Chris Boonzaier

A tought... <These were bombastically expensive in Turkey... the German made ones twice as much as in Germany.

For me it is the stuff that come with the medal. When I ebay an Iron Cross document with a passbook, an Iron cross, some letters from the guy whose document and milit?rpass they were, etc. etc. rather complete and no reason to suspect a put-together I usually keep it together. If I buy a simple Iron Cross doc with an iron cross.... I toss the cross in a drawer ans split them up. I think it is a question of Fingerspitzengefuhl.

What gets me is... BB&co are the most common to be found. This was a very common award. The award pieces must have been made in boxes and boxes... In Istanbul you don't really see any other than BB%co and some nice German examples and occasionally the painted one. If there is another maker of issue pieces..... where are they all? Best Chris

I think we share one of those fields.... Would you consider DSO's, MC's, OBE's, unnamed WW2 sets etc etc unatributed? A MC, 39-45 star, Burma star, war medal etc... no manes, but with stuff from the man, letters etc are just a pile of unnamed trinkets that can gladly be sold of separately? If you get a group with breast stars do you sell them off as you have no names on them to attribute them? Do your middle eastern bars have names and the gongs and do you split them up? I can find many unnamed British awards... can these all be separated from their groups with no pangs of conscience? And in this field where attribution is worth more than just word of mouth DNW gets the occasional fortune on the strenght of a named cardboard box and accompanying letter with unnamed medals to a dambuster. Can I split out the first and last two on this bar? They are not named?

I have a typed manuscript that looks to be a translated diary of a captured Russian General (it is in the group of a German officer who had a lot to do with the POWs). On the first pake the name Sokolow is written at the top. Best Chris

I love that stuff. Best chocolate around. I have to buy it sneakily as it is not cheap and the wife does not approve of the price ;-)

I have 3 EK docs to the 12th Bavarians. EK2 and 1 to Moser and another EK2 won on the Aisne. It seems to be a rule for the regt that they have a 2 liner about where and very, very roughly, for what the award was made.

A link to a brief rundown on the 10th Reserve division can be found http://www.kaiserscross.com/64901/64922.html

Then from jan to Dec 1917 he was the paymaster with Sturmbataillon 9 on the Eastern front. Not a really sexy position, but nice solid little group.

His EK2 made out to him in the 8th Comapny of the regt. It was awarded in April, but could have been for earlier service. Unfortunately withought the Regt history I cannot see if he is mentioned as having fought in Feb, March, April. Senior NCOs are mentioned in the 37th Reserve history, so I am hoping the 37th Fusilier regt history is as good.

This group is an "almost".. but still pretty nice. This is a pre Verdun offensive doc. Our man was at battalion HQ until the 26 Feb 1916 when it seems he went back to his company, the 8th of F?silier regt 37. The regt is one of my favourites as it is part of the elite 10th reserve division. I grab any docs I can to the division.

Oh Puleeease Ed. You know I am not a Right winger by any means, but you said it yourself... how many of them survived? Few. Ergo...brave men. Brave men equal medals. Medals equal interesting things to collect.... especially BRAVERY medals, irrespective of "which side they were on" As far as "How many of these "Winners" won the war? Is that was a criteria for medal collecting? we could toss all the medals from the middle east if so. Not collect Japanese. Communism was a failure. Russian Crimea a waste. Anglo Boer war medals to Boers. A lot of Italian stuff. You look down on a lot of British Colonial stuff won by Anglo`s, but they WERE the winners most of the time. Either I am confused, or you are way off base on this. Best Chris

I know nothing about glider badges, but guess Stijn must be right on this. Notice no glider badge on his postwar ribbon bar. A very interesting war. Best Chris

Sold on Ebay with a bad photo.... the "Fort Douaumont " was hard to read. I bid about 5 times more than I ended up getting it for. At long last I have done some research.... I think it is a great read, even if documents are not your thing... http://www.kaiserscross.com/40047/93801.html

This Ugly dirty bit of paper is one of my favorite EK docs....

Here by the way a FAKE colonial EK docs, the top two for East Africa... http://www.kaiserscross.com/40038/76501.html Best Chris

Any chance he was KIA? I dont see that in the regt history. Or badly wounded? In anycase, at some stgae he was replaced as Company commander. It cannot have been a disciplinery thing as he was awarded the EK1 at about the same time. Best Chris

Does anyone else have Norway wound docs to share ? best Chris

I saw a few more folks posting about these so was wondering if anyone else had any opinions? Will try and get some good scans up today. Best Chris

I don't think you will have any luck. I would bet my car he was not an officer. If he was a legionnaire (other ranks) there is no way of researching him that I know of. But I would guess... if the first part was baloney, then the legion bit would be as well. All the best Chris

Hi, this was Hans Robert. The reason I am so keen to know is that Cron, in his outline of Von Belows complete army's role in the Battle for France march 1918 makes reference to just one smaller unit. The battalion Caspari of IR75. Now, if old Hans Robert was in the rear and did not take part in the attack :-( .......... He was born Juli 1878, so not the youngest, but I suppose they would have gotten as many men who could hold a rifle together? He later got an EK2 and of course a HK with swords.

A silly question... Can anyone guess.... a week or so after this was issued the Battalion was in a major attack... could a comapny afford to keep a guy out of the line permanently for something like this or would he have been back in the line for the attack? All the best Chris

I think you nailed it. Bingo. Thanks Chris

"Melder bei der ..." Kassenwhatever? Russenwhatever? Any ideas?

Seems a very unusual career. I would check the Natal medal and QSA roll just to see if its on the level. There is no way he would have been a legion Colonel and the DSO is probably serving with the Brits so there must be a Lon.Gaz. entry with a unit? Best Chris