Chris Boonzaier

From New Zealand? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham,_New_Zealand

Yup, but imagine, they are still turned up in areas that have been used since the war (Farming etc)... imagine how it must be in sectors where they just planted forests after the war!

Indeed... and we have all been legless a time or two in our lives... :-)

From his home town archive I have just received a photo of Sperber....

So you think YOU are having a bad day? Try laying in a bunker while French grenades are landing all around while your orderly cuts your foot off with a pair of scissors.... The last day at the front for Lt Walter Sperber.... http://www.kaiserscross.com/40312/628601.html

Superb, I think the curved dagger is from Jemen?

I was sorting through my trades box and found this... I had totally forgotten I had this!!! Pretty cool eh? :-)

Ahh... sounds logical, I was wondering why they had not differentiated between it and the Kriegsehrenzeichen...

The Malay Regiment at the Fall of Singapore has been added to Harry's list of Battle honors for the site HERE Fearless and beyond reproach, the death of Hector Fréderic Arthur André Cornet-Auquie, Captain in the 133rd Infantry Regiment "“I have been put in command of a company. I of course keep my old rank, but I have all the powers, rights, and also all the responsibilities of a captain. It’s terrible. When I was told this yesterday, it really made me sick, thinking of the lives of all these men in my hands…. I feel so young and inexperienced. You have no idea of the horrors of a battlefield.” HERE The Destruction of Orchies by Bavarian Pioneers in September 1914 HERE Additions to the Bavarian Leib Infantry Regiment association hadges HERE http://www.kaiserscross.com/152301.html

Hi, the Card backing is the easiest thing in the world.... by a box of 500 old photos for EUR50 and you will probably have 50 or so on card backings, remove the photo of the boy playing with a sailing boat and add one with a copy of a guy with a FW sleeve badge... price it cheap so it sells fast... and bobs your aunt.

Hi, Some years ago there was a guy selling large amounts of Tank and airplane photos on ebay. in those days you could see what people were buying and selling by their feedback. in his case it was page after page of rare photos... a guy pointed out that waaaaaaay back in his ebay feedback he had been buying vintage blank photo paper and special chemicals to age photos (it is commercially available) ... it was the forum joke of the week... The hardest part of a Photo to get well done is probably the backside.... what easier way to hide it than glue it onto cardboard from old wedding photos,,,,

I think nowdays you can just scan an original and go down to a drugstore and have a print in less than a minute... or a hobby photographer can have it on old paper in his basement lab

Hi, the Great Grandfather was a civilian, although the Grandfather got the Kriegsehrenzeichen in Eisen the Great Grandfather got the simple "kriegsehrenzeichen" Small Bronze one for service to the war effort... see here... http://www.ehrenzeichen-orden.de/deutsche-staaten/kriegsehrenzeichen-in-bronze-1916.html

This is pretty cool... - Great Grandfather - Document for Hessen Kriegsehrenzeichen - Grandfather - From Hessen but in the Prussian Inf regt Nr. 17 - EK2 doc, medal bar and the Hessen Kriegsehrenzeichen in Eisen, Hindy Cross Doc - Father - WW2 EK2 + EK doc Gren regt 20 and HJ Reichsberufswettkampf 1939 doc. - Generation 4 sold them to me

Fantastic photo! I can bite myself in the ass, I saw it, liked it, and forgot it... I did not know the Rommel connection at the time!

Yup, in retrospect I have a bunch of wartime ones like that as well, but his are somehow different.... another one... https://www.ebay.de/itm/Totenkopf-Garde-Pionier-Flammenwerferabzeichen-Hartpappfoto-Atelier-Berlin-/263332750605?nma=true&si=E85epdlv41MvkjXnAquob1gqkME%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 and another... https://www.ebay.de/itm/Totenkopf-Wehrwolf-Freikorps-Wehrverband-Hartpappfoto-mit-Fahne-1925-/263351311551?nma=true&si=E85epdlv41MvkjXnAquob1gqkME%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 His seem to only be high end.... and the card backings seen to be "older kinds" than the wartime...

Of course I would have jumped on this..... but I held back because these Hartpappe backings are usually associated with Prewar pics, not late war ones..... Then I saw he has sold rare Freikorps ones on cardboard backings as well... https://www.ebay.de/itm/Totenkopf-Garde-Pionier-Flammenwerfer-Abzeichen-Stahlhelm-Hartpappfoto-CDV/263408724812?hash=item3d54622b4c:g:38YAAOSwng5aPAm1 What do you guys think? Original, or Postwar pic legitimised with prewar hartpappe backing?

Bloody hell.... some buyer is probably wishing he could read german....

Unlike the other two, I have not been able to find the records of this man.....

Holy Buddah... that is a whole new level...

Very interesting indeed! I wonder what was really in the bottles? Kümmel, Steinhäger, Rum, ...

The badge could have been added at any time and mean anything?

Hi Uwe, nice, i have not seen that wording before!

Love the Hogans Heroes!!!!!

Hi Guys, thanks for the comments :-) Yup, as I slowly reach 50 and realise that I have so many documents and groups bought over the years that I had planned to research in detail... then I see how fast the years shoot by and I realise I will never be able to do them justice. at the risk of bending forum rules, if anyone has an intrest in this bit of German/American history, see the classified section ;-)