landsknechte

Awesome! Thank you! If I'm reading this right, he was on the Hertha at the same time as Dönitz?

The double Austrian Kriegserinnerungs-Medaille is an interesting touch...

Apologies for digging up an absolutely archaic post, but through a peculiar combination of familial chaos and changing email addresses, notification of your reply slipped under my radar screen... If I had the info, I've managed to lose it in the shuffle. Do you know any more?

Just got the bar in hand today. It's hard to tell with absolute certainty if the background color of the mystery ribbon was indeed a cool toned white to begin with, or if it was indeed a blue. I'm not seeing any evidence of fading on the front, when comparing that to the back. Comparing the spacing and size of the stripes, it really does lineup much better with the Manchukuo than the Hessian decoration. Also, if that were the Hessian decoration, wouldn't the proper order of precedence be Hindenburg Cross --> Hessian --> Olympic?

Trying to track down the identity of the last ribbon on this ribbon bar, and one suggestion that I've heard is that it might be the Lithuanian Knight's Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great, or the Bronze Medal of the Order of Vytautas the Great. Could those of you more familiar with that decoration let me know if that is indeed plausible, and if so, possibly clue me in as to who typically received this award and under what circumstances they received it? Thanks, Chris

Anyone recognize what the ribbon on the far right might be? I'm drawing blanks on this one, thus far...

That one was based on rank, so it would have to be the Order not the Cross (the cross was for enlisted men). 4th class in this case, since 3rd class doesn't kick in until the rank of Oberst or so.

I agree. Offhand, I can't think of any other scenarios where you would have two long service ribbons on a bar, whereupon both would have had a device. (I can think of some scenarios where one might have a device, and the other not.)

The first one is silver, and the second one is gold. The odd thing is that the silver one appears to have the silver color literally painted on - you can see the brush marks where it was painted apparently after installation. I rather suspect that it was monkeyed with post war. If both of the long service devices are actually gold, I would suspect that this guy remained on in some capacity in the Weimar era (police maybe?) and then returned to the Luftwaffe. The BMVK1XmKr could probably be ruled in or out pretty easily. There were, I believe, only like 117 or so of that grade awarded. Alternately, I'm wondering if this might be an example of someone who may have even been a low ranking officer in WWI, who then rose up the ladder in WWII - "adjusting" the grade of his MVO to reflect his current rank, versus the rank he had when he was awarded it.

I thought I had attached the image to the original post. Thanks for catching that.

-Deleted-

Thoughts?

Edit: 5x - I apparently can't count. (I really must go to bed soon.)

It doesn't really show up all that well in these photographs, but the swords on the White Falcon are gold. Also, there are holes in the two long service ribbons where devices of some sort would have gone.

I'm in the process of trying to recompile my notes on my collection after a long "leave of abscence" from collecting, and I'm realizing just how darn rusty I am at this... Anyhow, I've got a few bars here that I'd like to throw out there for the collective wisdom of the group. Any sort of insights that you guys could share would be greatly appreciated. :beer:

Awesome! Thanks!

Picked these up a little while back, as Penal Battalion shoulderboards. Can anyone confirm whether that's what they indeed are?

A little while back, I picked up a Kriegsmarine wristwatch. It's in need of some repairs (I think the mainspring broke), but is in good condition otherwise. Once I get it up and running, I'd like to try to find a wristband that is at least somewhat historically compatible in appearance for it. Does anyone know what the standard band for these might have looked like?

Part 2

Part 1

An old thread, I know. Over the last few days, I've started to search around on the internet to see if I can track down who this belonged to. It seems that this particular combination should be relatively unique, especially given the Boxer Rebellion connection. Haven't been able to dig up anything yet. Any thoughts on this?

I have yet to succeed in talking the current owner of it into selling/trading, but a THIRD example of the seven place sew-on bar with this ribbon exists. :banger:

Reverse:

NSDAP Long Service:

...and the reverse: