Paul L Murphy

The 5th Algerian Spahis Regiment used the following insignia from 1956 - 1958

In 1958 they switched to the following insignia.

The 6th Algerian Spahis used the following insignia from 1939 and it is quite a scarce badge : -

In 1951 they adopted the following attractive badge

The 7th Algerian Spahis Regiment created the following badge in 1938

The Escadron Autonome de Marche de Spahis Algeriens was created in 1947, and disbanded in 1949. It was drawn from the 7 RSA and used to suppress an insurrection in Madagascar in 1947. This is their scarce badge

The 3rd Algerian Spahis kept the same design from 1936 until they were disbanded. Here are two versions of it.

Next up is the insignia of the 4th Tunisian Spahis Regiment. They kept the same design for many years and it is the maker marks which allow you to date it. This is a Drago piece from the late 1950s.

Connected with the 4 RST is the Corps de Spahis de l'Oudjak. This is one of their insignia from 1938.

When browsing through the French forum I was surprised to find that we had no thread dedicated to the various unit badges of the Spahis cavalry regiments. Given how attractive these are (as well as being scarce in some cases) I decided to rectify that so here we go .......

We will start with the 1st Algerian Spahis Regiment. First up is the version of their unit badge that was worn by them between 1951-56.

After 1956 until they were disbanded in 1964 they wore the following style badge : -

The 2nd Algerian Spahis Regiment wore the following badge from 1939 until 1945. This is a pretty scarce one to find.

In 1945 they adopted this badge :

and kept it in use until 1952.

I thought I would share this with you. It is one of my latest purchases and is a badge I have been after for many years now. It is the unit badge worn by the 4th Compagnie Mixte Portee of the 2nd Regiment Etrangere Infantry (4th Mixed Mounted Company, 2nd Foreign Legion Infantry Regiment). The unit was formed in Morocco in November 1940 and existed until April 1943. The badges were made by Drago with the Rue Berenger address on the reverse. These are very hard to find and rather expensive (this one cost me almost EUR600).

Enjoy

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2009/post-1487-125832458398.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2009/post-1487-125832459609.jpg

So, is it that minis were mostly for foreigners then?

Or Japanese who served outside the country and needed miniatures to comply with foreign evening dress regulations.

Originals are scarce. I will post pictures over the weekend of an original company grade commander's badge. They still make copies of them in Japan, most of which are marked as copies on the reverse. Those that are not will be of different style to the originals. I have no idea on the number of makers but given the scarcity of the badge I do not think it would have been substantial.

Minis do exist for most of the orders and medals. I have only once seen a Golden Kite mini and I have seen a few campaign medal minis. The easiest one of these to find is the 1904-05 War Medal, I have two of these that are with a UK group to an official observor who was an officer in the British Army and was awarded the Rising Sun, Sacred Treasure and 1904-05 War Medal in addition to his British awards.

The normal Japanese mini groups, however, are what you would expect to see on a diplomat rather than a soldier.

Beautiful

All Japanese minaitures are very hard to find, especially medals (orders seem to be easier since more foreigners get them).

In terms of research tips, bad news I'm afraid. The Legion records are all held by them and they will not release any information. Basically you need to rely on published sources and hope that he is mentioned by name in one of them (which seldom happens). The more documents you have the more you can build up a picture of which unit he was in at what date and thereby build up a picture of his service. With what you have it will be very difficult to do this since you do not know the date when he transferred from the 1 REP to 2 REP.

Despite this it is a lovely group. It is very unusual to see so many citations to one man for Algeria, he must have been in continuous action in razzias in order to get so many.

I had a good conversation yesterday with Mori san in Tokyo, one of the oldest militaria dealers here. I asked about boxes for the GEAWM nad he also believes that the boxes were never actually made. The boxes are not made by the Osaka Mint, they are made by another company(ies) and he reckons that they never produced them since the medals had not yet been generally awarded. Given the fact that the only three genuine examples I have seen in the last 20 years were all without boxes I would tend to agree with this. He has been a dealer of Japanese medals and militaria for over 40 years and has handled everything, but he has never seen a box for the GEAWM.

As for price, Anything below $5,000 would be a bargain for an original.

Could it also be that post-Axis Pact the Victory was... quietly tucked away and simply not WORN so as not to "offend" the New Best Friend? That's what happened in Italy. Mussolini stopped wearing his and I've never seen one in an Italian WW2 group from a WW1 veteran....

No, I have seen it on medal bars from the 30s and 40s. A lot less of them were handed out than the War Medals sincemany of the war medal recipients qualified for it through service in Russia rather than true WWI service.

Without a very strong pedigree people will be worried about buying one. For an item like this ebay is the wrong forum since there are too many fakes out there. If it was an original then it would have been a bargain. However I would not buy one from ebay.

Regarding boxes, I have never seen a box and have never met anybody who has seen a box of issue. If there were boxes then they were most likely the pasteboard type, lacquer boxes are for orders and this is a campaign medal. However it is entirely possible that the boxes were never made.

The short answer is no. The 1914-20 War Medal was also given for service in Russia up to 1920 and I believe that people who qualified on that basis did not receive the Victory Medal.

The balsa wood box is used by one of the manufacturers of the veteran pieces, so even without looking at the medal the box is a give away. Japan stopped using balsa wood boxes for her official awards after the Victory Medal and the 1914-20 War Medal.

It was a veteran replica, not an original piece.

As a start I would do the following : -

1) contact Sotherby`s and see if they retain records of who bought the medal from them. They might be willing to forward a letter from you to the purchaser, however he would obviously be under no obligation to reply. If they no longer have their records going back that far then you have a dead end on that particular course of action.

2) Go to the Dix Noonan Web website and put your ancestor`s name into the search facility to see if they have sold the medal post 1982 since it is possible that it subsequently changed hands again after the Sotherby`s auction.

3) Contact Richard Black at Chelsea Militaria and Chris Dixon at Dixon`s Medals and ask them if they have any record of selling the medal at any time. These are the two biggest medal dealers in UK, and the best, so there is always a chance that it passed through their hands.

4) put an advert in Medal News (published by Token Publishing) since they have a section for adverts where people are trying to find specific medals.

5) put a similar advert in the OMRS (Orders and Medals Research Society) journal.

Regards,

Paul

Unfortunately in this condition it is not worth much. The Order of the Pillars of State, as mentioned in an earlier post, shows the class through the use of ribbon clasps. Because of this the planchet on its own is not very collectible since most collectors will want an example with the original ribbon and clasps and the hook and eye assembly intact so as to be sure it is an original example of a specific class.

The badge is for the Signal Corps. It is not rare. I am not sure if it belongs to the cap but I am sure someone with more knowledge of Australian caps will be able to comment on this. Can we see a photo of the chin strap buttons on the cap since that will help.

Quite a few Irish served with the Boers under the command of Major John MacBride. MacBride was later executed by the British after the 1916 Rising in Dublin even though he had only played a minor part, most likely they had not forgotten his earlier hostility towards them. MacBride is also noteworthy since he married Maud Gonne, who was the unrequited love of W B Yeats and the inspiration for much of his earlier poems. Their son, Sean MacBride was an active republican who went on to be a founder of Amnesty International.

I would love to know if there is a published list of the Irish individuals who served with the Boers since many of them later played a part in the Irish Volunteers.

No, this is not connected with the medal. Presumably your grandfather (or someone earlier) thought it a good idea to use the pouch to store and protect the medal but it is not something that would have been provided with it.

This is indeed the breast star of the National Order of Vietnam. I am not sure if it was only used with the Grand Cross or if it was also used with the 2nd class.

It is too fuzzy to be certain but the bottom badge in the first picture seems to be "Friends of the Military". The badge in the second picture could be religious, I have seen similar badges for various Buddhist groups around that time.

Or, possibly, if on dull cherry RAMC?

I will post more on this thread tomorrow as this is, pretty much, my main area of expertise...

Tubs

Possibly.

I look forward to seeing your posts :cheers:

You should leave the medal exactly as it is. It has a lovely toned patina and it would look a lot less attractive if it were bright and shiney.

A very nice medal by the way.

Unfortunately I do not have photos of the other two medals. You might get lucky if you google them or if you stick the name into a search in ebay.fr since they do come up for sale quite a bit.