Chris Boonzaier

moochos grazias

....so... coastie..... you fall under KGB as well ?????????

Hi, would be really keen to see the order, I have been looking for that for ages. I would not go with the field hospital thing. Noone at a field hospital was empowered to award the EK, even the automatic awards were approved by a General. The WW2 ones , for instance, when the guy had lost a leg or arm and was sent back to Germany were signed by the General, deputy commander of the Wehrbezirk. For all the WW1 ones, they are usually done by the Ersatz Batallion after a General officer approves it it, or from the regt itself, then forwarded to the men in question. In over 800 EK Docs/groups I have just one awarded by a hospital, and even then it was not a field hospital, but a major one in Dusseldorf, and was signed by a full General-Oberarzt. You really have to search far to find an EK doc with medical stamps. Best Chris

Hi Robin, Not strictly correct, especially for the first half of the war. Soldiers who were invalided out, seemed to have been awarded the EK from about mid 16, there must have been an order that came out for this, it also made allowences for soldiers invalided out in 14 and 15 as well, but as for every soldier who was wounded, that is not correct. Plenty of soldiers shot or hit by shrapnel who spend some months in hospital and came back to their unit, and did not get the EK until they had another long period of combat under their belt. If you have any official decrees and or orders about this I would be dead keen to read it. In WW2 there was an official order that anyone with a Silver wound badge automatically got one, these were often awarded in germany, without any citation or recomendation from the unit. A Silver wound badge and a clean record were enough. I assume the WW1 degree of wound may have been the same, Silver wound or enough to have you invalided out. Best Chris

Just to be sure, you mean American 2.11.1917 not German? i.e. 11.2.1917. The 50 RD was at Beaumont Hamel and lost a lot of men on Feb the 11th. on the 2nd of November they had long moved on. Best Chris

Oooohh.... that is more than interesting!! I have about 8 German, 8 US, 5 French.... but only one British officer. High on my list is a really nice British OR Jacket, so this is a nice start on my way to learning about them... Please keep the information coming!!!

Indeed, on a smaller lever, a marriage of a document and the award, missing everything else is always to be regarded with a healthy suspicion. I have only ever had 2 RKs, each had 1 or 2 documents.... this one the RK VB, the other an EK2 and wound (I think it was those two), but I was never really 100% sure on either that all really belonged together. When i get an Imperial EK2 and doc on Ebay I usually just toss the EK2 into s drawer, most of the time there is no way on earth they belong together. Best Chris

I find a Major Ross, of the Canadian Scouts, which may then have a Ross Rifle connection?

Magic, thanks... you are going to make me regret having sold the jacket ;-)

Very nice indeed!!

An interesting note to the "Good old days".... I bought this cross "800" in about (approx) 1996, from Willi Waldvogel. It was sold with a VB in Zweitschrift for his KC. Misera later got oakleaves and a Golden CCbt clasp. a number of that periods "bigger collectors" had this in their hands at shows and all commented that the cross was good, the loop was not. Easily explained then as the Oakleaves had been removed, and ring was replaced at a later date. A couple of years later I traded and sold it to the late K.P. Gündert who was considered an expert in RKs, he puzzled over the piece, his conclusion was, definately original, because of the quality. Geissler had been used, no match found, but we all remember the days where "in this quality, it must be real". The cross was NOT a S+L 800. A couple of years later I asked Gündert if I could buy it back, but he had already traded/sold it. Some time after that I saw a letter for sale with a Misera signature (he had written to a collector), in it he said his awards went missing in 45... either fact, or simply to get collectors off his back. So a mystery KC, that in retrospect I am glad I was not able to buy back. I have only ever seen one other, which was denazified. Here is the B3gger.... there was a small feature on the teeth that I had pinpointed, which was ecaxctly the same as the denazified one... but I cannot remember what it was :-( Anyway, it is not a cross i would buy today, at best it is a grey area "unknown", at worst an extremely good fake. I was sure I had posted it on WAF, way back when, but stuff before 2001 seems to be archived somewhere, so I cannot say for sure. I will keep looking for some better pics....

having tried all possible reasonings... the most obvious one is still lacking. It is pretty unlikely, but then so is the badge.... This is for the Askari FW Trupp of the Schutztruppe in DOA .... :-))))

The WW2 collectors have a special vocab "Rounders", "third toed eagles" "Flatties" etc. etc.... Maybe it is time we Imperial folks did the same... I vote we call this last one the "bent knob"

Hi, I will see if I can find any, I traded it in and out again in tha late 90s, am not sure if I have any more photos. Best Chris

Hi, that is indeed very nice! Are you going to do a bit of research into the fighting he was killed in? Best Chris

Whups, I read the wrong date somewhere.

Geographically it fits.. Herbert Steinkopf born 30.03.1913 died 16.02.1994 in Somerset West (South Africa) RK on the 05.05.1943 Do you have photos of the rest? Are there any stamps on the RK or the ring? Look very forward to seeing more !!!!!!

I am pretty sure there was no catch up at all. If you did not have it at the end of the war, tough titties.... and if you wanted one... you had to buy it.

I have no idea what they are, or what they are worth... but that is an eye catcher of a piece!!!

Hi, I will take a look when i get home tonight. I may have something. Best Chris

Kriegsmarine officers are very hard IMHO, if I remember correctly, Bundes- and kriegsmarine are more or less the same?

CAnt remember, I think 1940. Best Chris

Some items captured by the Foreign legion in Loyada 1976...

Hi, I think it was simply a very late war award and the info did not get through to him. This happened to a number of people in the last days of the war. Best Chris

Hi, there are some fine histories written by guys who were in the unit. Here on the forum I seem to remember Spasm was in the unit, and SAbrigade was in as well. Best Chris