Chris Boonzaier

What interests me is what kind of Lobby they must have had. Almost all the Reichswehr officers would have been Artillery and Infantry guys.... who get nada... but a special award is created for 99 tankers? How popular was that suggestion?? Remembering, when Rommel wrote his book, he did not call it "Gebirgsschützen greift an!" (Although his fame was because of his actions with the Gebirgs troops)... he realized that it was too elitist and may turn off the potential ex infantryman reader... so he called it "Infanterie greifft an!"

Ahhh... he did??? Damn.... now I need one for my 1. GzF collection!!!!!!

Hi, But the pilot badge was a qualification badge. if you qualified as a pilot, you got a badge. If a qualified as a truck driver you had a job.... However the Tank badge required you to have 3 actions... i.e. an award for combat... not as a qualification.... so no Parallel to the Pilot. And as 9 men could be killed with a shell... ditto for the infantry, a thousand times over in the war. And as for having no time during the war... the Tank badge was postwar, so if they had time for the tanks, why not for the infantry. The only Parallel I find is the U-Boot badge, but the U-Boots part in the war was waaaaaaaay bigger than the tankers.... I understand your thinking, but it still does not settle it for me.... it seems to be very much an "extrawürstchen" badge... :-(

I realise it is a post war award.... but I was wondering... why on earth did they award a Kampfwagen Badge? In WW2 it was different,,, Panzer, Infantry, Arty/Pionier... they all had their own assault badge, and well deserved they were.... But in WW1... seriously... why bother? Its not like the German armoured troops were any huge success.... and the Infantry, Arty, Machine Gunners, Pioniers, Sturmtruppen etc. etc fought way harder and accomplished much more.... So what made some guy in 1921 decide that the Tankers deserved a badge all of their own? Its a bit like not tipping anyone at a restaurant except the guy who peels the carrots....

Nice blades! I wish I had a 02!

I agree, the allies handed out a crate of medals to other allies which were then distributed according to the recieving nations norm. i.e. I have a certificate for a French soldier who recieved a british DCM, with a French style citation. I read an account of a bunch of Russian awards sent to be awarded to South African troops serving in German East Africa, they were awarded without any citations, apparently the criteria were overlooked and the higher officers were given the most impressive looking ones and the lower ranks the more boring ones, irrespective of the normal award criteria....

Hi, I am assuming the Official award was returnable, but the Minis were private purchase and therefor private property.

OK, the hidden point of intrest is the posting to the Nachrichten Offizier der O.H.L.. While Nachrichten is usually Signals troops the "Nachrichten Offizier der O.H.L" was the fledgling Military Intel branch attached to the different Armee Korps...

Visit the puff.... and drink lots of beer...... then play football until its time to drink beer again..... :-)

It depends on what you buy. In this case it was alpenkorps Jäger delight... Bavarian Jäger, 10. Jäger and 14. Jäger.... I could have afforded them from the collector (maybe)... but they are top premium items in almost mint condition (Uniforms and Tchakos)... I will not be able to afford them from Weitze as they will be top price... but someone earning more than me will buy them because you will never see that quality and in that condition again... it is all relative to your budget. My experiance has often been walking around a show with my bag of things to trade or sell, going to all the collector-Dealers and smaller dealers and having to hear from all of them why my prices are way more than they would ever pay... then landing at the Weitze table and getting almost what I asked without any big discussion... Its a double edged sword ;-)

Hi, He collected for 50-60 years, he had fantastic stuff he recieved directly from the Vets in the 50s and 60s... I think it would be impossible to build up a collection like that today...

Very nice indeed! Is the cammo origianl?

Hi, the pic looks Austrian? Best Chris

It is a nice pass, Leibregiment, verdun, the Edelweiss entered into it..... but the 1918 entry hides something very interesting (can be seen in the entry, no further research needed....) Anyone see it? :-)

The certificate is good. I have had private purchase EKs with small rings that were probably made that way as they are better to hang in a medal bar. This may be a normal award piece where someone made the ring smaller for that reason. Best Chris

Thats a bit like the singer from AC/DC.... you just have to know ... a hat that never falls off hides a bald spot.....

Thats engraved! really strange.....

Yup.... the collection will be premiered there.... I just hope like hell that the names are kept with the items. He had so many items directly from the original wearer with the histories of the men and stories about them.... just the kind of stuff that dealers cannot keep track of. Basically the collector killed the history behind many of his items.

Weitze. if you go on his home page it is the title photo... he will have the whole collection at the show this weekend. I am broke and have to work, so I cannot be there ;-)

Thanks :-) I have just missed some great Jäger stuff. A collector about 20km from aschaffenburg had a fantastic collection, including some of the finest Jäger stuff i have seen. He decided he had reached an age to stop collecting. I am sure he knew many collectors who would have loved to have kept many of the items here in the area but he basically offered nothing to anyone and sold it all to a major dealer... including the Jäger stuff :-(

Hi, Fake

I know the spiked Helmet is Saxon... its just a place holder.....

Wow... the condition is superb!

Wow..... that is a very, very nice group!

Very nice, the face of the dummy with the moustache is better than average for a collecting display.