Chris Boonzaier

It is noticable that the bavarians have the best EK documents, not always but when there are fantastic, multi coloured heavy paper docs ... well, the bavarians take the cake. I have a per theory... it is because they are catholic. So... what the hell does that have to do with it? Simply this... the Bavarian printing companies mass produce high quality confirmation and church related certificates... more so than any of the non catholic parts of germany. There was waaaay more need for decorative high quality documents... and when it came to EK docs, they were already set up for the trade. Any thoughts on this ? :-)

There is a list of "trophy weapons" that were brought to Canada. For the most part it tells where these weapons were sent to and with a portion, where they were captured. For the MG08 there is just one of these with its number in Canada. For the MG08/15 there are 2 guns with the number, one was sent to a university in Nova Scotia, the other to a town in Manitoba. from where it came from it is a pretty sure bet it is the Manitoba gun. I would give it 90% chances. Best Chris

Hi Glenn, I combed that little history and found nada... can you tell me the page number? Thanks Chris

Hi, have no idea what the doc says.. or even if it belongs to the group. If Claudio was to saw it was not with the bar when sold a few years ago, or if it were to a toilet cleaner... we would be back at wondering why the group went for so much. Best Chris

Thanks, Sontag was the one I was missing. Best Chris

There used to be a site with all the divisional commanders listed for the 14-18 period... it seems to be down now... has anyone saved the info? Thanks Chrsis

cannot find my list of divisional commanders... does anyone have a list of the commanders for the Alpenkorps? Thanks Chris

Hi, is anyone aware of any photos of the Leib Regt staff? Thanks Chris

See the "whats new" on kaisers cross to see the article...

Anyone want to have a go at reading these? Looks like a Swedish medal??

Yup.... the chicks dig it! Thanks to "the Captain: Secret Source" (My play on "the colonels secret sauce") I managed to find out he was on the Regimental staff as "Regiments Schreiber" if I read correctly?

Well, actually I offered EUR200 and we settled on EUR210... but as far as Bavarian/Alpenkorps goes, its priceless. I would not sell em for double that! I bought the wife a new branch cutter... to even the score.

A special Leib Regiment document, printed in 1916 and signed "Epp"... he became a ritter in June 1916 so that means this doc is from the first half of 1916. Soon after the Alpenkorps docs were the standard fancy docs for all units of the alpenkorps, so I dont think these Leib Regt docs were used for very long. I spoke to a couple of the biggest Bavarain dealers there and they had never seen one. Here is the Alpenkorps doc, done in the last half of the war, but retroactively for the 1914 award...

Now, I have over 800 EK docs, and have seen many, many more... and I concentrate on Bavarian EK docs..... but never in my life have I seen one like this...

I was at the Kassel show yesterday.... walking around... a bit blaze.... Nothing really excited me. Looked at lots of stuff... yawn..... Long trip for nothing... But then... I saw an Alpenkorps EK2 doc... From the signature I could see it was a Bavarian Leib Regiment doc, really early, december 1914... not bad condition... but still... EUR250 ! In a really good day I would have considered about EUR125... After a bit of teeth gnashing and realising noone would come down from ERU250 to EUR125 I began to wonder how the guy had come up with the high price? And why was the doc still there? Then I thought, maybe there is something else in there and I flipped the plastic sheet over... nope, a doc to another guy... So I looked down the slit in the top and saw.."aaah... there is another doc..." and I slipped my fingers in, and felt around... and pulled it out..... and what did I find???????

A doc was with the group... who was it awarded to? I would never judge a price of an attributed bar without knowing who it was attributed to...

Harvey, It is a medals site, and many modern medals are cr2p. This has nothing to do with the men that earned them, simply a statement of fact. I have a couple of medals on my bar that were designed by a drunk, approved by a moron, had the dies cut by a blind man and provided by the cheapest contractor... I am still proud to have them, but recognize that esthetically and quality wise they are of a lower grade than the USD5 key rings I can buy at the local gas station... If we want to limit our opinions on medal design we would be forced to discuss medals where there is no longer an living recipient. It would not be realistic. I dont think these are the worst designs out there in recent times, I think the modern UK ones where the crown is twice the size of QE2s head are up there with bad designs, but fact of the matter is.... the medal designers of today are reduced to recycling the same old same old.... I think the source for originality has simply dried up. Best Chris

GD is always nice... this exceptionally so!

One of my favorite units.... 12th Bavarian Infantry....

The MG08/15 is very likely (I would say 90% or more) to have been captured by the Canadian 8th battalion in Hatchet Wood, an action that resulted in 3 VCs... http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/firstwar/vcwinners/alexander-brereton So.... how is that for a huge stroke of luck.... getting info like that!!!!!

The MG08 was captured by the 1st Canadian Division from the 1st Gaerde Reserve Division on the 27th of September 1918 at the beginning of the Battle of the Canal du Nord... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Canal_du_Nord

A fantastic bit of luck has allowed me to establish where my two babies come from.....

Wonderful what a bit of research can do.... am doing a page for kaisers cross and gathering the thingies I have with guys who were buried.... Thanks to Hauptmann/Dan I was able to find out a bit of the dog tag wearer... yup... reaserching it is what its all about...

Hi, I agree 100% as mentioned in post 4. but the Saxons seem to have had a thing for documents confirming a soldier had the EK and FAM . As I said in post 1... a "POST award document" as opposed to "award document"... Almost as if the Div commander thought "hmmm... we have just been giving out typewritten ausweiss up until now... lets give them a nice doc for X-Mas" The whole "EK and FAM" on one doc can not be THE award doc, as it would imply that the soldiers got both medals at the same time. bEST cHRIS

If any of you in the recent past bought a couple of WW2 medals to "Paul van Minnen" please drop me a line.. not sure what they were, just run of the mill stuff. Thanks Chris