Chris Boonzaier

In Bosnia you could just hold up a pack of smokes or sweets and folks would bring them to trade. Same in Europe after WW2. I would imagine souveniers are not only ripped from the breast of the vanquished but also legitimatley traded for a pack of Marlboros.

It takes time and effort on the part of the person doing the discs, but they are a great service to anyone doing research. hats off to both of you.

I had a non spanish grup to a Navy Lt attached as an Observer to a flying unit. They seem to all have been observers. he had EK2 and one, observer badge and the three clasps. The rank was "Leutnant (M)" with the M for Marine. At the end of the war he was training for Uboots and in the Bundeswehr he was in the panzer branch.

new book coming out... http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/arham/page2.html

What about the "I am only a reenactor... leave me alone you Bastid, I done nuttin wrong! I am dressed as Audie Murphy and that guy there is Rommel with a PLM, and that guy is a Stuka pilot with a DKiG and that guy is Colonel Whitherby Poncycock wearing a DSO, we are all off to the historical show...why pick on me !!!" defence?

The S+L rim argument is a complicated thing indeed. To complicate it more... let me throw in the following thoughts. Thought 1) An RK rim is not a perishable item. Thought 2) Silver is not a use once material. So, to those thoughts 1) we are not at Walmart fish counter with a first in first out ratation method. 2) We dont have to consider "If Imake a purse out of this leather and it does not sell... I have wasted it. Which means... for thought 2) there is no danger in over production, if you make to many silver items, you can always reuse the silver, you have no loss ... and for thought 1) if you are making rims faster than you need them, you will have to store them. as they are not perishable, you have no "best before date" ... ie. you can make a pile of flawless rims, put them in a box. make a pile of flawed rims...... when it comes to putting the crosses together, the first few boxes have flawed rims and they are made with these. At some stage they have stopped making rims and depending on what is left they can use flawed or non flawed stock which was made eons ago.

How do we know it is not made in Britain?

does everyone know about Patrick Schallert? He has about 120 regimental histories availible in CD disks. These are one of the essential tools needed for research. Like Pauls CD it saves you a fortune. Each regt history costs about EUR5 or 6 , so far mostly Bavarian units, landwehr, etc, but also many others, J?gers, Rohr, cav, etc, etc, His email is... FJ_VF168@gmx.net All the best Chris

Never go there without the lucky T-Shirt They are a bugger to display eh!!! I had 2-3 possibilities in mind on the way home... but none were practicle in the end.....

I found this... Commandants of the 1st Duke of York"s Own Lancers (Skinners Horse) Col. James Skinner C.B. From 10-3-1803 to 4-12-1841 Major L.H. Smith From 5-12-1841 to 9-12-1849 Col. Crawford T. Chamberlain From 10-11-1849 to 4-8-1867 Col. W.R.E. Alexander From 5-8-1867 to 31-3-1876 Col. R. Jenkins From 1-4-1876 to 9-9-1880 Col. A.R. Chapman From 10-9-1880 to 9-9-1887 Col. R. Morris From 10-9-1887 to 9-9-1894 Col. R.F. Gartside-Tipping C.B. From 10-9-1894 to 9-9-1901 Col. C.H. Hayes From 10-9-1901 to 31-3-1907 Col. C. Davis From 1-4-1907 to 31-3-1912 Col. C. Bailey From 1-4-1912 to 4-12-1914 Col. G. Holland Pryor M.V.O., D.S.O. From 5-12-1914 to 6-7-1916 Lt. Col. F.D. Russell From 7-7-1916 to 8-7-1920 Lt. Col. E.C.W. Conway-Gordon C.I.E From 17-4-1921 to 28-5-1924 Lt. Col. V.A. Coaker D.S.O. From 23-5-1924 to 8-4-1927 (The Regiment was amalgamated with the 3rd Skinner"s Horse on 1st May 1921 and became the 1st Duke of York"s Own Skinner"s Horse). This tablet has been erected by Lieut Stanley E. Skinner, 1st Duke of York"s Own Lancers Grandson of the late Colonel James Skinner C.B. by whom the Regiment was raised and this Church was built, in memory of the visit to this Church on September ??th of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Colonel in chief of Skinner"s Horse when I finally get to delhiI want to go to the church and take a photo of the tablet. I have the book "Hindu Horsemen" by an officer in the regt, and apparently there is one called "sworn to die" I think he got the DSO while detached from the regt. In the gazette he is listed as 3rd Skinners horse, but he is not listed with the regt as having recieved the award on their strength for NWF 1919, so probably detached and not for combat.

Dont look at me, it took me months of exasperation to find out if I was eligible, and I still dont understand the details !!

I have stopped and started on this group for ages, have never got a foot further than step one when it comes to research. I have the DSO group to Vern Coaker, commander of Skinners Horse in the 1920s, DSO for North Western Frontier 1919, apparently he was detached from his unit at the time. A researcher had a peak in the archives for me, nada, zip, zilch... not a sausage to be found. The only hope I have as I see it is to try and contact the regiment. Is it an Indian or Pakistani Regt nowdays? Is there anyone who can suggest a way of going about it? I understand the Indian army has kept many traditions taken over from the brits, would a regimental museum be one of them? Thanks to anyone who can help. Best Chris

Yup, thems the boys. I was reading up on the statutes as with the new ones I qualify for the cross and found that as a footnote. I wonder how many men claimed it?

By the way, I mean NOW, in the 1990`s, beginning of 2000, the govt decided that anyone who fought on the good guys side could qualify as a vet, get the carte de combattant and the medal, decades after the war was over.

I was thinking about going for it but WW2 is not in my line of intrest... So, incase anyone is intrested, its a great conversation piece I am sure... http://cgi.ebay.fr/MILITARY-CROSS-et-CROIX...1QQcmdZViewItem

My thoughts on this have always been..... whatever you are more comfortable with... possibly your first. My first issue rifle was a FAMAS, noone would think of mentioning that here because it is not widely known or used, but I liked everything about it. Its size, the perfect balance, the balance, the rate of fire on full auto, the single-3 round-unlimited burst possibility, etc. etc. In the legion you had a very different mix of guys... many of them had served in other armies, I had not. For me the FAMAS was the rifle I "grew up" with. It became a total extension of my arm in the resect that I could carry it, sleep with it, move with it... and not even notice it was there. Now, you would hear the other guys with previous experiance all arguing about what the best rifle was... what I always noticed was that the vast majority were always arguing for the rifle... they had first been issued. The brits usually for the FN, the Russians for the AK, South Africans for the R4, Germans for the G3, etc. etc. Carrying and shooting the FAMAS for me was like slipping into a pair of old comfortable slippers, I liked shooting other rifles as well, but there was never that feeling of comfort. It was fun, but you noticed that you held something in your hand, whereas the FAMAS was for me a freddy Kr?ger like extension. The AKs may be mud proof and idiot proof and any untrained man can use it, but usually we are within a group of people with a certain amount of training and Flanders and Ypres were some time ago, any rifle will block with enough mud and I always learned to check and clean as often as possible. AK s and M16s have the advantage that coke and heineken have, they are so widely exported that they are "the brands". Its like Hennessy Cognac, availible all over and a good, solid bit of tipple, whereas Otard Cognac is just as good... but throw the word "Cognac" into a roon and an almost automatic "Hennessy" will echo back. There are many way of choosing the best rifle 1) Which has proved itself the most in action---- could simply stack up to "which has been marketed and sold the most" 2) Experts tested rifles a, b and c. --- very subjective, sometimes you have experts testing WW1 rifles and the Mauser leaves the Lee Enfield in the dust, with the next testers the Lee enfield wins hands down. Dont forget, every piece of cr2p an army adopts was tested by experts somewhere down the line. for me the best rifles is the one I feel most comfortable with, thats the FAMAS. Sure, I can carry more mud around in the barrel of a AK47, or attach more gadgets to a M16, or beat someones skull in better with a G3, and the Galil has a built in bottle opener (ah! most bottles have twist off caps nowdays!), but I never had a problem with the FAMAS and it is .... well... just "right" for me.

I read somewhere that the French govt had exended the right to the croix de combattant to volunteers who fought in the Spanish civil war.... does anyone know of any cases of this?

Hmm.. possible... any idea where that was taken?

Does anyone have a photo where one of these is being used? http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2426 Thanks Chris

Hi, if you get caught, it can be nasty, but they usually just bust the balls of folks taking live munition. Stick grenades have a toxic explosive, but, as I learned recently, they are not watertight, so the fuse and explosives are usually totally water logged. I made sure not to touch it as I scraped it out. There was a lot of live heavy shells... me no touchee sht like that. To get caught lugging a shield through the forest would probably get you some kind of fine as the foresters look out for such obvious souvenier hunting. I was however given this one by a forester as I stopped off to say goodbye on my way home... call it French hospitality

details of the knob to close the firing slit and a hook, I am not sure what it is for...

The back...

side curves out towards the enemy

enemy slide with the slit closed...

Well, after a bit of a clean up... a dirty, dirty, dirty job.... there is a clearer view of what these look like... from the side the enemy sees with open firing slit...