Ulsterman

BY the way- I love you website there- I think your unidentified Hussar Colonel is a Hungarian @ 1850s -perhaps one of the exiles from 1848. However, he MAY be Argentine! Also-if you post that Hussar general here you'll identify him. Not too many had a PLM in 1870. Also-is that a battle picture in the Indian army section of the artillery? It's a GREAT photo.

True-my younger cousin once made the mistake of going for a sausage roll without asking and got his fingers jabbed by a carving knife for it. Still, she sat on a picnic blanket and watched the blitz in an open field-interesting times.

My Nan was quite formidable. She still scares me and she's been dead 12 years. She thought Thatcher was soft! That generation was tough.

My lot tend to think rather highly of him you know. I didn't know he got an EK

As an aside, my Nan once helped escort a rather badly knocked about German pilot to the local police station using an 1821 pattern cavalry sabre which was used for whacking weeds in the garden. I doubt that counts.

There were some cavalry charges using the blade only (with a pistol I'd bet) in Ethiopia by the British and Ethiopian troops against the Italians. Also apparently there were charges by Russian cavalry and also by the Italians. See here for an overview. i remember reading about the Indian cavalry when i was a kid in the Victor comic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry#World_War_II A local woman i know tells me her Uncle watched this last great charge by US forces : http://cgi.stanford.edu/group/wais/cgi-bin/index.php?p=7831.

Ed- imagine the "foreigners' awards' section-there's a book right there!

I put it on my Santa list. If my wife takes the hint (and follows the link) I'll be happy. i suspect I might be in for a waffle toaster though.

Actually, it's not that unusual. Going through a couple regimental/battalion and other award rosters, about 25-35% of enlisted men I reckon got only a state award-no EK2 for them. This was true even for front fighters (albeit rarer-maybe 15%).

Thanks Glen. I would be very grateful for anything you could send my way. ...and I would be more than happy to pay any fee required for this work! Again, my congratulations. This and the 1914/15 book uncovered by Dave Danner are the most important Grman medal 'discoveries' done in the last decade I reckon -and a major find for historical research at many levels! As my nephew would say- "you d'man"!

I note that most of the Schmidts above are enlisted men. A GREAT find. Congratulations again. Great research detective work. Uhhhh-not to be too bold, but how can we/I get a copy?

REALLY??? Sons got to have the medals their fathers were entitled to?? Was it only officers?

Great collection!! That photo is really interesting. Did he get any other German awards that he wasn't wearing in 1945?

The Holy Grail!!!! YAY!!!!! Congratulations and A VERY MERRY XMAS!!!!! Any chance you are going to reprint it at all?

I think that is post #20. "Hungaro" (Peter Czink) sells them out of Vancouver. The Hungarian vets' assn. he runs out there has a magnificent website.

classsrooms, work places etc? Lots apparently went to foreigners.

Nice medal. I collect grumpy old men and would be happy to give it a fine home! here's another grumpy man-

By last century do you mean 1999? I know a chap who enlisted at age 14 as a drummer/piper and rose to become pipe major. He's not that old. Lads aged 17 could be on active service and when I was a nipper you could enlist at age 16. My next door neighbor did that as he didn't want to do O levels and they had a spot for him in the RA.. That changed one day in March, 1971 (and I remember it chillingly well) when the PIRA murdered three Scottish lads, two of them brothers aged 17/18. One was found propped up with the beer glass still in his hand. I've had people who were in position to know tell me that Martin McGunness, who was at the White House this week, had a hand in the murders.

Well, from the feder book: "Fur inoffizielle Mitarbeiter und gesellschaftliche Kraefte hatte dieses Abzeichen den Charakter einer Auszeichnung. Zum Abzeichen gehorte eine Urkunde. Die emallierten Abzeichen wurden nur an die Partei-und Staatsfuhrung der DDr und an auslanische gaste verliehen. Apparently there was a 40!!!! year one-awarded in Feb. 1990 !

I think they are commemorative pins, but can't say for certain. There's a new , very good book on Stasi stuff thats' just come out. let me have a snout round it and I'll see.

Good news-bad news. There is a COMPLETE roll of the Coronation medals extant in the Bulgarian archives. I have been chatting with a Bulgarian collector/ dealer on-line and the folio is all there. Many Germans got these as the newly crowned czar was, after all, a native German and brought a significant enterouge to his his court. However, Ii have no idea how to get him-or anyone else in Bulgaria for that matter, to xerox it. Theodor??

I have looked at a LOT of 1940-45 pictures of medal bars in wear (1000+), mostly by people of this rank grade (O4+), I have NEVER seen only one LS award-ever. I have seen some odd things, but never a single LS award. I am 100% convinced its' made of parts-too many odd things about it... especially given the notable number of large Austrian bars of this mounting style which have appeared over the past 20 years. They ALL seem to have an unusual foreign medal at the end. I view it as a teaser.

could it be that the "Paris" bar on medal bar #1 is a recycled 1871 version?

,.....Regional Fair?..... today? I am certain I have read of fakes of these, but don't know what or where to look thereabouts.

Doesn't the KVK also go before the "provincial state" awards? "Building German medal bars seems to have become a popular indoor sport ." -an OMSA author of note