Chris Boonzaier

or is it even Infanterie?

Any idea? 9th Infanterie Trupp? Gruppe? Thanks Chris

Is there a club for ex owners of GWL POs? :-)

A promising start! How long into the war did they wear the Village people leather man hats? Best Chris

Not forgetting, Infantry regiments in a panzer division were awarded the Bronze Panzer badge. Best Chris

Hi, there are many, many variations.... superd collecting field in themselves. They are usually for the 100th birthday of the regt, but not to be worn on the uniform. Best Chrs

The most comman Belgian mask is the one with WW1 German leather but adapted for the French filter. I read that these were captured leather masks but adapted to French filters because it was not possible to ensure a regular supply of German filters. Someone else said they are POST WW1 masks using captured masks and adapted by the French 8for the Belgians) to use French filters. Does anyone have an idea about the exact history of these masks? Thanks Chris

Maybe the answer lays here.. La M?daille de la Paix du Maroc (Spanish award), Nichan Iftikhar de Tunis (Officier). With the North African connection it may be that she took whatever tropical uniform she could find. It could not be a tailor made one off as the buttons are set up for a man, I would say an off the rack uniform. Does the cap not look a bit Spanish?

HI, would not have been possible as they did not have the same regimental system. A man could quite easily serve in 3-4 regiments during the war. That way only a centrally numbered system would work. Joins and trains with the ersatz battalion of the X IR, gets sent to a division where he is in the replacement pool, gets sent to XX IR, gets wounded, comes back but this time to the XXX IR, by then an old sickly codger and gets sent to the XXXX LIR. It can be seen time and again is pass books Best Chris

Is it possible to have a close up of the ribbonsd? Thanks Chris

Looks like a tropical thing of some sort.

Rick nails it. Brians guy was "Wolff two" my guy was "Wolf four"... and somewhere inbetween was "Wolf three" Each village here has a huge base of people with the same name... We have lots of Hartlaubs, 5km away they have tons of Zahns.... as units were also regional... you had lots of potwntial for 3 or 5 or more guys with the same name.

How many chickens died t make that photo possible :-(

Do you know what the "IV" is after his name? :-)

Not bent, just soldered on that way... where is the RZM when you need it!!

Here is an honest to god example I am keeping... maybe it will be worth a fortune some day.... Its the Monday morning "I am still too drunk from the weekend to see straight..." version...

But lower ranks like this dude were not allowed fashion statements were they ? :-) "But Sarge... its all the mode in Sachsen..."

And the Regiments Mixte, where I am sure the Zouaves wore the uniform of their parent unit...

I would think it should have a tailor label of some kind? Although that is a shot in the dark on my part. The Baden Powel thing I doubt... but who is to say the museum did not just do a mock up with any old Khaki jacket they found? A very, very long shot unless there is some kind of photographic evidence of this jacket (or one like it) being worn by an officer of that period..... Could be an Argentinian Navy jacket for all we know :-)

Could JG4 have adopted it based on what Galland was wearing when this photo was taken?

Obviously not him on the right. The guy on the left looks a little too "Cool" to have been in just from August 14 to May 15. I would guess one of the two guys in the middle. He entered the army in August 14 in the IR102, but was with the RIR242 within a week, 5 weeks later he was in the field in Ypern.

Here is a photo that came with some documents. Unfortunately no mention of which one (if any) is "My guy" Soldat der Ersatz Reserve Heinrich Friedrich was wounded on the 5th of may 1915 at Ypres. He was in the 242 R.I.R. Returned to his Ersatz Bataillon in November 1915, invalided out in April 1916, awarded the EK2 in July 1916.

Maybe my imagination, but in this Feb 1913 shot he looks to have a different helmet on than in the three stooges photo above?

Hard to say, it could be stenciled. It looks to be the kind with hooks...

Feldgrau