Chris Boonzaier

A.A. Hayton 1941 - 1942 Commanding Officer 4th South African Brigade, North Africa

A long shot... but some names to follow up from text below.... Greetings, Someone has been in contact with me recently and she is related to Alfred HAYTON, and I wonder if this Alfred is related to John HAYTON 1819-1893 who married Rhoda WEAKLEY, in which case we would be related. So I looking for a link. We do not know much about Alfred HAYTON, he died 1946 or 1947. His occupation was said to be a gun dealer. He had at least two sons, John HAYTON and Alexander Alfred HAYTON. Alexander HAYTON was a Brigadier in the South African Army during WW2 and was awarded the DSO in 1946. He had no children. My contact has letters that indicate that her Hayton branch came from Cumberland, which is where the John HAYTON who married into my family also came from. Have tried NAAIRs but it seems off line at the moment. Anyone have the missing links?

Fantastic pieces, and great to see them unsheathed. I was at a museum not so long ago, had some great swords... all in their sheathes :-(((((((( Which idiot has a centuries old Japanese sword on display, then hides the blade in its sheath????????????? Well done!! lets see more!

Thanks, If anyone has a really nice scan of a panzer badge (Black or field grey backin) that I can use for a kaiserscross article I would really appreciate it. Thanks Chris

I need some help here... The first German Panzer attack was on the 20th of March 1918 with the 36th ID? Does anyone know which tanks, or better still have any pics? Thanks Chris

Thank ye!

It was part of the 3rd Garde Division.... but what was the prewar rationale behind the regiment? What did it do? did it have selected members? All the best Chris

If a guy said his plane was numbered V1+GB (or 6B) Can anyone make a good guess as to what unit he was in? I think it may have been recon or supply. Thanks Chris

I agree, the stamp is "Ostas. Besatzungs-Brigade.... Abl?s-Kmdo, 1. Trans.Batl." Best Chris

Hi, This arrived today... not my field and condition not great, but I find it kinda cool....

Wittman for sheer numbers.... but I always think Wittman going into battle with a Tiger tank was like turning up to a knife fight with a machine gun. The true test of the warrior could only be to put Wittman in a Sherman and send him up against 3 tigers... and then count his kills. Same idea... imagine pool on a Tiger with 3 years to wrack up kills...

Yes... the answer to the question above is.... 注音符號... ;-)

Hi, anyone know any Saxon unit that may fit the shouderboards? Thanks Chris

Me begin get desperate mon........... NOONE have an idea??

Well, the ribbons look almost Bavarian, but the "?2" makes it unlikely (as the "?" looks almost like a 5 or 3) Anyone want to have a guess about the ribbons? Thanks Chris

Well, in April the site had 5000 visitors :-)) To celebrate, an article about the "Elite". A big thanks to TomW for the text (a complete rewrite of the original article) and C.M. for the chance to use some of the pics. http://www.kaiserscross.com/40029/69301.html

Here is a nice study of three young lads, all with different ways of wearing it....

Hi, the point I was trying to make is.... if the E.B. of Inf Regt XXX had 200 front ready men, and Inf Regt XXX needed 150 and Sturmbataillon TT needed 50.... maybe they did put a slightly higher quality soldier in the SB TT, but this would not drain the German Armies of the best men.... It would just mean that some of the better men of the March 1917 batch for IR XXX actually went to the SB instead. As there was only one SB in that Armee, the other maybe 20 regiments in the Armee got their regular replacements as usual.... so no real drain of "the cream"... just one regt suffers a tiny bit... Most of the men from the EB were young men recently trained. Of course, also men returning with wounds, but it is NOT that the SB were stocked with the best men with the highest awards and most experience from every unit. If the SB attacked to the 2. Armee had 2 combat companies, this was a drop in the ocean of the men available. If 80% of these were young men, fit and eager, but just finished their basic training... then they were not really stealing the best men from other units.... add to this, the SB were there to train men in the new form of warfare, so they could barely be taking skilled men from other units... as it was the lethargy of "other units" that they were to overcome... So... to bring this the full circle and back to what I said in post one..... I believe that the argument that "Other units did not like the SB because they took the best men from these other units" to be dead wrong..... But it is a theory and I would like to generate some discussion....

This is great in theory, but meaningless without practice examples. It would also be great to see this black on white and not as hearsay. Best Chris

"I know that this seems counter-intuitive, and is counter to the common literary device (a la Alistair Horne) of the "exploding flamethrower", or the "flamethrower operator enveloped in flame", " Bob, I have on a number of occasions pointed out to you of period documented incidents of FW catching fire, on one occasion the same incident described by the Germans, AND the opposing French (I pointed this out to you 3-4 years ago, an incident on 304 or Mort Homme... you seen determined to ignore this as it does not fit your argument :-(

"I only have worked on the details of this question of low casualties for my father's storm unit, which was, for unique reasons, documented meticulously by a CO who was a published scientist, as he had to report every attack, however small, in detail to the OHL on a monthly basis, reporting to a very, very smart staff officer." Published scientist hin, published scientist her... as you know, his history of his unit was a pss poor effort and showed an objectivity deficiency...

"It has been pointed out that the initial batch of men that formed a storm battalion may have been really picked men, but that the following Ersatz may have been hit or miss. This may have been true, and "good" men were more and more scarce as the war went on, but I am sure that generally a fairly high standard was usually applied to Ersatz for the storm units." A "High standard" was probably limited to "Young and fit". Even when SB Rohr was increased from 2 to 4 Komp. no selection was made from front line units to do this. The Ersatz Battalion of P.B. 35 seems to have gathered infantrymen from the E.B. of different Infantry regiments in their area, the whole process taking less than 2 weeks... and whammo... 2 Kompagnies soon to be elite assault troopers were formed.... No Navy SEAL or SAS selection course needed....

"First of all, Bruce's book is an extraordinary work, and I for one would not call it dated. I got a copy at the very onset of my serious WW I study, and it was really formative. I generally avoid working with secondary sources, unless perhaps to orient myself when taking up a new topic within the field, but I place the book in the small set of nominally secondary sources that I regard as a primary source, or even have a higher regard for, as a fine military mind has already filtered through the many primary sources used in its creation." Noble defense Bob, but Bruce himself agrees that the book could use a major update. Much has been discovered over the last 20 years. I get the impression that you use mainly secondary source and not THAT much primary source?

Hi, Not to knock the book at all, it was a groundbreaker and I always have it at hand. Anyone doing any work on the subject afterwards has benefited enormously from the book, and from the fact that they have the WWW to aid in research (a tool not to be underestimated). Best Chris