Chris Boonzaier

I think we are too stringent with a "WW1" and "post WW1" label.... If someone was making a certain sexy crewback in 1917... and 1918.... there is no reason to think he would not continue to make the same in 1926 ... or even on towards 1936 when uniforms were all the mode again.... sometimes a company with a good product makes it for years, in war and peace As far as the certificate of authenticity goes, it may very well have been for the navy officer, but he may have served into the 20s or 30s. so it is no indicator

Fantastic pics! Looks to be "tinsel light" ....

Indeed it is,

Hi, he is listed as Cath. I think in Bavaria it was a prerequisite ? I have a small but nice selection of Pics of Willy 2 with his staff, unlike Rupprecht he seems to have loved medal parades and decorating the troops... I must check and see who is wearing tinsel, with a bit of luck we can see the attributes from different stages of the war. Do you have a pic of Willy's adjutant for comparison? Hi, he was released from active service in 1917 with the status "a la suite " to the army, and the right to wear his old uniform

Hi, A Johanniter Is not listed in his Stammbuch. By 1915-16 the relations with Romania had soured to a degree that he would probably have dropped the Rn from the bar ? I will write some thoughts to that later but although he was only officially no longer Personal Adj from June 1916, he had by that time already spent a year back at his old regiment. As far as I can see, a prince only had one personal Adj. in this time Rupprecht seems to have done without. Supposition of course, but I assume a Personal Adj to an Armee Commander was a wasted space. In peace time, sure, but not later?.Rupprecht commanded the 6. A.O.K., had a large staff doing his every wish... and Malzen was a newly promoted Major with no Staff training, no higher Military education and had only ever commanded a Company.... Personally I would have felt out of place and I assume many of his tasks had been taken over by others because he seems to have rejoined Rupprecht 3 months after the start of the war, by which time his tasks would have been redistributed. I do not think i am wrong in assuming that at the outbreak of the war there was no position for him... the Leib Regiment had far too many officers, Malsen was a major with only company level experience... The Crown Prince had a Full military staff of highly trained officers.... it seems almost like a personal favor to bring him under Rupprechts wing at the 6. A.O.K. ... and in Rupprechts diary he voices his frustration in may 1915 at loosing his beloved chief of staff Krafft von Dellmensingen who was ordered away to form the Alpenkorps... basically at the same time Malsen received his orders to follow von Kraft and rejoin the Leib Regiment, to take over a battalion! (Although there were officers with more combat experience in the regiment who could have done it) ... I wonder if the posting was a favor influenced by Rupprecht? Seems very likely... Man, this is great.... long discussions like this have become a rarity on forums these days ?

Hi, ooohhh... that would have been fantastic.... but he did not have a Johanniter, just enough to fill a 4-5 ribbon bar. What date was the visit? Malsen left in May-June 1915 I read the Prinz Adalbert of Bavaria Autobiography from front to end... admittedly some time ago... but seem to remember him having a Bürsche, but not a Personal Adjutant... I wonder if they were limited to people directly in line to the throne... i.e. only Rupprecht? I must check my notes when I get back home. hopefully this weekend will be quiet.

Hi, will dig the camera out and get a pic tomorrow. I am guessing the main reason the button was removed was that malsen left the KP in June 1915 and transferred back to the Leibregiment There are few pics of the staff from what I can see... the most likely one to see him is with a digital library and they want EUR40 for a scan... on the off chance he is in the pic...

now that is pretty cool!

Ahhh... OK... I can confirm that last thought... I have an original copy of the Bavarian Officers Bekleidungs-vorschrift fom 1904... it describes when and where the Achselbänder and Achselschnure should be worn by Bavarian adjutants... with the field uniform only on official duties and parades, otherwise the Adjutant may wear the Achselbänder on his own initiative. So they must have spent more time without it than with it, especially in Flanders, and to identify his station the shoulder boards would have been a must?

" Ps - the Bavarian Army museum book on Bavarian epaulettes and rank insignia gives the red underlay material for Flugeladjutanten-shoulderboards up to 1915 as velvet. Not sure whether that continued to apply post 1915, though. " Indeed... but the Personal Adjutant according to Knöttel and Co just have an unspecified "Tuchunterlage". Another reason why I think it an given that the personal adjutant had a red underlay... in the few Photos i have found with Rupprecht and his staff during the war... noone is wearing an Achselband or Fangschnurr... they seem to have dropped that outside of Germany... which seems logical, even if you are not in the front line... and in that case an identifiable set of Shoulder boards seems to be a must.

Hi, sorry, forgot to mention, yes, Ludwig von Malsen. I am 100% sure it is not a flügel Adj. Tunic. The tunic is the least comman, but IMHO most attractive Leib regiment tunic with classic Leib Regiment collar tabs. Beautiful examples can be seen on page 150 and page 279 of the Kraus color book, both in the Bavarian Army museum. one is to a Leutnant, one to an Oberst. The only difference between my one and the Oberst on page 50 (other than the EK1 loops) is the Oberst has the regular white underlay on his boards. As far as the color of the boards go, for me the logical conclusion is that the Prussian and Saxon Personal Adjutants had the say underlay as the Flügel Adjutant... with the Bavarians we simply have no mention of the color, but IMHO it seems logical that they were also red because .... 1) The Prussians and the Saxons were red and step by step, at the latest in the war, uniforms became homogenous 2) If the states had a pattern so they could recognise each other Flügel Adj, it seems logical they would do this for the personal Adj as well 3) Most other positions with the Bavarian royal family had red from Flügel Adj to Hoffmeister 4) we do not have any information casting a doubt that they could have been red as we simply have no info at all I am trying to think of all arguments for... and against.... so would there be any logical reason for the bavarian personal adjutant not to have red? Especially because, on daily duties away from his Boss, i would assume the Scharpe etc was not always worn and the boards would be used to identify him as Adj?. The problem is, there would have been maybe 10 of these guys, so few it seems they found it a waste of time to write anything about them. Nope, no photo. Malsen seems never to have made the big time, neither career wise or "hero" wise... he fades out of the Leiber history just at the moment when they began to really make their name and had left the army by 1917. Don't get me wrong here, I am not a von Malsen fan... I could flip through the regt History and find 20 other officers who would be preferential for me. Best Chris

as a non believer this was a strange side collection... but I found them kinda cool... especially the awards....

aaaahhhh... I knew him, not closely, just someone in the heard... would not have recognised him

Hi, indeed... I have been doing some reading up on this.... For the Flügel Adjutant it is clear and defined in the books. In this case it is not a King's Flügel Adjutant but a Prince's Personal Adjutant, and there we find a grey area. I looked through Kraus, Knöttel and the Bavarian Officers uniform Vorschrift. It seems that the information is incomplete... what we can read is that Personal Adjutants in Prussian and Saxony had special uniforms until 1914, at which time they reverted to the uniforms of their regular regiments, with the Aiguilette and red shoulder boards. Knöttel ignores the Bavarians but (and I must check when I get home) the Bavarians also had Personal Adjutants and according to the Vorschriften they always wore their units uniform with Aiguilette, no mention of a special uniform. Krause has a bit more detail, but does not mention what shoulder boards the Bavarians wore wore Another point is, as we see on the Castell-Castell uniform, Flügel Adjutant has red boards with golden Crown, and the Leonrod group, who in his duties as Hofmeister, men doing duty as aides to the royal family wore boards with a red underlay and Gold Crown. as there is no info availible in the resources I think it a logical jump to assume that this applies to the Kronprinze Adjutant as well, otherwise they would be a strange exception. There is no button, just traces that a butten was sewn unde the strap, but l think it probable that an Aiguilette was not really worn on this uniform as it seems to have been a pure field uniform, one, for the type of cloth it is made of, and two, the loops are exclusively for the small ribbon bar, while we very often see Adjutant photos with the men wearing full medals, in this case there have never been loops for a Medal Bar. I must check my books this evening All the best Chris

Hi, I did some research, it seems that in this case Heller made the blade, the royal Arsenal in Erfurt assembled the bayonet... the acceptance stamp is always on top of the blade, just above the hilt.

Interesting.... there was a reason why some have 2 maker stamps, I am getting old and the memory fades... I think it had something to do with refurbishment

I posted this, or parts of it ages ago... but just found these pics on a stick again.... A friend called me to tell me he knew a guy who had the medals of a distant relative and was looking to sell them... so I bought them... it turned out to be the awards of three men, all which were distantly related, but had somehow been passed down to a relative who had them all in the box. I will say in advance, I ended up splitting the lot. One group was to a Bavarian Jäger officer (MVO4, EK2, Austrian, Dienstauszeichnung, EK1 and the docs for the MVO and Austrian, plus extra ribbon and cases and a bunch of photos) the second was to a Veternarian (MVK1class with swords, EK2, Ehrenkreuz) and the third was the 1870 bar. There was no direkt relation between the men so I eneded keeping the Jäger and passing on the rest. Unfortunately for some reason I did not have the MVK medals in the pic... so photo opportunity missed.... but still, opening a box like this was a real treat..... The edelweiss and 2 jäger badges were not with it and just for show.... part 2 3

I think the small boxes are probably MVK or MVO , Tapferkeits medals would probably have been awarded first... but I really wonder what is in the small packages???

I guess trowing paper on the ground was not an issue back then ?

The Bavarian has a 7 on the shoulder strap and this on his left sleeve... does anyone recognise it?

What a beauty! What does it say on the back of the spine???

He seems to have been an individualist... I have a later Photo of him as Lt. d. Res where he is wearing no ribbons at all

The farmer Josef Keitler was born on the 20.08.1886 in Oberkammlach. He served in the 12. Bay. Inf. Regt from 21.10.1908 – 23.09.1910 and was trained as a stretcher bearer. On the 03.08.1914 he mobilised as a reservist in the 10. Kp. Res. Inf. Regt. 3 With his unit he participated in the following actions 20.08.14 – 22.08.14 Schlacht in Lothringen 22.08.14 -14.09.14 Schlacht vor Nancy-Epinal 26.08.14 – 27.08.14 Einnahme von Fort Manonviller 30.09.14 – 01.10.14 Gefecht bei Douai 01.10.14 – 13.10.14 Schlacht bei Arras 14.10.14 – 23.06.16 Stellungskämpfe im Artois 20.10.14 – 10.12.14 Kämpfe um Maison-Blanche (Nördl. Arras u. Ecurie) 20.10.14 – 27.10.14 Erstürmung von St. Laurent und Maison-Blanche 14.12.14 – 24.12.14 Dezemberschlacht in Franz. Flandern 04.01.15 – 20.01.15 Gefechte bei Ecurie 17.02.15 – 19.02.15 Gefechte bei Roclincourt 09.05.15 – 23.07.15 Schlacht bei La Bassee und Arras 25.09.15 – 13.10.15 Herbstschlacht bei La Bassee und Arras 24.06.16 – 07.07.16 Erkundungs u. Demonstrationsgefechte d. VI. Armee (in Zusammenhang mit der schlacht an der Somme) 07.07.16 – 10.08.16 Stellungskämpfe im Artois 11.08.16 – 09.09.16 Schlacht an der Somme 10.09.16 – 01.12.16 Kämpfe an der Aisne 02.12.16 – 01.02.17 Stellungskämpfe an der Somme 01.02.17 – 13.02.17 Stellungskämpfe in Fr. Flandern u. Artois On the 13.02.17 he admitted the Field Hospital at Templeuve with an undefined illness. It is possible that he suffered from Shellshock as physical sickness is usually mentioned in the records. On the 19.09.17 he was attached to the forestry department in Oberkammlach where he stayed until the end of the war. In November 1918 he was demobilized. Awards 07.05.15 Bavarian Militärverdienstkreuz with swords 3rd class 20.08.16 Bavarian Silver Bravery Medal 20.09.16 Iron Cross 2nd class Citation On the night of the 19.08.1916, during the Battle on the Somme, the III. Batl. Bay. Res. Inf. Regt. 3 received orders to leave their positions in the Bellowstellung and advance to the German 2nd defense line to work on the emplacements. While passing through Martinpuich the 10. Komp. Came under heavy artillery fire at 03:00am. The barrage lasted for one hour and the 10. Komp suffered heavy losses. While everyone was seeking cover behind the houses stretcherbearer Keitler was the only man to brave the heavy artillery fire and remain with the wounded offering first aid. After he had bandaged the wounded he called for the help of a comrade who helped him bring the wounded to the Aid Post. He then returned to his company. For his actions he was awarded the Bavarian Silberne Tapferkeitsmedaille

You have just shown up my horrible bias and I must blush..... I spent some time comparing it to all the infantry straps... variations in the Kelso book.... and i never even thought to look at the gunners ...

I think you nailed it, it is like identifying pattern in spaghetti! I can imagine the comments if that tunic had been brought to a collectors meeting!