Chris Boonzaier

Hi, thanks for the help. It has been confusing me for some time. I assume the 2nd citation must be from an action in 1916.... but cannot find the 4th Zouaves sharing a sector with the 72eme RI...

Here is his citation... unfortunately fading away forever... Could one of our Francophones transcribe it in error free French for me?

Here is a pic in the traditional uniform.... any idea what the ribbon at the top is?

Hi, Aime was wounded once with shrapnel in the arm in 1915 then gassed in 1918. The citation above was in the Chapitre-Wald area at Verdun when the Germans launched a last effort to take Souville. I am preparing a writeup on it. Nice pic of your dad! He does look proud of the stripe (or the dog) (or both!) Did he manage to keep his awards through the years? all the best Chris

He was in the 4th Zouaves in the elite 38 ID, one of the main French assault divisions.

more...

Some more of the stuff....

The best of the citations IMHO :-) Muuuuch more in the group, but still need time to go through it.... In a few days after this event the Alpenkorps attacked the area... that can be found here.... http://www.kaiserscross.com/40047/129401.html

Extreme right with the first six of eight citations on his cdg.

Bringing orders to the front

In his prewar parade uniform...

With his trusty bike...

an award ceromany...

Shellhole

Part of a group I just got..... First some of the pics.... Command post at Verdun

I would guess a flying instructor that never left the union during the war? Best Chris

Well, as an ex pacifier of ex colonies and present day stupid Western tourist I can only agree. better to melt down medals that some bint got for consistent shaggin than to melt down medals awarded to soldiers for doing their duty in uncomfortable places. As the wife has a penchant for Middle eastern generic silver jewellry it would really, really make me cry to know her bracelet was made from a mutiny medal to the 32nd foot!!!

Hi, I realise that copyright in the legal sense has no stand here. I meant a copyright protector program m that will stop folks making copies of the disk for their Amigos and to ebay for "Buy it now: Ebay: USD3.99" A simple question of making life difficult for crooked collectors. Best Chris

Thanks :-)))) Best Chris

I think we all know and have profited from Glenns selfless service to the collectors on this and other forums. Detailed posts with info gleaned from thousands of hours of research. Gas bills, train tickets, hotel costs in towns where the archives are. Xerox costs... etc. etc. etc... I know this is a topic that makes Glenn a little bashful (well, about as bashful as a senior Guards NCO can be) as he does not want to start charging money for research, but I suggested to him that he not undersell himself on this. He suggested a ballpark figure which I think is more than justified considering the time, effort and money his research costs and the immense research value that this represents. I think we have waited decades for this, we can wait a tad longer while he sets himself up. I would suggest a copyright thing that prevents someone making copies to ebay. As soon as he is ready, my check will be in the mail :-)))))

On the other hand, maybe Austrian uniforms were specially tailored to downplay curves? It is possible that they did that to prevent trouble between make and female people in uniform. Have seen many US army servicewomen that look like they were bags of potatoes under their cammies and I am sure that is not the case. Now.... FRENCH female soldies in uniform... o lala!!!!

Indeed... but as the great bearded one says... "One cannot find what is not there...." If "There is gold in them there hills..." was proportional to the denivele... you could not buy yourself a warm beer with the finds. I am sure she is a nice person though :-)

"Check out her upper torso?" You would need a doctor to find it....

Mark A Reid on BMF may have solved it... I've been analysing the Egyptian Army medal rolls and studying as many examples as I can lately and have begun to draw a few conclusions as follows; - Egypt Medals to the Egyptian Army for the earlier campaigns, Nile Expedition, Suakin 1884 and 1885, were named in the UK in English and then shipped to Egypt for distribution. Many examples simply had the man's number and his unit, no name or rank, officers had their name, rank and unit. - Later issues, with the bars Gemaizah and Toski, appear to have been sent to Egypt un-named. There is a wide variety of naming, some is quite beautifully done with delicate, curved Arabic writing. However, I have seen examples to the IXth Soudanese Bn. which look as though they were named with an old bayonet, in Arabic script again. I don't know why un-named examples appear on the market but I wouldn't be surprised if they were issued that way. Individual soldier's identity wasn't viewed in the same way that we see it and many Egyptian medal rolls simply give a list of numbers, names not being perceived as important. I think it quite likely that some Egyptian units simply issued the medals " out of the box " and those that escaped the melting pot eventually found their way to the Grand Bazaar.

I saw that one as well. Not my collecting field, but I thought the badge looked a bit rough compared to my regular infantry officers badge. Seller seems OK though