Ulsterman

The Hindenburg Cross was promulgated in July 13, 1934. The ban on "unofficial" awards was promulgated on November 16, 1935 (almost 70 years ago this week). Given it took a month or more for the ban to be published and read at meetings, that is 16+ months of 'legal' coexistence). In the meantime, the SA-Reserve had been established (in 1933) by the forced amalgamation of the Stahlhelm and other veterans/ paramilitary associations with he SA. The Rohm pruge had occurred and the Stahlhelm were defanged with many of their senior officers either coopted, arrested, shot or exiled. The ban on vets awards was another example of the NSDAP state obliterating extra-party groups. Given the amount of time Hitler spends in Mein Kampf slagging off his "Freikorps" allies, wearing these awards in SA/NSBO/NSKK/NSDAP/etc. meetings after an accptable "Yeah, I have to take the bar to the tailors" timeframe was somewhat dangerous. Still, odd things did happen (see below-borrowed from ebay):

undefined . Noncom EK2s are very rare to an NCO.

What a great picture!!! The King of the Netherlands was honorary Chef of the regiment. Later Schmidtmann was a career officer in the Reichsheer-a Major (promoted Major June.16.1920) in 1925 in IR 18 commanded by Von Rundstedt. He also had a black wound badge, the EK1, the Lippe war service cross, and a 25 year LS medal. It appears that he retired @ 1928 (as per Glenn: I do not have the 1930 Rangelist). He apparently had a son who was a Lt. in the 6th Artillery Regt. in 1932. I wonder if he was recalled in WW2?

This is a tab I found in a cigar box at a boot sale yesterday. I know nothing about Luftwaffe uniforms or insignia. It doesn't glow (except for a few specs of dirt). What branch is it? Ta-

Because there are very few books available on the subject in English and nobody like Rick Research to publicize them on the internet. He manages to make the subject much more interesting and rewarding.

The "drome"? Some sort of WW1 fliers' site perhaps? I'll do a google. Here's the back: awarded 1913-1919/20. No more than 500 were awarded-at best.

I vote Greek Redeemer Order also. These awards all point to "Merit" rather than "battlefield" as well as "officer". Berlin had a large White Russian community well into the 1930s and there were even a few remnants into the 1970s. The lapel bow is uniquely German in style, unusual and not "sexy" enough to be a cash-magnet fake, so I think it's exiled White Russian officer @ 1920s stuff. Nice.

Bloody Hell, I just saw that. What L ship did Volkman serve in? They had an 70% casualty rate did they not? This is my rare one, not that glamorous really:

what does the back of #3 say? It seems to be a 25 year commemorative of some sort.

Another one: A French Priest:

I have not seen the series. I am no guru, but there were a few color photos taken-mostly French, in WW1:

This is a "bloodbath" image I borrowed from ebay: My apologies in case one of you got it.

Yes. Some are photoshop high quality rescans on older cardboard backings (notibly French ones)...others are multiple reprints of one photograph (Ba-re on ebay does this), but I have seen two that I would wager are "reenactor" shots. Military Image Magazine has had a series of articles about these faking techiques over the past decade. As prices soar, more seem to appear. The E.H. is also faked/copied. Many are made in Turkey even today-even some blue ones.

Absolutely! And it would also be good to get more images of them being worn by Turks, not only by allied foreigners (= Germans).

I have @ 100 more. I shall post them soon. Any idea where I could buy more? I really like them, but I wish I knew more about the individual units.

another... March, 1918: EK2

Because it (the EK) was the great unifier - a symbol of a common cause in a divided nation suffering the throes of great socio-political and economic dislocation, regionalism and growth. It was the one thing a rabid Social Democrat and a Prussian Junker could both venerate and earn equally. It was also a symbol of the past that was optimistic-a symbol of a Germany on the rise and "uber alles"-a defeating her European rivals. "They had ceased dealing with the Fatherland in terms of their minds and gave it only their hearts." In 1939, the party was the central focus-hence the swastika. In November, 1914 the American war correspondent Edward Fox was in Hamburg and wrote this: "In a restaurant I saw my first Iron Cross, black against a grey green coat and dangling from a button. On a broad landing of a wide marble staircase the orchestra played soldier songs and above the musicians, looking down on his people loomed a bust of Wilhelm II, Von Gottes Gnaden, Kaiser von Deutschland. About him, between the flags of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, blazed the black, white and red, and there where all might read, hung the proclamation of August to the German people. We had all read it through to the last line: "Forward with God who will be with us as he was with our Fathers"- Then we heard an excited inflection in the murmerings from the many tables- "Das Eiserne Kreuz!" . And we saw the officer from whose coat dangled the black maltese cross, outlined in silver. The waiter led he an his beautiful, blond, crinolined companion to a corner table. His cheeks flushed, proud of a limping, shot-riddled leg, proud of his Emperor's decoration, but prouder still he was a German; he must have forgotten all of battle and suffering during the brief walk between the tables. Roaring cheers rang out, clapping, then a song, and when finally the place quieted everybody stared at that little cross of black as though it had a hypnotic power.

Feb. 1918 EK2 July 1917 EK2

Wow. That wound badge is the ultimate private purchase award!

Obrtlt. d. R Radewald @1918:

Dreher=Paul Bengel=Joseph Finsterlin=Ludwig Schramm=Wilhelm Maussner=Joseph Muller=Maximillian Mussbach=Heinrich Rudolph=Ludwig Sailor=Gustav Neubert=Hans Do not have Narr, Nerz or Goss.

Indeed-damned camera But oh, I wish I'd kept the badges.

Damn- Almost a year too late. Col. Gray was a very good friend of my Dad. He once leant me his ENTIRE Skinner's Horse library and gave me a turban wrap when I was a kiddie. He would have known. See here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...0/16/db1601.xml Still, his wife might have some of his stuff. The Regiment might respond to a letter invoking his name.

Dankwald actually shows up if you google him. There can't be two in Eisenach.

But with the black/white colour shift, sometimes it appears reddish: