Chris Boonzaier

I assume the Seniors were 1813 recipients? Can anyone figure out what their task was from the text?

Lt von Oertzen of the famous 24th IR in April 1916.....

Hi, the Lt Col. Best Chris

Hi, Here are my 9th and 12th Bavarians. A question, I assume the 9th inf (there was no 9th Res Inf)is an early war greatcoat set? Unfortunately the 9th changed commanders very often so in the first 2 years of the war there were 4 possibilities :-(

Haupti! Sorry I did not get around to this earlier... Very interesting letter indeed! And interesting to see what a Nazi Buttkisser he was... I was going to say the political cuddling in the letter may have made the allies dislike him... then saw he was sentenced to life. Nice find!!!!!

Damn, I had forgotten this post. I HOPE I still have it, must look, but a relative of my wife worked in a department that looked after Pension claims of refuges after WW2. One of them was Gutmann's. He sent me a photocopy of the letter Gutmann sent in 46 or so giving his Bio, what happened to him in and after the war etc. I must search and see where it is... its Chaos here, I have papers and documents all over....

You know what.... i dont know why I did not have that thought when this first came up.... I dont think there were any awards to Africans at all... maybe the confusion resulted from the ribbon?

I think politically this had to be done as low key as possible.... boring design, same old ribbon, not to much cost.... average civilian/politician would not recognise it for anything other than the normal stuff... etc. etc...

Not so fast.... S+L may well have made this... they long ago gravitaed to industrial era "craftmanship"....

Refering to the documentation of the proposed 1st Bavarian Div attack. Thomas is right... the 35th and 36th Gas pioniers were along to help. As it was their attack 3 pioniers were attached to the first wave and 3 to the 3rd. Their job was to act as Gasschutz personel and help the storm troops find their way through the gassed areas. I think it safe to assume that the men of the gas units fulfilled this role in attacks their unit took part in. Leaves the question open ... who did it in attacks where they did not take part? i.e where the gas was fired only by arty and minenwerfer. I was looking through a couple of books on the gas war last night, published in the DDR. It becomes apparent that the set up of the gas systems used by the 35th and 36th required a lot of manual labour. I think this may explain the "armierungs" troops attached to the regiments. Best Chris P.S. in case it sounds like I am beating on Thomas here... He is doing a great service to us all. His work on FW and Sturm units is pretty much ground breaking. There really is not a lot of info out there and it must take tremendous effort to get it all together.

Dont want to seem like I am being argumentitive but... it seems that the shock troops do this... "The role of the shock troops will be to open a passage through the enemy’s positions ...and.... to break down the remaining resistance, to attain the objectives assigned them," Then the pioniers do this... "salvage and destruction" . The break down of wave 1 seems to be 12 squads of Assault troops, Wave 2 three larger units, and wave 3 the pioniers. Like I said before, I really think a study of some primary source material, or at least from the histories of the German units is needed. best Chris

Hi, but in this case they are not with the shock troops but with the 3rd wave. The original document is from a 1917 US published booklet, I think it important to get a German source to clear it up. This refers to a major offensive, so everyone and his dog must be included somewhere in the order of battle. Best Chris

Hi, I think a non govt. medal particular to the federation. Best Chris

Hi, an interesting event. I will look up once I get home. It would be interesting to see the original document. I think we would agree though that this constellation was tailor made for the operation and that Gas Pionier were not standard members of assault units. I have a book on Bavarian pioniers somewhere and will see if i can find any extra info. Best Chris

Horrible death, but at least very quick.

I think it is a french one. Dont the officer cadets at St Cyr wear these?

Hi, do you have the original German text and the German name for the operation? All the best Chris

Anyone who has collected variations like Inf Asaault, Panzer assualt etc. knows how it is.... You get 50 or so recognized originals... then you hit a time when nothing new shows up.... then, to keep the collection flowing you have to head out into the unusual/variation direction.... and half of what you get is disputed by others.... so it becomes a question of belief.... either you believe, or you dont.... I think the guys with the most experiance in this kinds thing are the ones who collect theater made Vietnam patches.... the collectors there also have to be "believers" each time they pull out their wallets...

I think the danger of saying "there were tons of unofficial badges" means that hope and wishful thinking can overtake logic. It means and dirty, dusty cloth skull, which may have been used for any club, association, group, political group could now, with a bit of wishful thinking, be a WW1 German badge. Lets keep both feet on the ground here.... and weigh up the two posibilities... Ebay is full of stuff, some of it good, some of it downright terrible and a healthy pinch of skepticism should be used when buying... lets weigh up the possibilities... 1) For a reason known only to Buddah, for some reason it has become a source for ultra rare, never seen before, variations of german assault troop badges... 2) As has been going on for years, all kinds of badges, some good, some fantasy, are tossed on by 10 000 sellers a day... only difference now is, unlike 3 years ago, when a skull pops up, instead of saying "that could be anything from a fantasy badge to a variation of the Freischwimmer badge" someone thinks "what if that is an ultra rare ..........". 3) Day in day out there are all kinds of things on Ebay, but the race for skulls has simply lowered the bar and those in the race have to turn to "what ifs..." to keep the stuff coming in. I think some Ockham's Razor thinking is needed here......

Hi Thomas, Are you sure of this? My understanding is that the Gas Battalion/Regt guys were specialists using heavy projectors. Armierungs men are labourors, usually behind German lines. They are also usually unarmed, which may explain why only 2 men in the photo are armed. One of the tasks of Armierungs soldiers is to prepare new positions once ground is occupied by the Germans. My guess would be, if the men are armierungs men, that they may be attached to the Gas Regt to prepare for the set up of the launchers, but I think it unlikely that they would be attached to Sturm troops. The very nature of the gas launchers makes then unsuitable to be rushed forward with assault troops. What was the reference that puts the gas regt soldiers in with the shock troops? Best Chris

Hi, is it a navy medal? Best Chris

I would imagine about 1940 in newly occupied France (no late war tunics, early war kinda medals) and the guys are in their new quarters posing with some helmets and hats they have found. I doubt they are POWs, it is an early war photo. The French police were not disbanded and he could have been there at any stage in the war. best Chris

I would imagine about 1940 in newly occupied France and the guys are in their new quaters posing with some helmets and hats they have found. I doubt they are POWs, it is an early war photo. best Chris

Or a sign of "no comment" ? ;-) I saw that one on Ebay.... It can be anything you want it to be...

Huh! I have just found a small photo of my guy.... not a great one, but you take what you can get.....