Chris Boonzaier

The downfall of French Medal/Badge making..... Traditions firm DRAGO was bought by the Arthus Bertrand Group... The AB Group has factories in the far east... Pichard, who made the worst 2 REI badge joined with Balme... to form Pichard - Balme .... Then Pichard-Balme bought the Arthus Bertrand Group (including DRAGO.... so the superior Bertrand and Drago makers were swallowed up by a firm of lesser Quality makers... All can be seen on the bag holding these regt badge Cufflinks.....

Two more not so nice ones... on the left Destree, on the right Pichard, which may just be the most "I can not be bolloxed" production you will ever find.... No wonder Pichard and Balme (above) joined companies .....

The Pocket badges are nicknamed a "Pucelle", which is French for Virgin. noone agrees why they were given that name. Usually they are worn on a leather Fob. There are hundreds and hundreds of different fobs. Each badge has its own shape. Legion ones are green with red stitching.

After the Indochina war the 2 REI was sent to North Africa. The previous Regimental badge had a Dragon on it, obviously more related to Indochiona and not having a lot to do with the Mounted Infantry role of the regt in the Sahara. The 2 REI badge does not have a Horse Shoe, it is a Mule shoe. New arrivals are informed of this difference when getting a brief history of the regiment... It is a badge with SEVEN holes. The new badge was created in 1957 by Colonel Goujon, regimental commander. This is the badge by "LR" a company founded in 1959 by an ex officer named Jean Lemaire. Apparently LR are the initials of his mothers maiden name. LR badges are relatively new, the detail is superb. The pebbling on the badge can even be seen at the bottoms of the Mule shoe! I am a bit on the fence with this, such fantastic detail... but obviously using technology that the Older badges did not.. Very 3 dimensional flames on the grenade... As a traditionalist who loves things created by an artisan, the LR may just be "too perfect"... J. Balme Saumur was the standard badge for sale at the regiment in the early 90s, a pity because it is not a nice badge at all.. the detail is bad, compare the detail to the LR above... At some stage there was a really strange variation, no pebbling and 6 holes! According to some sellers this "error" is highly sought after by collectors... but there seem to be more than enough to go around. I am guessing none of those made it to the regiment and were probably dumped directly into the surplus stores and militaria dealers. to try and get rid of them. Balmes can be found with needles or the loops for the split pin. The 6 hole ones have loops

Here are a selection of DRAGO made Regimental badges... does anyone have any other variations? Will post other makers soon...

Over the years i have on occasion picked up a badge or two from my old regiment, simply because of the variety and the variations... the Obverse less so, but the reverse is a collecting field all on its own... Most prolific are the Drago pieces, but even there there are many variations... Still a small collection... but I add to it bit by bit when i see them going cheap....

I love the quality of these... I think this regiment had way above average quality boards as far as quality of work went... I know, it is not Bavarian, but they will help me get Bavarian ?

and a bucket of worms....

Probably the best Studio photo for a Colonial soldier I have ever seen.. taken in Tsingtao....

Going through my documents I found these again... the First one to Oslkar Rösch, which is OK in itself... the one to Johann Resch is way more interesting, badly wounded in the fighting, he ended up in captivity in Australia, as opposed to Japan.... He was part of the original OMD (Although not during the Boxer rebellion.. "16.) Johann Breth aus Kettenheim war Seesoldat in der 1. Kompanie des Ostasiatischen Marine-Detachements und wurde bei Kampfhandlungen schwer verwundet. Er kam in englische Gefangenschaft. Lageraufenthalte in Hongkong und in Australien. Entlassung bereits im März 1919." Some German machine gunners in China....

Managed to add this today....

Hi, we would need to see a pic best Chris

Congrats!!! A rarity indeed....

That is funny, my wife's Grandfather was also a country doctor after WW2, up into the 50s he was also often paid with eggs and vegetables!

Very interesting! I have a side collection of documents, Photos, awards to the 12th bavarian Inf regt.... have never seen the 100 Year medal mounted on a bar!

I have had this WW1 Bottle for some time... I think I once was told it was probably Canadian... The ones I see online seem to have a leather strap... on the 10-15 years I have had it I have not seen another one... can anyone help here? What do i have?

That is nice. When i see Zweidorn I think they must have souvenired a lot of French and Austrian belts.

Ahhh... OK, I saw him mentioned in the Leiber and had not looked much further yet... So he would probably have known Leonrod!

A silly question, is it usual to wear the Austrian Steckkreuz and not have a lower grade Austrian award on the bar? Thanks for the identifications! I need to hit the books, but I am guessing he got awards from just about every dignitary who visited the HQ?

I think yup on both accounts. He seems to have been always at the right place at the right time. ?

Graf von Holsnstein. prewar Bavarian Infanterie leibregiment officer, during the war a staff officer.... many I can not identify... but an impressive rack for a tea and cocktail commando....

OK... was this a lucky find? from the uniform, Prinz Rupprecht and the roundish face and jowls I think this is Malsen as well.....

Glenn nails it methinks... I think the most identifiable boards remain the Cypher regiments as the numbered boards are different to the active, then concentrating on the later fieldgrey boards which the retired officers probably did not wear. Then getting a regiment in which the history mentions all the officers who served in the regiment but were posted elsewhere to see who came into question that were however not on the regimental commanders list. For WW1 I have two Bavarian sets to a Colonel with "20" on the boards.... they are the only ones with a sure name... and that is simply because they came out of the group, and RickL bought them when the group was split ... I guess that is the surest way ?

Agree... would be interesting to see the promotions... the problem with "normal" regiments is we dont see which officers were sent to other units at mobilization, and possibly continued to wear the 26er uniform.

Damn... I thought I had the history, but do not. From Wikipedia.... 21.11.1914 - 26.12.1914: Max von Schuckmann 26.12.1914 - 04.08.1915: Willy von Livonius 04.08.1915 - 02.02.1917: Paul Grautoff 02.02.1917 - 02.11.1917: Albrecht Freiherr von Leesen 02.11.1917 - 21.12.1917: Friedbert Lademann 21.12.1917 - 05.02.1919: Leopold von Ziehlberg I think full colonel as commander was a rariry, later in the war many regt commanders or Führer were only Major...