Stogieman

Christophe, I am thinking we will need to add your home to the "must see" militaria tour soon!!

A close-up of his tombstone shows a small observer badge incorporated...... how much you want to bet this has long-since been stolen??

the amazing thing about the "steps" photo is the flyer wearing three (3) (!!!!!) unit patches on his sleeve!

It's really funny. I have yet to find one of these photo groups that doesn't include the (apparently required) "Lounging On Steps" photograph...

One very interesting photo is from his funeral. The first fellow in line....... almost positive this is a young Werner Voss, before his Pilot Badge and before his transfer from KG4 to Jasta 2 and pure fighters!

NICE Avatar Bob!!

More will follow........

His plane:

A photo postcard of his grave:

His death notice from the paper in his hometown:

I have recently acquired an astoundingly un-messed with grouping from a family in Germany. Werner von Bake transferred into an aviation unit in 1915 and died as a result of his wounds from an aerial engagement in 1916. He was wounded 16. May. 1916, awarded the EK1 on 17. May and died on 18. May. Here's his award document:

Another superb bar Christophe!

Still don't like it.............. I don't know who dropped the cash, but even as parts, that's a heavy toll

........ and a very nice piece as well!

What an awesome rack of hard to find awards! I don't know where you dig this stuff up Christophe, but it is wonderful!!

Nice Bars Gentleman! Keep 'em coming! Here's one that stayed here for awhile!

I'm not sure what to make of this one...... the color puts me off, but the pin/hinge/catch look OK. The lack of detail on the reverse doesn't bother me too much....... Imperial Flight Badges (stamped/issue) have almost no detail on the reverse other than the outlines of the leaves, etc..... no pebbling. An odd and interesting bird :excl:

I don't think these were ever really replacements, per se. There's certainly no shortage of lapel chains from WW2 around.... the Evil One himself has a whonkin' huge one with 6 or 7 20mm. minis on it! I think these were a very expensive, yet elegant personal fashion statement. I recognize a couple of Chet's ;>)! Just missed a couple in Germany the other day. They're rather hard to find!! Nice stuff Christian & Chet!

An interesting point has been raised....... there's an infinite number of extremely rare Imperial German Medals that has little collector interest....... I've never quite understood that!

The hardest part with pieces like this is the fact that there's so few around, no clear price-point can be established. I've had 3 Silver Bravery Medals over the years, but this was the first Order of The Crown Medal I've seen. When it comes to these rarer pieces, to me, mounted is always better.... then we have some real history!

I'm thinking................ oh never mind!

Nice to see so many different wound badges, especially the private-purchase ones!

Well, live and learn.... but I (personally) would not be comfortable with this badge looking like this. But I guess that could be chalked up to what appears to be very poor quality on Hesse's highest bravery decoration.

Also....... note the very different catch and hinge

There's some very distinct differences between the shape and cut-outs on Rick's example and on Don's........