Chris Boonzaier

He is undercover ?

Sorry, my bad.... it was a Hauptmann on the staff of a regiment signing a certificate on Behalf of the regimental commander.

Hi, I forget the whole thing... Im Auftrag der XXX XXXX XXX? Can anyone help? Thanks Chris

Hi, The strange thing with the 29th Bavrian regt is... only a portion of the troops were Bavarian... it was one of those regiments formed in late 1916 where they grouped Jäger battalions together, in the case of the 29th the 1st reserve Jäger battalion was Bavarian, but also from Prussia and other parts of Germany... even a K.u.K. Battalion was part of the regiment for a while! So in this case he has a Tunic with Bavarian Lion buttons, what is probably a Prussian kokade... but an undefined unit... maybe part of the attached MG, Pionier or Radfahrer elements? I am not sure if the Jäger wore their original Battalion straps and only the stab wore a 29? Very strange Mischung!!

Hi, he has one on the trench knife

OK, the photo taken in Braunschweig... looks like a Prussian Kokarde? Or Braunschweig? ... but the tunic is Bavarian... of course the 29th Bavarian Inf (Jäger) Regt is a mixed Regiment ... any thoughts? Thanks, Chris

Damn... that meth really messes with my drain!

Here is my Offizier-stellvertreter in the trench... wearing his brown cord bants, gamaschen and mountain shoes... I am still improving on the diorama... but it is a start....

You would not think that when you have spent literally hours combing ebay for a pencil with a specific logo ?

Did you see the article about the guy who bought Bitcoin right at the Getgo.... The Value of his stuff is now over 200 million EUR.... But.... he established it is all saved on a harddrive he threw out years ago.. he offered the council 70 Million to do a finger search of the huge garbage site, which they refused to do as there is no gaurantee that they will find it and probably not get paid... you can toss your life away nowdays and not even know it....

I almost fell into troopers trap.... impatient to continue I scratched an old matchbox holder out and figured "The guy may have kept something like this in there..." ... then realised that would be the wrong way of going forward... I need some more pencils, a period eraser if that still exists, some dividers and a compass maybe, a ruler.... the problem remains... I must be sure they are all period...

I wonder where the next generation will be.... we have a wealth of old letters and photos... imagine collecting 2020 stuff in 2100... a few old selfies, emails all long erased.... broken hardrives holding secrets never to be revealed.... I pity that generation...

That is a nice one indeed.... Here is my latest find... and a new favorite..... Battalion commander in the 3rd Bavarian Inf Regiment and a Militär Max Joseph Orden recipient...

I saw this online today... What a career! The Famous/Infamous 32 Battalion "The Terrible ones" ... then the Recces... this gentlemen was part of some legendary units in the old South African Army... "WO Victor Banazol (Sargento Ajudante), former 5 Recce Operator died earlier today (24.01.21). Victor served with the Portuguese Army in Angola, with the DRAGÕES Regiment. After the Portuguese leftist revolution of 1974, Victor joined the FNLA briefly before being integrated into the South African Defense Force with 32 Battalion. In 1978 our Brother Victor was transferred to the Special Forces where he qualified as an Operator. Victor retired in 2001 as a Warrant Officer. "

Hi, Am I correct in reading "Augenleiden"? Any guesses what the word after that is`? Thanks Chris

That looks magic... will definitely get it!!!!

There is one thing I know 100% what is going on. from personal experience... the woman with the huge hat is saying to her husband "I met you when you were a soldier... you did not have that bloody big belly back then..." And the kid is thinking "I want to be a machine gunner!" And the woman on the bike thinks "I want a machine gunner!"

Someone pointed out the two old guys on the left are those "know it all" veterans you always see saying "They are doing it all wrong!!"

I keep all of mine at Wild Card's house ?

This was a short lived thing I think... so photos will be rare

Yeah, it is one of a bunch a French Friend pulled out of a river... in pretty good nick, protected by the mud...

Have to figure it out. The 6 regular pencils is a sure thing. I think the small square pocket an eraser, the rounded one a perfect compass fit... I assume 2 bigger pencils left and right... then other mapping necessities... I am thinking this is not your usual officers/NCOs mapcase... the Swiss have a special case for staff officers, which takes more than the normal mapcase... I assume this was designed for a smaller staff and had some extras.

So... what programs are you dudes using?

I knew I still had one somewhere... My thought is that some clever case maker thought it was going to be a 14-15 war... and made these... and on 31 December 1915 he thought "Bugger!" ... and on the 1st of jan 1916 he was making plain 1914 ones again... I cannot say which cross came with it... mixing and matching has been order of the day since the first collector got his hands on 2 cased crosses... mine is also blue velvet

A couple more with the wartime logo