Chris Boonzaier

Theres a good job to volunteer for... unscrewing fuses on a mine ;-)

many many... just have to be home to do it ;-)

I really like the Wingen one!!! I think the last one is Austrian though? Best Chris

Was flipping through the docs again today... I notice the Guard regiments usually ALSO have nice docs that are unit specific, more so than the regular infantry and "others"... but not as nice as the Bavarians... Would be interested to see if anyone has a very intricate, colorful and complicated doc to post?

Indeed... many, many vaulted crosses in WW1 pics... Here is my question though... We collectors often say, the wearers usually kept their award piece in honor (reason they bought a 2nd RK etc)... but we see numerous groups with just a vaulted cross... would this mean they lost the flatback?

Very nice, he would have been attacking just a few dozen meters away from "my guys" ! Check out the map, the 8th company bordered on the 117th!!

Lovely, early Hessen Verdun? Any idea of which Regt? I have some nice 117er here... http://www.kaiserscross.com/41815/127101.html

Less the condition, but more a core that is clearly defined, and well... kinda pretty... I think the KO core makers smeared paint like an aging woman of the night smears makeup...

Hi Micha... I really cannot read the ring, it looks as if it COULD be WILM, but it would require a looooot of imagination to read that... ;-)

I think you are probably spot on with the time frame, bggered if I know what they could be though...

Indeed, I think many German soldiers were released in 1920, Sick and wounded are usually earlier. He was captured in the Hermannstelle, this was basically a second line of defense behind the Siegfriedline, there were a few different one, Hundigsstelle, Hermannstelle etc. hermannstell was fron Gent to Marle. There is not a lot out there about this stage of the warm, even less so because it was a french sector (I think) and so of little interest for English speaking authors...

Hi, It is Possible that he was till at the Ersatz Battalion back in Germany... you see some strange uniform combinations with Ersatz battalions. I wonder if he ever hade it to the front?

That is a nice and unusual one, I have not seen that handle and hilt before.

Old St Florian Took what he could get didnt he?? Firefighters is a good un, then they said "We still have Soapmakers, Drowning victims and chimney sweeps... Florian, you got here late, YOU take them... thatll teach you!"

That is a fantastic bit of history. A couple of my German friends hate it, but I Germany they have a thing called "Stolpersteine" or "stumbling blocks"... In some towns they have small brass cobblestones, each with the names of family members who were sent to and dies in Concentration camps. These are set in the ground in front of the front door of their old house.... So you can be bimbling down a back alley, and suddenly you are walking over 4 Brass cobblestones, maybe 10 by 10 cm each, and you see this was Joe, Henreietta and their 2 daughters, arrersted in may 42, bead November 42...

Thanks, that is really great, just the info i need, now i just need to research the day he died. Best Chris

Sorry, a Typo... Schultze is my man, killed on 25. September 1914, at the time he was serving with Graumann, so it must have been the I.R. 97, Muchos Grazias! Just need to see if there is a regt history somewhere...

Its seems an officer named Fritz Graumann was in the same unit...

and his congrats....

here is his doc....

And a bavarian Jäger again....

Now go back 10 years earlier.... and you see the same guy (this time real signature) awarding this really late cross...

"Here's where you can buy one and no you cannot be awarded another medal...

A request for a replacement against payment and a further award

19 bIR