Ulsterman

Pretty darn rare . Sometimes engraved privately, but I have NEVER seen one on a medal/ribbon bar- EVER. Man, the book you could write about these medals and the people who got them. Many were in the NSA. That is a rare medal- if actually awarded. I have always wondered if foreign (esp. British/Canadian) intelligence folks got this medal. The CIA has their own awards. My local AFIO group has an awardee who is not on the list and he showed me his citation diploma once. His was given for ease dropping on the Khmer Rouge in situ in 1971-73. He was in navy intelligence, although tasked by the NSA at the time.

Paul is a PHD (Napoleonic history) student in the UK. He reenacts the Grenadiers A' Cheval and he is in the process of writing a book on the French army at Waterloo. He has turned up some pretty cool stuff. If you look on the project Hougomont page on Facebook he and his brother Leslie show up quite often. I think he checks in here every so often. He is a wizard in the French archives and can find pretty much anything if its in La Belle Republicque'. Last year he turned up the complete personnel files for Napoleons' Imperial Guard-including medals, which is pretty impressive.....especially considering historians like Chandler did not know these papers even existed.

I think so, but must go consult the books. the gorget might be a Grenadier line company officers. By the way, that Guards medal is superb. it saw a lot of history.

It was obviously a newspaper reporters error. I reckon his file is still available in France though. I think they have individual officers files in Departments and also at the archives. Paul Dawson could help you.

Incredible relics! Is the gorget part of the Cotten Museum collection?

Definety Czechoslovakian. I just perused the Irish Defense Forces of the 1930s book on Osprey and their uniforms while similar, had different badges on the collar and hat.

bMSS level painting! awesome! Don Troiani visits here. He has an amazing photo collection.

I must say that I quite admire the elephant hangers.

It's a great book. I think he is a member here.

ah I see. true. he buys from all over the world, including ...notibly...Austria. he does mix in originals with fakes as well. It is always fun to rummage through his 1 dollar boxes. He does make a goodly number of repros in house, ESP. For resale or films. I like him, as he is witty and is up front about his wares.

A complete min collection. I would reckon 75 each for the EKs, 25 for the kvkxs, 25 for the wound badge black and 10 for the war merit medal...but I tend to go a little low.

Oh it's brass, smells of cigarettes and is faded and worn. the edges have a few chips . I took the photo with the IPad camera in bright sunlight, so it looks better than it does normally.

In this case it was Kelly's of Massachusetts and they have been doing rare post era variations for decades....especially German badges etc.

this is a ribbon bar I picked up a few years ago. from what I can tell its mid 1980s and has a cole of Red Stars, a Caucus defense and Victory over Germany, a few commemoratives and the Valiant war labour award. Is it theoretically possible to have had the valiant labour award and all thee campaign medals? what do you think? ( trying out new IPad camera)

I picked this up for free over the weekend whilst chatting with Rick. this is the amazingly rare ' post era' aluminum spray painted gold version of the Centennial medal. it weighs an ounce and clinks like the ex soda can it is. It just goes to show you they are faking everything these days. also, the descriptive nomenclature is a la Der Rittmeister according to Rick. also, I am testing the IPad camera.

Um, I can not read Russian. what does it say?

Nice.

Cool.

Hmmmmmm.......I think the classic Wellingtons Peninsula Victories is worth reading still. But overall, for all three phases of the war, I do not know. I can not think of a good 250 page overview .

War merit cross is second class?

Bravo Hegel.

That's what I thought, but I have read two contemporary sources now that state the REO was awarded to officers.

Ok, I am confused now. my sources say the shooting badges were awarded annually at he end of annual maneuvers to one company or battery for each Corps! the officer commanding each company usually was awarded the REO as a prize. also, the shooting badge was clearly also awarded to navy Sailors. I have seen them on uniforms and there is one on the website that Freiwillige has a link to above ( great web site by the way, stunning snaps).

Good Luck. they are actually so rare and obscure that when they appear, they are not a lot of money ( so far). Of course now that we have discussed them in an open forum......... I speculate that these medals were awarded to Patriots in the late 1940s/early 1950s and that they were given primarily to those Ethiopian Patriots who were active in the secret underground Nationalist resistance societies like the famous intellectual Black Lion Group or the infamous Omoro Resistance Army. The Italians occupied the major towns and cities of Ethiopia and unlike the countryside, which was constantly fought over throughout the occupation, the towns were pretty dangerous places to be in. Most of the major towns had bobbed wire fences and concrete pillboxes around them. After the attempted assassination of Graziano, the Black Shirt militias went on the rampage in Addis and many other places, killing thousands of innocents indiscriminately. Thousands of other intellectuals/elite /nobility were sent to Italy for Acculturation'.....e.g. Hostages. The underground in the cities were very brave people indeed and many were women.

Hmmmm........that looks familiar. I think it may be the Swiss/Bern Canton Red Cross long service such ale. it might easily be one of the Laender RK Verein Schnallen too.