Spasm

And this fantastic little buttonhole device (amongst a few other bits and bobs). However, can ya'll tell me what the back ribbon is for? It's not faded red, the centre stripe is gold.

EKII

Black Wound Badge

Received in 1935

Gents Got these today off of the postman (good man our postman). All the certificates and awards are to the same man. Will get into the passbook over the weekend to try to decipher the handwriting and translate. Will try to find the unit, places etc. Nice detailed pin and button included as well.

Now I'm back from the violin and having a look through a few pics - here's one of "A French machinegun position, dug with great caution, a few metres from the German front line" - I think translated from "Ein maschinengewehr wird in einem Franzisischen graben der nur wenige meter von der Deutschen ersten linie entfernt ist, mit grosster vorsicht aufgebaut" (replacing the fs etc into s from the german lettering). It looks much the same as Chris' picture in structure of the trench. So, it might be. Always stick to your guns, that's what I say.

Chris yep, you are right it's here as well as in others http://www.heritage-...&licenseType=RM and there I was thinking that "powered by jesus" meant telling the truth (sorry to those, no offence intended) - I would've checked, honest, I would've Spaz

Gents If I hadn't bought something else just recently that got me into fairly warm water with her indoors, I'd have bought these, no bother http://www.bidorbuy....AND_EXTRAS.html The photos are enough to have a go for them Go buy them and show off Spaz

Chris A couple of pros and cons The cameras were fairly bulky at that time but not overly so. The cameraman looks like he was tucked in pretty well to the side of the trench and is keeping well below the top. The sun is pretty low in the sky, directly behind the defenders from the shadow, and rises in the East. So looks like it could have been an early morning trench raid coming from the West. But I think there's more cons. The cameramen always seem to catch the shot with the grenade still in the hand (perhaps because it wasn't thrown). The sun is pretty low in the sky and behind the cameraman (a shot any cameraman would want for the light) so any advancing enemy would be looking straight into it (maybe the officers didn't care too much about that and there may be a smoke screen that we can't see) but not a good ploy. Is the Rifleman's weapon actually above the trenchline? If the raiding party were close enough to chuck grenades at (ie about 20yds) then would the war correspondent/cameraman still be there? I'd have buggered off or thrown the thing away. It doesn't look like a front line trench construction. It's fairly newly dug and could be a forward OP but still seems very shallow with minimal reinforcement. You wouldn't want to get out of the position in too much of a hurry if its the finished article. Front line trench digging would be to full depth not a couple of feet from the top down as the sappers would be exposed during the work. Lots of kit, especially helmets hanging around. Why would the owners not be wearing them if a raid is coming in and why would the defenders want all that gear getting in the way? So, Dr Watson, I don't think its for real, sorry. I'm off to play the violin and smoke me pipe for a bit, now where's that deerstalker gone....... Spaz

Arthur Looks like you got that one nailed. This is an officers' badge of the Worcestershire Rifle Volunteers from 1859 (from their site - thanks ya'll) Cheers Spaz

Gents Does anyone know what this is? Is it victorian militia? Or could it be from when the Light Infantry within regiments were grown in size to see off the French skirmishers? Unit and date-ish would be nice as I can't seem to find much about it. Thanks in advance Spaz

You then need to look up tank paint jobs on the model you have, paint the camo and then whitewash to make it look authentic. Don't take this hobby up, it'll make you try to get a thing that weighs 3 ounces to look like it actually weighs 40 ton. Madness is in this direction.

The soldiers don't come complete with straps on pouches, gas masks or weapons and you need to fiddle around with cutting paper and sticking on. Its a right faff

I don't recommend doing this. It opens new hobby doors, you need glue, paint, polyfilla for the snow, very tiny brushes to do the even smaller medals on the weeny figures and hair cut from some voluteer (or not) to make the reeds :whistle:

I 'spect its because you become a bit more finicky as you get older

I don't remember it taking this long when I was younger. A 4" brush and some green paint and voila!

The chaps and chapesses in the office go out of their way to ensure they know everyone's birthday. They then buy a small present as the birthday's come round. It costs me a fortune as it seems as though there's a birthday every week or so. So, mine came round in September and they bought me a model tank! I haven't built one of these for many years. When younger in SA I used to build these, shoot them with my pellet gun and blow them up with the chinese crackers that you could seperate into individual tiny sticks of dynamite with fuses to boot. I was just gonna stash in the loft but I'm gonna take it back in to give to the ringleader. Serves him right.

Monkeyman Instead of filling in the "reply to this topic" below go to the top of the page and click the black button "reply to this topic" on the right. This will then let you browse and add pictures (as long as you keep them under the size requirements (less than 100kb works well) no need to reduce the actual picture measurements just reduce the quality. If quality is required due to seeing the detail, crop the picture down to the section of picture needing the detail. You can use this button to keep loading up pictures to the thread (you'll need to give a minute or so before loading the next one) Good luck Spaz

Monkeyman The 10th were part of the 53rd Brigade, 18th (Eastern) Divison that served in France during the First World War. You can read up on the battles, formation etc here: http://www.1914-1918.net/18div.htm You should be able to check up on William at the National Archives or on Ancestry (unless thats what your Mum has done already), it'll save a lot of searching if you have his service number. I'll have a quick look to see if I can find anything and let you know. Cheers Spaz

Jim This needs to be posted in another area to get maximum viewing - I'll ask a moderator to re-post for you Best of luck in finding. I'm assuming these still give diplomatic immunity to the holders so every security screen is aware that badge 131 is on the "arrest on sight" list. Spaz

dcollect Sorry mate, bad news I think. The Air Crew Europe Star looks like a copy to me. The letter U in Europe looks to be too wide. Some better pictures would help a lot and then we could help you. The France and Germany Star is a certain copy. If they were all original, the Air Crew Europe Star would be worth all of the others put together. But a copy is a copy is a copy. Sorry. Spaz

Looks like Zulu King Goodwill Zwelethini is about to get run over by that car swerving at high speed behind him :lol:

Check this site http://www.iagiforum.info/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12620 Spaz

Just before you re-post: This is the Hommes & Chaveux medal that commemorated US troops and train transports that carried 8 horses & 40 troops per rail car http://www.skylighters.org/encyclopedia/fortyandeight.html Spaz

Dear Paulus Thanks for your short letter of the 21st. This morning we arrived at the battery from camp. Worked hard all day long. Wonderful evening now. Hopefully Frida will soon be better again.. And, as always, your officers' corps? Is greeted cordially Otto (I think that's pretty close, maybe the last line is a bit of micky taking?)