Chris Boonzaier

My interest centers around the following I bought the group (military Cross, war medal, victory medal) with a copy of the london Gazette where the award is entered. The entry reads.. "2nd Lt. Charles Winton, Indian army reserve of officers, attd to 1st Btln Queen Victorias Own (corps of Guides) (in Egypt) For conspicuous gallentry and good leadership north of Arsuf on 13th July, 1918. He was in command of a daylight raid on two enemy strongpoints, and it was mainly due to his cooleness and leadership that the whole afair was carried out so successfully. He personally killed two enemy withthe bayonet" It was an interesting citation and after having bought the group, I found the following information.. "On the 13th July a most successful daylight raid was carried out by Lt. Winton and a party of Guhrka volunteers, including Havildars Dhan Jit and Puran Bahadur, Naik Karma Dhoj and lance-NAik Hasta Ram. The objectives were 2 strog points in front of the right of the battalion line and 150-200 yards from it. The raid, which was carefully planned and rehearsed, took place at 1:00pm, the time of day when the Turks were usually most inactive. The raiders left our trenches and creeping down a Wadi in No mans land for about 100 yards then advanced across the open to their first objective. As the Gurkhas neared the enemys line they drew their kukris and leaping down upon the astonished Turks speedily cleared the trench, 7 Turks being killed there, while 5 prisoners and a MG were captured. The party then advanced and cleared the other strong poin, a seperate redoubt, 15 Turks in all being killed and 15 prisoners (5 wounded) being taken. The raiders then returned across no mans land, the operation having worked exactly to plan and having taken only 12 minutes from start to finish. This raid was thus referered to in an English newspaper... "decapitated with a Kukri. A subaltern in charge of a party had an extraordinary experiance. He had stuck his bayonet into a Turk, but was unable to disengage owing to the narrowness of the Trench. Another Turk beyond began jabbing the butt end of his rifle into the ribs of the officer, and seemed likely to inflict an Injury, when the officer saw his assailants head leap from his shoulders, a Ghurka having dexterously decapitated him with his Kukri, which is an invaluable weapon at such close quarters" This is the actual of Lt Winton during the raid and the Gurkha was Sepoy Mardani of the Guides.

[quote name= Although not exactly one of the leading formations of the Waffen-SS, the 13. Waffen-Gerbigs-Division der SS 'Handschar' performed well in anti-partisan operations in 1944 in their homeland and with their solid base of German officers and NCOs, a competent unit, Rest in Peace Dzemal Ibrahimovic. Respectfully, K

What promted this new direction? Did you just wake up one morning and say.... Hmmm... Romanian collection is a natural extention of baden..... ;-)

Does anyone know what became of the corps of Guides? I have not had a lot of time to pursue this topic, but hope to get to it soon... (Thats what i thought a year ago as well....)

I think this is similar to the slip of paper that british football fans are given when they board the ferry to europe for an away game.....

Nice info indeed. I am having two of these researched. I hopethe investment is worth it :-)

Sometimes a little article like this is good for the morale, just to see there is a small kernal of selfless good n this world.

Naaahhh.... you can have 15 if you want and it still wont officially be mania unless you keep em in the bedroom.

Does anyone have any of those nice wound documents? I have somewhere that I have to dig out...

Indeed.... but it is a blade that is almost impossible to sharpen...

But its German! Is this just a clever ad by the company, or are the Americans REALLY considering it?

http://www.project-x.org.uk/sa80forsale.html Ooooops... these cost a fortue !!! Why so expensive?? Are they standard weapons... and if so... are they not a bit new to be sold as demills? I would have thought the army would have kept them...

Hi Jens... what did you pay for this and are there any more? If I am not mistaken, Lebel ammunition is as rare as chicken teeth?

OK... sometimes a soldier gets to poke someone with one... and a rifle on parade without a bayonet just dont look right.... But are they not as useless as tits on a bull? Always tripping you up. prodding your nads, getting caught in APC seats etc. etc... Not only that... they are generally useless for anything. About the only bayonets that seem to beuseful for anything other than opening tins are the Modern American one and the Finnish Valmet Puuko from the Fiskars company. Can anyone else think of a bayonet that is useful for anything other than stabbing and parading?

So... you have had enough time to arrange them... lets see the pile on dispaly at last!

These are very sexy knives... I wonder why they shortened it? The original version has a better figure than the modified version...

So.... almost a year to the day.... did you buy them? Are they good? I dont know much about italian stuff... but dont they look... well... kinda thin?

Hi, this is indeed a very nice piece... but why IS the crown there? And how does one know if such a thing is kosher?

How bout a scan?

That looks really cool... what does an officers knot cost ?

I would have thought the pacific was totally wrong for gas warfare? Japanese gasmasks seem to have been issued widely, but I cannot remember reading much about US troops being issued with them?

send me your mailing address by PM, I dont really need it, just have it laying around. best Chris

Let me clean the room up a bit and I will post some pics...

If that landed on my doorstep.... I would become an instant patch collector !

Hi, thanks! Great stuff. I did not know that Singapore even had any arty !! I suppose the V is for Volunteers? Must be pretty scarce badges.