Chris Boonzaier

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From what I understand, tis may be the only one of its kind in Europe.... Botton tray....

Minenwerfer, Machine Guns... and a dash of Anatolia.... see whats new !!!!

Agreed, I would leave it.... if its how the old vet wanted it... who are we to consider removing it.

Plenty of old soldiers added things like this after the war, not officially supposed to be there, but not unseen. Best Chrid

I wonder if he was "officially" given this, with document from Pops.... Or if he assumes he is entitled and just dusted of Grandpops award?

There was an interesting comment on a forum... The new "PLE" members will actually go through a special course... Whereas the old "PM" were recruited along the lines of "Wanted: the Regiments 5 biggest Taihitians"

Just kidding ;-) Do we get to see the baby? :-)

Ooooooppppssss..... that being the case, I hope it is a period note!

Hi, I cede all points about the medal to you, my remarks are exclusivley related to how many medlas would have been in a minimum production run. Best Chris

For decades the "PM" (or in English "MP") patrols used to cruise around in old jeeps looking for troublemakers in the town. Catching Anyone "going over the wall" for an unauthorised night out, or getting into a drunken brawl could be picked up by the PMs, probably get roughed up on the way to base and then land in the regt drunktank/Jail. Ahhhh yes.... the PM Jeep coming round the corner... and everyone trying to look innocent... The Legion was the only unit in the French Army to have a PM. Recently the powers that be declared that the Legion was no longer allowed to have a PM. Sooooooooooo...... from this month on... On the red and green Brassards... the letters "PM" will be removed. Instead "PLE" will be put on the Brassard .... "Patrouille de la Legion Etrangere"... The task of the patrol will be to assist and protect legionnaires, especially the young ones who have not yet integrated into society.... Of course... if they have time, down on the list of tasks is... making sure noone goes over the wall, or gets into drunken brawls etc. etc. etc..... As my man Jesus Rodrigues sings "Dont try and fool me with your manner of dress Because a monkey in silk is a monkey no less" ;-)

Indeed, Without being able to comment on the badges, I think from a practicle point of view, once you have the dies ct, the machine set up and the raw material ready.... it is onlikely that they made things in batches of 10. I wonder what the minimum produktion run was ? For non enamel awards maybe a couple of hundred? Then as you get to awards with a lot of hand work (Enamel etc) mabe the same, but with less of them being "finished", more "stored parts" which could be finished as needed? Best Chris

Agreed, post 167 looks to be home renovation on a chipped piece. best Chris

Sometimes when you are cleaning out your hard drive you find "old friends, long gone..." One was this group to a NSDAP Lawyer, started the war as an Army NCO, then was an SS Officer in the Division "Nord". Group is complete, as he had it after the war... interesting he had no assault badges.

The medal bar is the best way to recognise the group, documents to "Schmelzer". I think a German bought it as googling the name brought a hit of a German asking questions about him... http://forum.panzer-archiv.de/viewtopic.php?t=7633&sid=9f6a49936d6c9ee3a104358e62af477e If anyone is a member there... could they tip Matthias off?

It is one of my golas to track down the buyer of this group.... Detlev sold it about 6 months after I sold it to a WAF member in Italy. By the time it got to Detlev, it had been butchered... medals upgraded, dagger and Visor cap added, photos added and only REAL photo of the winner removed.... All the documents were there as well. If you know anyone who bought this group to Schmelzer, please tell them to contact me.

I posted these years ago, they belonged to the wifes Great Grandfather, KIA 1944. At the time noone knew who had made them. Any advances since then?

Hi, this is in a group I saw 6-7 years ago. The collector is a ultra advanced (2 VCs level) British Commonwealth collector. he wanted one German group and this was found for him, still in the family. The guy was killed in the war (for some reason i think Battle of Britain, but maybe later). Anyway, it was a killer Legion Condor etc group... as one of the last pieces I looked at the EK... Some time ago someone was saying "Early cross with a stamp like that, something foul..." This is an UNTOUCHED woodwork piece. Present owner did not even know what a round three was till I explained it to him Best Chrs

Have posted tis a number of times over the years.... but here once again... an out of the woodwork cross that is in a Legion Condor Vet group.... Anyone know any others with makers marks?

Here are 2 pics..... Does anyone have anything more about what is in there? Thanks Chris

I remember once buying a bandoleer, it arrived in the mail... what I did not realise (and so obviously a nice surprise) it still had its original rounds in it, dated 1918 !!! I got a special hammer that allows you to remove and replace heads (so you cannot see the round was ver touched) and emtied them right away.... but that was a neat buy indeed.... !!!

Hi Uwe, Agreed, in part. This is the 2nd Generalstab des Feldheeres from March 16, filled out for early 1915 awards. March 1916 seems to have been a catch up date for units that had not been issuing awards. The IX Reserve Korps for instance.... seems to have not issued any award documents until March 1916, then gone into overdrive to retroactively do it. I have a number of documents from the IX Reserve Korps issued in March 1916 for awards that had been made in 1914. This must have been a significant date of some sort. Maybe the order had gone out that V.B. s should be issued. That all these catch ups start in march 1916 seems to be meaningful. The Alpenkorps seems to have done the same, also have almost all late war docs, even for early war awards. So, supposing that in early 1916 the order came down from the Generalstab that VBs should be issued.... would it have reached all units? Once again, I think regular units, yes. They would have made out documents to their people. But soldiers who are detached from their unit are often "Herrenlos", with noone feeling responsible for them. I contend that if someone was from something like the Postdirektion, who probably did not issue documents.... then the recipient would have had to go looking for someone to issue a dokument for him. Along the lines of "Hey, I am from the Postdirektion, am attached to you guys, just got a letter that I have been awarded an EK2.... Could someone do me a document "i.A." "? I also think that by mid 1916 things were still not up and running as wanted. Many units were still issuing documents in 1917 and 1918 for awards made 2 years earlier... and I bet the soldiers had to nag and nag to get them. I have one group where the guy has 3 documents... (Also an obscure unit that probably had no preprinted ones). I think the guy kept writing for a document and kept getting a typewritten VB. Lets also not forget, 1916 was a pretty hectic time... and with German troops heavily involved all over Europe, how succesfully could a new Vorschrift about paperwork be implemented uniformly? I still believe... if the guy in the first post was unlucky... this may have been the only written document he got. I do admit he could have recieved other docs... but we cannot be sure.

Lets assume you are a postal inspector in XXX. You are serving with the XYZ A.K. Your Postal inspector boss back home has an EK approved for you. There is no official document and you are no longer under his direct command. He can write and inform you of the award .... but it may be that a postal inspector seldom has to do with awards and does not have a drawer full of blank documents.... in fact, and and all documents are the private initiative of the unit commander... so you may just have to make do with a letter... until after the war, when you get a Final doc.

Agreed, but as there I think we can agree that there was no standard Award document. Up Until 1918 it was supposed to be that the award documents would be issued after the war. For that reason some units did not give out documents, and msot units had documents printed or bought generic ones. It can also be assumed (I think) that men in "obscure" units, had to make do with a letter telling them that the award had been approved. Whereas a regular infantry Regiment had the habit of issuing them, a base depot in XX may not and as such a letter confirming the award may have been the "award doc". My doc for the 1870 Spange is similar, the guy was in a depot somewhere... there was definately no established process for awarding 1870 Spange to old guys in this depot... so he was given a letter confirming his award and an auszug from the award list. Best Chris

P.S. I have about 5-6 of these.