Chris Boonzaier

Usually it is always the same bring postcards for Von der Goltz... but I was happy to find this one this week...

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I dont have any of the badges.... but these may be of interest....

I think this will be of interest.... http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/476201.html

I will check what the postage is to the US soon as I get a chance. I can buy em for youse and mail them over.

I have many, many documents I had been meaning to post for Rick. I have half a box of Crime Fiction I was meaning to send him…. Today was a bit of a wake up. Rick probably did not have the world’s biggest archive of Imperial German documentation; he may not have had more knowledge than any other human being on the subject… I cannot judge this… What he did have was the will, desire and time to share what he had, and that is worth more than a thousand binders of information squirrelled away by a collector who shares nothing. Online, or transcribing medal rolls, Rick worked hard to make information accessible to all of us. This makes me feel guilty. When I reflect on all the primary source I have been meaning to scan, the information I was thinking of distributing, the half written articles I have been meaning to publish, the Book that I have been dragging my feet on…. And have not done. No doubt if I died, my documentation would land up in other hands… but would anyone figure out what I was intending to do with it… or bother to do it? All the best intentions and plans mean absolutely nothing if you don’t pull your finger out and DO something with what you have. Planned websites, planned articles, planned books… all mean diddly if you don’t have them finished by the time you die. "Coulda, woulda..." does not look good on a Tombstone... 10 years from now, stuff that Rick transcribed will still be doing the rounds… the stuff on my hard drive or in my binders may unfortunately still be gathering dust, waiting for the day when I “Finally get around to it….” So, today I make a resolution (and I hope it lasts longer than New Year resolutions)… I am going to pull my finger out; I am going to quit wasting time on Youtube, watching Television etc. I am going to “Do a Rick” and hit the stuff I have squirrelled away and try and get it out into the collecting community. The stuff is not an egg, it won’t hatch if I sit on it long enough, the stuff is not inside trader tips, I won’t get rich by keeping it to myself… I want to finally get the book project done, so that in 50 years’ time, when I am dust, I will still be on a shelf in a library somewhere, hopefully in a library where everything is alphabetical and “Boonzaier” is shelved next to “Boobs Galore!”…. I want the Verdun Related primary source stuff posted online so it can be copied, and copied, and copied again, because I want to other people to share my fascination with the battle. I want to speed up my articles on “my Guys” for the website, it was always supposed to be a way of honoring the men whose items I have in my collection. It is my resolution… I will try and keep it….

I know someone who will love it!

Hi, no award dates but they were printed in 1916. Detlev!! That is fantastic!!!!! Cam you do a thread with all his stuff?

Kickbacks? :-)

Hi, can someone who has an other ranks award doc I can use please contact me? Thanks Chris

I would not dismiss the EK entry out of hand. I have had a couple of groups where a postwar award was entered by the man when the award was made after demobilisation. In these cases he still has no awards when his last unit signed off. Without an EK doc, or some other confirmation it is hard to say...

So you finally admit that Logic and Chris go together? But your examples are wrong. A tunic and Trousers and caps could be issued as single items... not a shoulder board. As stated above, some things were just made to be in a "pair"

I dont say its "wrong" ... just that personally I am not interested in Single boards (Unless it is to a unit where my objective is to get stuff to the unit, as opposed to collecting boards)... It is a personal choice, how we collect... but I would not buy a single Jack Boot, because the soldier wore two. I would not buy a single glove. I prefer to get two matching Ammunition pouches etc. etc. It depends HOW you collect, and how you intend to display...

A couple from one of my favourite regiments... 12th bavarian infantry...

No Airbrush... from what I see only the boards have been "improved"

NOW you are talking!!!

Unfortunately the regiment was disbanded in August 1940..... So no idea where he went.... but according to the family he served in Poland, France, Belgium, Holland, Murnau, Helsinki, Liegnitz, Ohlau (Schlesien) Vienna, Berlin and Hamburg. He ended the war as a major and was captured by the Brits....

A short lived regiment ..... Inf. regt 641

Cammanding the 1st Reserve bavarian Jägers

Look.... Shoulder boards are like Gonads.. one is better than nothing...... but having two is waaaaaay better.....

Everyone has their own way of collecting, and I really think that discussing the benifits of one way or another is a waste of time.... but i really dont get why people collect single shoulderboards? OK, if i was to get a single of 2. bay. Jäger, or Inf Leib Regt... ok... it would do at a push.... but pairs or sets are just soooo much better.... or not? best chris

I have a scanned thinner history... and since you posted that have kept my eye out for the "big" one.... all in all A4 size with 770 pages!! People who knock Ebay really dont know what they are missing.... EUR39 with its maps.... on ZVAB they seem to hover about EUR200 Just arrived today... i am a happy boy ;-)))

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Here is one....