Chris Boonzaier

Hi, Istanbul has a superb war museum, all the officer groups (bar one) on display there had enamle stars, not painted.

Hi, do you have a good pic of the Egyptian WW1 era version of the DSO? It was a star.

I have a set like taht, or at least the documents. the guy was at a HQ somewhere and got his EK for service. when it came to applying for his HK he was a non cambattant. best Chris

It looks like one of those Generic gorgets you could buy and have a badge of some sort added, in this case the W one. I think usually hunting associations, vetrans etc could buy them nad have their badge added. Its just a question of when it was added and if the Dinkelsb?hlbach Hunting association badge was not on the Gorget until 1998 before an "upgrade" was made.

Hi, how many pages does it have? best Chris

It is one of my most treasured items. I have spent a lot of time and effort researching him and collecting books, postcards etc, relating to L?ttich. Will post them soon. Best Chris

Have you ever seen this book ??? Carl. F. Ronsdorf: Maximilian Bayer : Ein Wegbereiter zur Finnlands Unabh?ngigkeit. Helsinki 1973 thanks Chris

Hi, he was an officer on the Bernd von Arnim, got his 5 issued shields right away and all were Zinc. I had another shield from a destroyer man, also his original issue shield, was also Zink. Maybe both were awarded?

I am not sure how well the background check is. A couple were given to guys in out Regt in the Gulf, one of the guys was serving under another name. According to a LT the Col was told 2 stars for the regt and he said "Well, one for XZY and see if there is an American in the Regt, best person to give it to". Even the regular French army has no access to the background checks made by the legion, so I doubt the US army was able to do any of the checks above just to award a medal... and also, the yank who got it was serving under another name in the legion... Soooooo....

Hi, Zink. best Chris

Hi Pete.. I have the iron cross doc to Max Bayer... you must have something n him ;-)

I have the Narvik shields from my wifes grandfather, he got his with the first issues, they were exactly like the Zink ones posted by Gordon.

Hi... Bob is closer :-)

Hi, no, just found it by chance. Best Chris

No, I dont have them :-( But I remember Rick Research saying they were a popular item on certain dealers lists ages ago who claimed they were his "extras" or second bars etc. I have been looking at some photos of him taken over a period of years... and he always seems to have the same medal bar... does anyone know what happened to it?

It looks a bit cartoonish close up. Best Chrs

Hi Rick, true, true... but that is reaching a more complicated level.... I have taken 607 docs (Both classes) and done stats from them. A certain RickLs contribution was rather heavy on 1914 docs so it may have a slight effect on the overall stats, but overall I think they be as accurate as can be so far. For anyone reading... who has any WW1 EK docs, please enterthe month and year in this thread and i will add them. I hope to get 1000 docs for the end result.

I have been tabulating award dates for WW1 EKs, so far 607 awards taken into the stats... We often hear that the EK was being thrown out in all directins at the end of the war... anyone want to guess which month is in the lead for the period 14-18? :-) Best Chris

Hi, 26 was the makers mark. Weitze sold many wholesale to other dealers and to collectors. They were nice indeed, and are all out in circulation now... to late to cherry pick now.

I am not sure, from what I heard a Russian contacted Weitze and sold him a whole crateful. Some top layers had a bit of damage to the boxes, the lower layers were virgin.... and at the time everyone I knew in germany thought the man was crazy for the high price he was asking for them (Man!!)... little did we know...... what crazy prices would be like nowdays !!!

Hi, you are talking about the famous "26ers". I doubt anyonehas a problem with them these days.

I used to have 3 docs to one guy... KVK2 with swords, KVK2 without swords and a KVM... must have been unique... when I tried to sell, noone was intrested :-(

The largest EK doc so far... specially for the Maik?fer

another bavarian

Who sidelines in iron cross ephemera? Ww1 seems by far to be the high point, during the war and in the years that followed. Mayn things were decotrated with an EK. Postcard, rings, jewllary, clates, cups, chocolate tins, baccy tins, cigar boxes, the list goes on and on. I have also passed it up when I saw it, but of late I have been buying it when I see it cheap. Anyone else find it itresting?