Chris Boonzaier

May 20

Commando Georges was the brainchild of Bigeard. Considered an elite unit it played an important part in hunting down rebel groups in the Saida area. With a Cadre of French officers and NCOs the unit had a high percentage of ex rebels.

Due to the reputation of the unit and the high number of rebels it accounted for the men of the commando were prime targets for revenge operations after the war.

This rare numbered badge for the commando is the rarest of Commando George Badges. A souvenier brought back by a german legionnaire.

May 20

Here are 2 of the members of the platoon recieving the cross of valor and the Brevet given after a year in the platoon. Every company has its desinated marksmen/Snipers, but the support company has the STELD or "long distance" sniper platoon which is armed with the 50cal sniper weapons and lighter ones as well. The patch is non official

May 20

Some of the rarer modern patches in wear....

May 15

The "stage franchissement" or "crossing qualification" was a qualification for Drivers of the Amphibious APC, the "VAB"... part of the instruction was using a mini resperator, underwater obstacles etc to train them in the case of the VAB sinking. Evacuation of personel etc.

In later years the extra armour on the VAB made the vehicule too heavy for amphibious operations. All the new vehicules are too heavy and for that reason the qualification no longer exists. On the left is the standard badge, on the right the relatively rare one used by the 1st company of the 2nd REI

May 15

The attached Firefighters who are responsible for the vast shooting ranges in the garrigues at Nimes, the 2 rectangular ones are old and new version of the official sleeve badge, the round one is a unit internal unofficial badge

Track suit badges for the sportskit of the different companies

Two versions of the Task Force Dragon patch, one for Mali, one for Niger

Patch for a member of the team that run the training groundsa and shooting ranges

April 11

If I remember right, they got it fighting on the Hatmannsweilerkopf. I think this Photo must be 1920s or early 1930s?

New member of the family.... · April 2

OK, a bit of Devils advocate needed here please….

About three years ago a friend was visiting a Schloss in Bavaria which had been the ancestral home of a Graf from about 1820ish to 1920ish.

The historical society there is mainly interested in the history of the buildings, not so much the occupants throughout the ages.

There is a tiny museum with objects related to the Graf family, just y few odds and ends, but it is not the focus of their work. One of the items in the cases is the dogtag and pouch to the youngest son who was killed serving as a Lt at Verdun in July 1916.

In the offices of the society my friend spotted a fieldgrey tunic for a leibregiment Lt. he asked the chairman of the society where it came from, and he had no idea. It had been in the possession of the society for many years, but no one knew its origins and added to that, it is not the kind of thing their museum concentrates on. When my friend asked he said they may consider selling it.

My friend put me in contact wit them, I helped identify it as a leiber regiment and confirmed for them that the son served in the Leibregiment. We chatted for some time and I was informed that if they could not find any proof that it belonged to the young Graf they had no need for it.

I tried to help by looking up the few photos of him available, but none with the jacket.

My info to them was, I think it very possible, maybe even probable it was his, but there was no way of proving it either way as there was no name or tailor label.

After a few years the association voted to sell it and we agreed on a price which was good for them financially, and good for me as I really wanted the jacket.

Although I will never prove it, here is my thinking…

1) A field grey Leiber jacket is pretty rare. The Bavarian Army had maybe 150 (200?) different units from active, reserve, ladwehr, different branches of service… I am going to go out on a limb and say, if you found a random Field Grey Officers tunic in Bavaria, there will be less than a 1% chance it is from the Leibregiment.

2) If you live near Würzburg, there are probably potentially more 9^th IR than other Regiments, if you live near Neu Ulm maybe a good chance for 12 IR… but the Leigbregiment was from men chosen from all over Bavaria, so the items would be spread all over Bavaria.

3) Taking the rarity into account, finding a Leiber Tunic to a Lt in the house where a Leiber LT lives points towards the probability that it was the tunic of the person who lived there. Especially because the dog tag and bag he was wearing when he was killed were there as well.

4) The tunic is early war, with Swedish cuffs worn by some officers in 1915, I have seen them in 1916-17 photos, and there are certainly a handful still around in 1918, but I am thinking most of these would have been on their last legs by them. As the jacket in Question is still in tip top condition, it seems to be logical that it could have belonged to an officer killed earlier in the war.

5) Of course, wishful thinking on my side, and I know it will never be proved, but I am going to go with the “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck” thing and say, for me I am pretty damned sure it was the jacket of the young Graf…

No need to spare my feelings here… what do you think?

April 1