Lee Enfield

Hello, I have hunted through the Internet and can find medal books on all things Commonwealth but very little on German medals. I would like to know if there is something akin to The Tokin Medal Yearbook but for German medals. I do not care particulaly if it is written In German or English . Failing that could someone recommend me a book on Imperial German medals . thanks I would appreciate any guidance and help the members are prepared to offer. regards Chris

I have recently started collecting medals and I have acquired some of what i assumed to be the more usual starting points, the Commonwealth WW1 medals, I have a group of the the 1914 star, the victory medal and the service medal but they are all awarded to different men who served in different units basically I would like to find out a bit more more about the recipients. I have tried nominal roles and one site that suggested it possessed 4 million military records which I could access for the princely sum of 8 GBP a month only to find I have the only three recipients not on its database. so , Where does one start when delving into , is there a process that some of the more experienced researchers have found works or is it a game of good luck and serendipity. I have a 1914 star awarded to a bloke in the 2.RIF BRIG, i assume that is the 2nd Rifle brigade , I cannot even find information on the brigade. If some one could offer some suggestions on where to start or even some references that could form a good starting point that may help it would be greatly appreciated. thanks

The good old "20 minuters", so called because that was considered the average lifespan of a pilot. still probably better odds than a pongo

I guess the answer probably lies somewhere in between, I certainly understand that the French considered mers el kebir an act of treachery, I had heard that many survivors could never forgive the RN for the action as they had not actually declared a state of hostility with England. Britain had a tenuous control of the sea even though its land operations were struggling and it could not afford to have a combined Franco- German ( which would have undoubtedly been a significant match for the RN) fleet harrasing the sea lanes and further restricting supplies. i understood that the British did not simply attack the French fleet outright but gave them several ultimatums that could have prevented the action. because of the inability of the French commander at Mers El Kebir to make a decision and instead wanting to " negotiate " what was not really presented as a discussion the British reacted rather than waste precious time tying up precious resources and manpower. Churchill wanted to send a message to the world that he intended to maintain the fight against any country who presented a threat to the UK and Mers El Kebir sent that message very clearly.

Probably a bit off topic but i remember my father was stationed on the HMS Bulwark in Aden, apart from intercepting pirates they also participated in operations during the Suez crisis . I do not know if the Suez crisis and the Gulf of Aden are related actions. I recall him vaguely talking about saving some men from an oil tanker that had sunk or was nearly sunk in the gulf and how they tried to tow it back to a harbour. I am not sure what happened but i think there had been a collision or it had run aground , something like that. Just before we emigrated to Oz he had to go back for once last stint before he joined the RAN and was posted back to the Bulwark to go to Kuwait as there was some unrest there. I was pondering my navel ( no pun intended) the other day and looking over an Indian service medal I acquired and looked at the Afghanistan clasp NWF from 1919 and thought how here we are in 2012 and we are still mixing it up in these countries over 100 years later and it seems we are no better off or have achieved any gains. Sorry if i am being politically incorrect , i am not looking for a debate and I am not looking to offend, just sharing some musings.

thanks for the info, I have just started collecting and the difference between the original and the "more recent example" as shown in this article are worlds apart. I will certainly be more cautious on ebay and research more thoroughly before bidding.

The link does not work however given that in most cases that history is written usually from the victors agenda that the Sgtyork story , while no doubt a heroic act in a war of heroes, also has a perspective that is not as romantisised as the Gary Cooper film version would have us believe. By the time Sgt Yorks action took place the war had almsot come to a close, the germans he captured were mostly youths , in many cases under 16 years old. They were low on supplies and ammunition and no doubt war weary and homesick. To capture an entire trench single handedly and then take so many prisoners across no mans land back to your own lines is an exceptional act however the element of time and logistics also played a major part in his success.

Australians were also sent to fight at Archangel in 1919 and did not return home until mid 1920. Popular history has the war as 1914-1918 because that is when the major powers engaged , however Greeks, Macedonians and Turks were mixing it up in the Balkans in 1912 until 1913 and there were still hostilities as you have shown into 1920 which is largely either forgotten or ignored. What is even more disappointing is that the major wars are largely being ignored by our education systems and these wars are fast fading from our high schools knowledge stream.