Chris Boonzaier

oooohhhh... that gets me green with envy! Lets see the rest of it!!!

Hi, The Germans did not really have Collar badges, can we see the back of this?

That is probably as good a guess as any, I cannot think of a more likely unit desgnaton. I would love to have that to round out the DSWA Bayonet collection. Very well done! All the best Chris

Very nice indeed! I was working on a write up for a German Gare Füsilier who fought there... there were some great passages from Tolkien... have not gotten around to finishing it but these were my notes..... The fighting scenes in Tolkiens Lord of the Ring Trilogy are largely based on Tolkiens experiences during the Somme offensive in 1916. Tolkien served as an Officer in the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers and took part in the fighting to gain the Village of Ovillers- la – Boisselle. Ovillers was Tolkiens first Battle and his experiences in the mud on the Somme were to be reflected in those of Frodo and Sam, the desolation on the Somme battlefield transplanted into an imaginary world for millions of readers. “They lie in all the pools, pale faces, deep deep under the dark water. I saw them: grim faces and evil, nobel faces and sad. Many faces proud and fair, with weeds in their silver hair. But all foul, all rotting, all dead” Frodo “Passage of the marshes” The two towers. What Tolkien presents to us as fantasy, a British officer described in everyday language… “Beyond La Boisselle, on the left of the Albert-Bapaume road, there had been a village called Ovillers. It was not longer there. Our guns had removed every trace of it, except as it lay in heaps of pounded brick. The Germans had a network of trenches about it, and in their ditches and their dugouts they fought like wolves. Our 12th Division was ordered to drive them out -- a division of English county troops, including the Sussex, Essex, Bedfords, and Middlesex -- all those country boys of ours fought their way among communication trenches, burrowed into tunnels, crouched below hummocks of earth and brick, and with bombs and bayonets and broken rifles, and boulders of stone, and German stick-bombs, and any weapon that would kill, gained yard by yard over the dead bodies of the enemy, or by the capture of small batches of cornered men, until after seventeen days of this one hundred and forty men of the Prussian Guard, the last of their garrison, without food or water, raised a signal of surrender, and came out with their hands up. Ovillers was a shambles, in a fight of primitive earth-men like human beasts. Yet our men were not beast-like. They came out from those places -- if they had the luck to come out -- apparently unchanged, without any mark of the beast on them, and when they cleansed themselves of mud and filth, boiled the lice out of their shirts, and assembled in a village street behind the lines, they whistled, laughed, gossiped, as though nothing had happened to their souls -- though something had really happened, as now we know.” Defending the town of Ovillers were approximately 6 Companies or German Infantry, 3 of which were Prussian Garde-Füsiliers. Garde-Füsilier Behrend seems to have avoided capture unless his award document was signed after the war. As a young soldier Behrend may have shared the thoughts of Sam Gamgee, who Tolkien said personified the British soldier of WW1 "It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil at heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace." Tolkien later wrote, "My 'Sam Gamgee' is indeed a reflection of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognized as so far superior to myself."

Hi, Vivian C Nelk , Swamp Road, Furlong PA seems to be the lady with the details.... :-)

Plenty of old soldiers sell or throw their awards away. It is harder for collectors to understand than for the soldiers themselves. When I left the army I traded lots of my stuff and souveniers for stuff for my German collection... Really regret that. At the same time a guy in my section used to throw away all his certificates for awards and badges... saw no reason to keep them. Twice after ceremonies I found his certificate in the garbage in our room. Then there are the old soldiers who give them to collectors who they think care about the items... and a few months later the items are on the market.... There are many, many reasons :-(

Wirklich ein bombastische Konvolute! Leider habe ich nichts vergleichbares aus Hessen. Ich bin mir sicher er hatte viele interessante Geschichten zu erzählen gehabt!

Hi, that is indeed a fine looking cross. I have a few with stamps like that as well. It is not easy to remove one of those rings, they dont just fall off. I always think that they were removed by tailors and then they could sew the cross onto the bar through this loop. After they are mounted on a bar the ring is not needed anyway, remove rings over a period of time and you have a certain small amount of silver...

Super... aus Bayern?

I notice, looking at my helmets, that the really small ones look like "variants" of another kind when you compare them to larger ones... the dimensions are very different giving them a slightly different form.

Nice Noor! Have you changed collecting fields? Best Chris p.s what about the beer thread! !??

Greatcoat if you want to do it on the cheap, but tunic is better. I always stick to just torsos, the pants are hooooooribly expensive. Germman tunics cost more than Brit, but German equipment is cheaper, just need to know what you are aiming for

HI, are you loking to do a machine gunner or rifleman?

Anyone have any good docs to add to this?

I forgot I had these.... Found in Morocco... am not sure how old they are.... or what they are...

2

Here is a nice one....

Does anyone have any other variations...?

Zhere are certain occasions that are great coincidences... especially when "non collectors" can see with what respect collectors treat "their men"... I always think of the people whose items I have as "My guys"

Those wooden boxes are kinda cool

Here is a question..... with rhe Medaille Militaire he was probably not an officer with the French?

:-))

This guy really nails just about everything just right... http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/12/french-foreign-legion-expendables

Or the reaction of the vatican if he had worn one of theirs!!!

Hi, close to impossible, there is no central record.... most were awarded at Regt Level (in some cases Battalion)... and they are usually not even listed in the war diary of the unit. (Usually only the occasional Army level one is found in the war diary) All th ebest Chris