Chris Boonzaier

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discreetly deactivated, but all parts original and still moving.....

A super story... and a rather nice pocket knife as well !!!

I dont know, call me a super sceptic, but something is strange with the idea of a spy, under cover, from an occupied country... and the germans are openly sending awards and money to his parents in an occpied country? There is a really good book by ladislas Farago that goes into good detail about the German spying in WW2, especially this kind of spying. it may be worth picking up acopy and seeing if there is any mentions of him and his operation. Best Chris

TomY has a nice 1st pattern, ask him to post it. Best Chris

I have heard there were some South Africans in the BFC but have seen no references in books? There must have been a certain % of soldiers who were both British AND German? They would presumably have served in Regular german units?

I have a DKiG group to a German torpedo bomber pilot who sank 7-8 allied merchant ships in the med during the war. in the papers are the dates and locations of the sinkings. So far I have managed to find sweet fanny adams about the ships..... Does anyone know anyone who could research these? is there an online list of ships that went down? Thanks Chris

Nice group, I recognise all the places on the documents !!!!

"Tight" ???? When i was in the army I mounted my own medals...AND did my own ribbon bars. My usual one was 2) the stiffening backing was cut from one of the plastic cassette cases that anyone who has been in Saudi arabia knows and loves (not the ones you get in the rest of the world.) 1) the dark Blue/Black cloth backing I got by butchering a dress uniform shoulder board. The cloth was folded around the plastic, roughly sewn, hooks added to the back.... Then...... The ribbons were superglued on. I had the best looking ribbon bar in my section, bar none.... :-)))))

I think it has a class of its own ;-) Not all these old soldiers were strutting around in tailor made SA uniforms, some were Rural hayseeds. The village where I live was only tarred in the 1950s, when you see the photos of the volunteer fire service, or Veterans associations fron the 1920s you see the kinds of guys who would have the wife do something like the bar above.

Is that heavy pitting on the blade in post 27? if so, I have a couple like that I use in the garden

Incase you missed it... http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8606

Ahhhh, the navy diver version.... never seen a real one before ;-)

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I have a couple of these for decoration. my first one to a machine gunner who seems to have been a pretty good shot...and this one to a guy whose name I cannot read I like it because it is so beaten and battered that I think the vet must have liked it so much he slept with it, bathed with it, worked with it, and came almost close to being buried with it. I dont want to go the whole route of winding my way down the maze of Russian research, but was wondering.... There must be a few of us here who have one or two Russian pieces where we would be happy to have the reasearch, but have just not around to it in the 15 years that the medal has been laying in a drawer.... What say we form a pool of guys, maybe 5-6 who have a medal or two, find out who will do the research for us, and send all the details to the guy. Done that way it may be easier than all of us amatures wondering till kingdom come if we will ever get around to it. From what I can see, the Russian researchers must be driving Rolls Royce silver shadows and spooning caviar... their fees seem to be even more than brit researchers... who are expensive fellows indeed!

And the 100th aniv. of the regt (in 1914)

Got some knick knacks to the guys Regt... A postcard....

This is the back of the award doc itself. Filled out and forwarded to the regt Commander who then signed and stamped it on the front. (or "had it stamped")

Although, looking at the doc, his LAST unit during the war was the 16th, his present unit (when this was filled out) was the 2. I.R.. His EK2 doc was 1917. I assume he was serving in another unit at Verdun (June 1916 at Douaumont makes me think 1st or 2nd b.I.D., maybe at a push Alpenkorps) and then transfered to the 16. b.R.I.R. after his first wound. best chris

Okay.... 1) Why is this regt so interesting? (for some) 2) Few things are exciting as the fighting around Douaumont in mid 1916 (from a research point of view....) but I can find no mention of the b.R.I.R. 16 being there.... THAAAAAT is a mystery I would love to have solved.

I am sure you can get someone to take some photos of his grave for you. Enough folks visit Normandy. best Chris

Hi, have you managed to find anything on him? Best Chris

What is the 1ere R.E. badge doing in there? Best Chris