Ulsterman

There are "survivor lists" of the various Bavarian regiments that assembled in Germany in 1813. I doubt Fleck is there, but you never know. I'd check the Bavarian Chevaleager Regt. first as they had the most survivors (and were denied sick leave)-a whopping 80 (!) survived the Retreat-almost a whole 8.5% of the original cadre. I reckon he'll show up in pension records though somewhere in Munich.

Also called the "Patriotic Front" or "National Front". Originally founded in 1942 as an anti-fascist group of everyone against the alliance with Hitler. Purportedly, from September 1944 until 1948, the Popular Front made up the interim government. There are also merit and members badges. Most socialist states had a "popular front" organization.

PK: That deserves to be on the web...."the skill of a Cairo whore" is a phrase that sticks with one. Good stuff!

well, some of us-a small band of gnomes as it were, might be able to change some of that. Translations from Chris B.-German to English for example, would be easy I reckon. We have a few Russian speakers here as well and other languages are about...

I thought you'd appreciate it. It was a great magazine and apparently rather sought after these days on eBay. I ran into a copy @ 22 years ago in a barber shop in the middle of nowhere, USA and was hooked. I suspect it lost its "edge" after you left though.

Figure 16.3 page 269. "Mining in the Gorubso Madan" This badge shows the mines at the Rhodopi Mountains. Privatized since 1999 they are minimally profitable so the are looks to tourism for its income". This is typical of the weakness of Reimers' book-he had no clue so just spoke in generalities.

Fantastic! Another interesting, dramatic but brutal war that deserves study.

It makes no sense to destroy this bar the way it has been destroyed, unless the man needed the Orders to make an even more profitable piece. So, to whom did you sell this bar? How much did you get? It seems that there are a lot of fakers and add-ons being done on eBay-de.

Bulgarian Badges:Witnesses of History by Dietrich E. Riemer :BM Trade, Sofia, 2007

Oh -and one final thought. When Ed Haynes book eventually does come out-watch the prices for Indian subcontinent medals skyrocket (esp. as India's economy blooms). 90% of military historians have only a vague notion of the India-Pakistani wars and the other things that have gone over there since 1947. That is going to change very soon and you'll eventually see Osprey books on the subject and people like Atkinson (who can turn a good phrase) writing about the wars.

two points: 1. Interesting and good writers make history, well, interesting and exciting. I offer as proof Glenn and Rick, who single-handedly through the aegis of the WWW over the past decade have "recruited" dozens, nay perhaps several hundred collectors into the imperial field -and I might add, the result has been a frightening rise in prices. I weep at the thought of those three and four medal NCOs bars I passed by because they were "over $100". That was a mere six years ago:more fool me. If you want a best seller than write a book entitled "The Vampire Virgin of the SS" and start with an opening sentence like, "Gretchen's scarlet robe slipped off her perfect cream shoulders and fell to the floor with a soft whisper. She stood, magnificent in her nakedness and then slowly ....etc. etc. 2. The Rumanian campaign was short, sweet and the records are still around in Romania and Germany/Austria. A good 250 page book, lavishly illustrated etc. would do well. But I think that if you REALLY want to do a best-seller, that will spark a lot of secondary inquiries, than do a book on Romanian campaign type medal bars, with docs and medal bars illustrating various aspects of the campaign-like Chris B' does for the EK. Accessible medal books go for astronomical sums compared to other minor collecting subjects. As one local second-hand book seller told me, "I never lose money on an Angolia volume", (despite the errors and misinformation). The point I should have made is that medal/militeria collectors/wargamers (uniform historians) have much clout in military history publishing-far more than most people realize. One topic usually catalyzes others.

Stogie: According to Reimer (a source I trust, but very much would like to verify if you know what I mean), pp. 143, the above badges are early "Excellent Infantry and "Excellent artillerist" badges-similar to the expertise badges the Russians had. Later the Bulgarians went to a Russian style shield system with similar "excellence" areas (supply/baking? etc.).

As awful as the Western Front was, the Eastern Front was also very nasty. There are a couple of dry but good books on the war in the East-"Handcuffed to a Corpse" and Stones' "The Eastern Front" come to mind. Keep in mind that up until about 15 years ago, the Russian Front, 1941-45, was considered a "sideshow', mostly because of the difficulty in doing Russian scholarship and the reluctance of Germans to talk about what happened. That has changed, with "Ivan's War", admittedly a bit of a popular social-history type of book actually making the best seller lists a couple of years ago (and going into 12 paperback printings!!). I have been wondering recently if Kev and Glenn would be up for doing a Lynn MacDonald-style book on the Romanian campaign. It was a masterpiece of German military efficiency and set the stage for 1940. There is NOTHING in English that is accessible (i.e. readable) out there.It is ripe for study-and scholarship. By the way Chris- I read your web site weekly. It is brilliant!! So do many others.

wow-that ribbon is pristine@ Nice medal.

Very interesting....to quote an old comedy program. There are a few edits needed (I used to work as an editor in an academic journal-and Chris isn't far off the mark there), but I really enjoyed the summary. There is an excellent series of studies on the Prussian officer corps out there. One of the things demonstrated by the officer exams, which weren't easy, was that nobility often were not that well educated and that bourgeois technocrats dominated the technical, but less prestigious arms of service. The train troops however, seem to have been at the dead bottom of everyone's list, socially, academically and career-wise. One of the really good things about being a One-Year Volunteer was, that upon being bumped to Gefreiter, you didn't have to do guard duty anymore and you couldn't be assigned as a batman to an officer! Professional NCOs, upon retirement, were also given preference for certain civil service jobs, not unlike the US military.

No- actually I'm thinking of Du Faur's picture of the Wurtemberger's destroying their artillery, my mistake (the helmets were similar). I'd bet good money that Herr Fuchs' pension records are still on-file in Bavaria. The german librarians don't seem to mind research into Napoleonic themes. But here is one of my shots of an NSKK wagen in Smolensk in the winter of 1942-120 years later and not far from the scene above:

Having looked at this group, I did a quick google search and discovered there is a new official arctic star device for attachment to medal bars. See here: http://www.halcyon-class.co.uk/new_arctic_star.htm

I especially like the bronze "cooly" ones. One never sees these/those any more.

There are a number of newspaper articles about surviving Royal Navy and merchant navy veterans receiving these medals in the 1980s and early 1990s.

A world class collection Ed.

Yeah-he did a good job too. I was reading it last week at the bus stop...."he tossed and turned in the bed, wanting, desiring yearning for the Order".

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Sob! Sob! Much gnashing of teeth and rending of shirts here-ashes, ashes! I would have expected at least 2500 Euros . Someone got a bargain I think. There should be a crying smiley icon.

Rummaging through old obscure Napoleonic sources I suspect Herr Fuchs may well have been one (un)lucky POW in 1812/13. About 400-2,500 Bavarians came home that way and it explains him missing Leipzig etc., but being there for the invasion of France in 1814. Look closely at the box. Look very closely.....

Ever read the famous story by Pushkin about the Mayor of a small town's medal lust for the order of the Sun...and later the Order of a St. Sava? They were handed out by Consuls in the 1890s-1900s quite easily.

Dear Lord! How much did it go for? I would have taken a second mortgage to obtain that pair. That is probably the finest continental Napoleonic enlisted grouping extant today. Do you know how rare that pair actually is? Most of the VI Corps (under St. Cyr) was made up of disaffected Bavarians raised in the Tyrol. Thousands deserted, but the vast majority were killed in action around Polotsk, at Borodino or evaporated in the Retreat. My casualty list summary shows fewer than 350 Bavarians of all ranks made it back at all. Almost half were officers or NCOs. Faber Du Faur, the famous artist and patriarch of the famous Bavarian military (still prominent today in fact) aristocratic family, painted a series of vignettes of Bavarians during the retreat that are still frightening to look at. The ones of Bavarians attempting to keep warm beneath the walls and towers of Smolensk are....disquieting. Poignant perhaps, is that I have photos of other Bavarians sitting underneath the same towers taken 130 years later. They looked miserable too-and were also doomed. Plus ca change....