Chris Boonzaier

From the SA Legion page... The Naval signal BZ "Bravo Zulu" is highly appropriate here - meaning "congratulations in the highest order" in signal terminology. "BZ" to these South African Heroes. CPO N C Smith, left; CPO Ivor du Plessis, centre and WO J van Nieuwholtz, 3 South African Navy Divers who were awarded the SANDF's bravery decoration - the Bronze Leopard for Bravery - The Nkwe ya Boronse. The third higest bravery award in the country. The three divers recieved this decoration for thier role in clearing unexploded live ordiance on Operation Bapisa from 26 March to 27 April 2007. Operation Bapisa was South Africa (and the Defence Force)'s contribution to the aftermath of the massive ammunition depot explosion at Malhazine outside Maputo, Mozambique on 22 March 2007. It involved the process of the recovery and sweeping operation to clear the communities around the depot where rockets, artillery shells and other projectiles which had rained down as a result of the massive detonations over several hours. 53 SANDF and 6 SAPS members participated in the operation from 26 March to 15 July 2007. Many Mozambicans, and one SANDF member was killed in June of that year during the operation. Altogether 1213 tonnes of ordnance was made safe. The Nkwe ya Boronse can be awarded to all ranks of the South African National Defence Force and of any Auxiliary Service of the SANDF, and of any Armed Forces attached to or serving with or rendering any service to the SANDF who have distinguished themselves by performing acts of bravery on a single occasion or over a period of time during military operations, or for exceptional combat leadership Story for the South African Legion by Peter Dickens with thanks to Jacques de Vries for the caption content and research.

Just found out Fritz Haverkamp commanded the 6th Kompany for a short while until being wounded at Flanders, cannot have been more than a month or so....

Fantastic, and with two makers on it.... Nice Bavarian made frog as well! Probably cannot be improved on

Fantastic! Give a bit of life back to the old guy!

Yup, I have a Reichswehr Bataillon 10 doc, will dig it out...

Wow... I like all of them, but the 2ns one takes the cake! :-) Nice selection! Was there a transfer from the Battalion to the Freikorps? i.e. a direct connection between the two? I have an EK2 doc to the unit ater the war...

Interesting, seems to be rather similar in size, effect and importance to the war cause as the WW2 British SS Unit....

That is one very sexy group indeed! A slight pity the WW1 EK doc is missing, but the group itself is really nice, the citation fantastic!

Did they serve actively?

I saw the Baldes collection on display in Ulm..... it knocked my socks off!!

Hi, the Heil Stosstrupp seems to be part of a series....

Word to yur mother homes!

Saxon one is the shizzle homey....

Hi, the tht was for the ceremony for the reception of the new flag by the Krieger >Verien, Best Chris

Gotta dig out my 3rd Jäger passes and go looking for the buyer!!!!

Maybe i am missing a secret entry here.... but how is the price justified? http://www.ebay.de/itm/Militaerpass-1-WK-Bayern-Gebirgsjaeger-Alpenkorps-Isonzofront-Dolomiten-Italien-/331579999176?nma=true&si=NTSO54lilIkmv4YXcjT90%2BEAMSQ%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I always find this more realistic than reenacting modern things....

Thats interesting, I missed that. For some reason I had thought I had seen a bar with the fathers cross and the angehörige as well

Hi, a silly question, but should this one not have a Normal cross AND the Angehöriger one? Best Chris

Nice pic! What is the 1st award on the bar?

Thats a bit of a bummer, but not bad boards anyway....

​Hi Tom, really nice... and I think without a doubt Rohr, it was simply called "Sturm Bataillon" at that time and was the only one... nice find!!

Hi Stefan! One of the nicer cards from the series!

​Agreed... nice little goddies, but the market price is probably les than the moral shame of seperating it ! ;-)

Hi, its a tough question... the group has one Feldgraue jacket and 2 blue ones, one private, one issue. Its the age old problem... I too go to extreme lengths to get groups together... but where is the limit? I have small WW1 document groups which have 2 binders of poastwar documents up to and including insurance, menues, kids birth certificates etc... I can never bring myself to just "dump the junk"... so the Tunic is a difficult question indeed. It all boils down to people not selling and just trading... There is a guy who has a piece I really need/want... but it is not for sale... and the only thing I have which he wants is the Jacket. I will probably end up keeping it as the trade is rather shakey... but it does raise an interesting question for me for the future...