Chris Boonzaier

An NCO in the group.... and idea if that is a silver bravery ribbon?

Him...

Not far from here.... In 1916 (probably), Taffner and some of the men he was training in the Ersatz Batln.

Also probably in the Tirol, him in the middle again....

From the Tirol fighting in 1915, I think he is the little guy with the ammo pouches. The bread bag straps used to keep them up...

A photo, probably from 1916 where he is (I think) Vizefeldwebel d.R. Alpenkorps Edelweiss on the cap

Lt d.R. Michael Taffner

Some great stuff emailed to me by Dave yesterday.... history comes alive!!! Does anyone have the history of the 31st bavarian regt? Thanks Chris

Dave Danner did a bit of killer research for me... Have a great action report about the owner of the tunic in action..... ....yup.... me be a happy boy indeed !!!

I am always looking for stuff to the 2nd Bavarian J?ger Batln. Today a guy brought me a Milit?rpass for a guy who was in the Landsturm battalion Aschaffenburg, then in mid 1917 transfered to the 9th Bavarian Regt. I did not want to pay too much for it, so I got it for an OK price. Later looking at the last pages in the book I see that in 1919 he was in the 4. Volkswehr Komp. of the 2. Bayer J?ger batln. This is totally, totally, totally new to me........ It seems the 2nd Jaeger continued as a Freikorps/Volkswehr unit after the war. Does anyone have any info on this? Thanks Chris

What do you think the bees knees (totally subjective of course) in Imperial headgear is, and for what reason? Best Chris

Newly mounted, newly polished?

Apparently Kube sold one some time ago.... Does anyone have a pic of it by any chance? Thanks Chris

Hi, a note to Antwerp, the fortresses may have been big but were outdated and were to all intents and purposes useless in the face of modern siege artillery. The ring of positions did not take into account the rage or heavy calibers. When King Albert realised they could not withstand the barrage and his troops would not be able to attack out of Antwerp he ordered his troops to move out, which took place largely on the 6th of october. Antwerp was left in the hands of a much smaller group of defenders and fell 3-4 days later. It is sure the Kaiser was happy when it fell, but I would class it more as a "strategic withdrawl" by the enemy than a hard fought battle with glorius victory. Almost all of the Belgians lived to fight another day. As Moltke had remarked further down the front where the French were pulling back "Great victories were signaled by great hauls of prisoners and guns... Where are the prisonners and guns?" It was evident that when the race for the sea was on that any troops left in Antwerp would be lost. For the Brits, Churchill was responsible for forming the three brigades (Hastily formed and only half equiped) but he did not lead them at the front, Asquith would not allow it. I dont think they got near the action, were caught up in the pullback and one of the three brigades was interened. I classify it like St Mihiel in 1918, it was a victory, but the enemy was leaving anyway...

Is it a 57 KVK ?

A rough guess.... If his unit proposed him for an EK, it would take some time for it to go up the chain of command to get approved. Could it be that they had sent the applications up, (bad) luck had him killed on the 29th, the pile of awards were approved and sent down to the unit on the 30th without the higher command having any idea that he had been killed. This is the closest I have seen to a potential post KIA award, but I think it was a case of the paperwork arriving after the event as noone above knew he had died. I have a certificate to the family of a KIA saying "your husband was proposed for the EK but it could not be awarded because of his death..(so have this bit of paper instead...)" (will show you on the weekend ;-)

Hi, I had not noticed the bolts, comparing them to my other ones, you are right, it has slotted screws. I know little about the origin, I bought it from a postcard collector for EUR50 which I think was a steal. On the phone he told me it was stamped 1.P.Z.35 and could he get EUR50. I figured it was worth a gamble as these sawbacks go for between EUR150-200 here. All the best Chris P.S. Welcome to the forum... please check out my thread on the Schutztruppe bayonet... there was no bayonet collector around to appretiate it at the time :-(

Hi, not 100% historically correct. 1) The amount of brits involved in the fighting at Antwerp were proportionally less than the number of players of non European descent in a pre- end of Apartheid era South African Cricket team (if that is possible). 2) The III. R.K. was not on its own having the Marine- and 4th Ersatz Division with it. 3) The taking of Antwerp was facilitated by the fact that the belgians were leaving anyway. A victory against 150 000 men is of little practicle value when most of them turn up in Flanders a short while later to continue the fight. King Albert realised that holding Antwerp was not an option and while delaying with troops in front of it, he was evacuating like crazy at the back. It was the Schlieffen plan that made Antwerp redundant and caused it to be evacuated. Just a couple of points as it is a section i am working on at the moment for some Iron Cross documents. Best Chris

Hi, lets try the PDF way, I think that should work. Once again, thanks for the efforts. Chris

Hi Dave, That is superb! especially the infantry support bit for the 50th (and 221) ID. That gives me something to go on indeed as info on 3rd Ypres and the Somme are there to find. The anti tank role is very nice as well. I guess my jacket was being tailored while he was in Ypres, so was not worn during the fighting, but i love it all the same. Thanks for the efforts All the best Chris

Its not my field of collecting, but are you sure it is good? I am sure examples will be posted to prrove me wrong, but did they actually use "legion Condor" on badges back then? Best Chris

Hi, which era are you looking for? All the best Chris

Hi, Does it have any citations? I have never seen this book and have no idea what kind of format it has, (what info etc). best Chris

Neither has Robin Lumsden and Jaques C, and Frank H, Is this a trend amongst you older collector guys that I missed?????

My god man!!! You have no hair!