Chris Boonzaier

Hi, yes indeed... I think it is copied from the French.... When a unit was cited in the French army the participants of the action got a document just like this with their name added confirming they were part of the action.

Or he constantly pissed off all the others by starting every sentence with "When I was in the flamethrowers...." 🙂

Flamethrower Groups and documents are a small sideline of mine... they do not cause much work as I only ever find things every 5-6 years to add to the small collection.... here is one to a young Flammenwerfer Pionier who joined the FW regt relatively late, he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class for an attack on the positions in the Bois de Mättle at Sondernach in Alsace in June 1918, just a couple of weeks before the Americans took over the sector. A description of the action was provided to the participants in a form printed by the 4th Cavalry Division (addressed to the participants). I am pretty happy with the group 🙂

I think such pins existed for everything from the Bee Keepers association, to the Local Carnival group to Freikorps.... if an unidentified pin pops up there is maybe a 0.034% chance it has a FK association....

Indeed... but it does make the Bavarian medals proportionally much more comman than the Prussian GMVK

Aaarrgghh... I do not remember why I posted Prewar... there must have been some info that I have long forgotten, or a simple brain fart...

A huge factor was the need to climb the ladder EK2. EK1. GMVK.... Which of course took time.... A bavarian could win the Golden Bravery Medal in the first week of the war for one very brave act... then pick up an EK2 2 years later, and a bavarian MVK 3rd class with swords a year after that.... Or he could JUST earn the golden Bravery medal.... It is a huge difference.... the Bavarians focused on the degree of bravery and that is reflected in their awards... the Prussians focused on ticking the boxes....

Not my collecting field, and I will move it on... but I picked it up because I had a "Rick Flashback".... what is pretty interesting... it is not to a bavarian... which is kinda unusual for these...

Thank you guys! Another step towards compületing this!

To be honest... I do not know. And unless it is from a Vet, I am not sure anyone does. GIs probably took tens of thousands of the things over there during the war... I remember in Paris in the early 90s, I was on leave and they had Vietnam engtaved Zippos all over the place, in Surplas stores, in chique cloting stores.... all Vietnam era dated... I am assuming that if an unengraved Zippo is found inVietnam, it is engraved within the next 24 hours.... and reaslitically... is there any way of telling when it was engraved?

The problem there is that Zippos have a date code on the bottom, so if there is a Desert Storm design with a 1994 dated Zippo then you know it is not good. Added to that, it would be financially not interessting for them to stock them "just in case" someone comes by 30 years later for an "Op Granby" one. You risk producing 50 extra "Op Granby" Zippos and selling only 3-4 of them over the next couple of decades because most people would not think of going directly to the factory, but would probably go to ebay to get one. I am thinking generic Military designs are kept in stock, stuff they know has always sold well and always will... e.g. USMC, or 1st Cav design, or US Jump wings.... there will always be a need for that....

I am of course a big fan of the Bavarian Leib Regiment. I have read arguments for it to be translated as "Body Regiment" ... but I think this is splitting hairs and trying too hard to make direct translations from German to English. Maybe the thrust should not be an accurate translation, but rather the spirit of the unit? The Bavarian Leib Regiment was a Guard Regiment. It guarded the Royal family and their residences... and the standard sentence on the Leib Regiment Reservist Beermugs is "The Regiment that calls itsef "the Garde"" . As one German reference wrote, the Bavarians had a big enough army to justify a Garde Division but the King chose to limit the function to the Leib Regiment.

For some time I have been meaning to get a wartime Bavarian Officers Pickelhaube... and thought I had found the perfect one..... Check out what happened when UPS damaged the box.... 😞 Does anyone know what I can to to prevent more splintering off the damaged area?

Hi, the only thing that worries me a bit are the shade of blue, but that is probably due to the lighting... can you take an outside pic?

Ahhhh... Thanks, for some reason the "W" threw me off.