Ulsterman

1,000!? That is fewer than I had supposed by far. I thought the Wehrmacht fielded almost 8 million total in 1939-45. Some of them, anti-Nazis are commemorated on the Harvard Memorial Church wall-just below FDR's name. I believe its the only monument to Wehrmacht dead in the USA.

wow-off to the JOMSA

A series of very fuzzy photos and the regimental book.

Thanks Glenn: I saw the book ("The Nazi Elite") , which is a statistical analysis of early NSDAP membership based on 10% of the bios in the book. I'd like to get a copy. It seems to have everything but medal awards.

Saxon:

Ooooh- I like that Bavarian photo!

Beautiful! Is it silver marked?

Cool! You should write an article on Iraqi fakes Paul and Lorenzo. 25 years from now nobody will believe that this stuff was cranked out so early. Hows' collecting in the sand box Lorenzo? Anything new? Did the FJP packet ever arrive?

Good Lord, You sold that?! I have that in my notebook. I strongly suspected it to a Majors or Captains of Landwehr IR 56.

Brilliant!! :jumping:

In Zepplins by W. Cross, the faint radio message received was: "China project. Abort Operations. Enemy Has Seized Units You Were Staging To Assist. Turn Back To Starting Point." There is some controversy about who exactly sent the message, but Chris Andrews, the Cambridge Intelligence expert, has written an article in 'Intelligence and International relations" about how the British tracked the radio communications of the L-59 across Africa and thinks it was deliberate disinformation. Cross doubts that the L-59 would have reached the remaining German forces in Africa....but, you enver know.

You found this in Fes? Looks like Meck. to me too. Hmm...off to the Honor ranklist.

yoinks! That is a superb group. How did Lady H. get that Turkish medal?

She looks very DDR to me-like Berlin police or summit @ 1950(s).

several beers then- picture? :jumping:

:Cat-Scratch: :Cat-Scratch: Three cat salute!! Colin seriously, I am BEGGING you to do an article. The BDOS would LOVE this stuff too! The BDOS is the German medal collecting magazine:Orden.

"Das Neue Sachsen"!!?? ...another resource to try and borrow via ILL. Glenn. Have you seen the 1935 Fuhrerlexicon? Is it worth chasing down at all?

well, you might have just been lucky. What are the weights and dimensions of the medal? 75 euros is a bit much. I see them on eBay for $25.

Very interesting!!! How about receipts for the awards? Would that have a number on it...if there was one?

Good Lord. I think Andreas owes you two chappies a beer or two! Incredible career ("old Bavarian farming family')....and research too. :cheers:

Vizefeldwebels were senior NCOs (Unterofficer mit portapee: Militarwochenblatt of 1862). In todays' terms they'd be close to a US E6/7 I reckon. They were the backbone of the army. The Koniggratz cross was a campaign medal; you got it for being there. What is interesting is that your buttonaire lacks the Franco-Prussian war medal, so your ancestor was out of uniform by 1870. The war decoration was a serious award-given for real merit and sometimes, bravery in the field. I would guess it was probably a bravery award for the Austrian war and I think there's a list of total awards out there for the war. If you can find out your ancestor's regiment, maybe we can help you find more information. With the Kaisers' Centennial medal (1897) and the swanky enameled long service schanlle, the buttonaire must date from @ 1900. All veterans who applied received the Centennial medal. The US consul was kept busy at the end of the 19th century handing these out. At the time, the German war veterans associations in the USA were quite large and very,very popular.

Good lord. I had no idea that there were so many variations. Are they ever numbered? If so, could one tell an award year by the numerical sequence?

There was (is) a premiere silver edition for higher recipients. As I recall there were @ 100 pieces made. I have found the who, wheres and whys of this medal very interesting over the past few years . I suspect that every Landwehr/Landsturm officer in the occupation armies in the East got one of these in 1918/19. It is not overly uncommon to see these on female bows and I have noted over a dozen documents to women who were NOT denoted as nurses, merely "Frau Gretchen Faust of Wiemar" etc.. I have always wondered who these ladies were and what they did to merit the award. The Red Cross connections are not as common as many American collectors presume. 500,000 were purchased by Berlin in 1917 from varied manufacturers and @ 460,000 were awarded until @ late 1919 (I have seen docs for a few in 1920 awarded at the company level). I have never seen one awarded to a German ally or foreigner. Berlin then sold off the remaining medals as scrap and a number of firms bought lots as replacement stock. Yours seems to be a very nice piece-very pristine and clean. I can't remember seeing any fakes of this medal. By the way, for more information, see the EXCELLENT[/i] Http://www.ordensjournal.ordensmuseum.de website. (2006)

Good stuff! Have some of our French members been able to help? My goat-French is not up to par, but the hand-writing is very clear. It is a wonderful story-worthy of an article and shows how Napoleon was able to come to power so swiftly. Formal executions of hapless Generals like this paved the way for someone to restore civil authority.

wonderful!!!! Did you see Puttkamers' photos of July 21/22/23 for sale recently?