK3mS or a SEK4mS)

wow. You have quite the string there. You have a bit of a couple of countries; German (Saxe-Weimer), Italy, Denmark, France and more. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Germany: Saxe-Weimer Order of the White Falcon 6. Italy: Order of the Crown 7. Denmark: Order of Dannebrog? 8. Italy: Order of St. Maurice & Lazarus 9. France? 10. France? 11. France: Order of Academic Palms

Great little story on the UC-5. I have developed quite an interest in the "UC" boats. Thanks for sharing this story/photo!

Outstanding collection. Thank you for showing it.