landsknechte

Landsknechte

Many thanks for posting this photo! Do you have any idea of the years of service required to earn each level of award? Do you believe that the Imperial or TR version is more commonly found? Any idea of the total numbers of these issued?

Regards,

Mark

Honestly, I don't know much more about this decoration than that it came in two different grades and seldom appears on bars other than singles. I have a tendency to save pictures of whatever random decorations I chance upon while surfing, as a reference for the ribbons.

--Chris

landsknechte

Thank you for posting the photo of the Imperial version. Any chance you might be able to post a photo of the gold award?

Thanks to all for your help on this,

Mark

I've only been able to find a photo of the gold version in the Third Reich incarnation, I'm afraid.

From what I understand with the Bavarian one, the pre TR version had an acorn where the Swastika is, but I've never seen one of these.

Cheers

Don

My best guess with the autograph is "in older years". Its a bit shaky, which could mean he autographed it for someone maybe at the time his book was published or something like that? Incidentally one of them married into the von Stauffenberg family - he of bomb plot 1944 fame.

Was Otto his older brother..? Generalmajor Otto Freiherr von Berchem, who was in the Luftwaffe. I am asking because you don't mention a first name in your post. However, I guess its Friedrich? If so his brother was in Bavarian Infantry. Very interesting family, are you looking out for other things to this family now..?

Kind regards

Matt Gibbs

Yup, the picture is of Freddy. I have no idea how the archiv came into possession of his photo album, nor when they got it. His son Adalbert was KIA in WWII, but he had three daughters that survived.

It was Otto that married into the von Stauffenbergs. I presume he's some relation, but I haven't been able to establish what the connection might be. (There are two different lines of Freiherr von Berchem - one Prussian and one Bavarian. If I remember correctly, Otto was Bavarian.) As far as I know, he only had two brothers. Max, who was a Hauptmann a.D. in Bavarian FAR 8, and Hans who was KIA as a Leutnant in Hessian Leibgarde Regiment 115.

...and yes, I'm interested in whatever I might be able to dig up.

...just had a thought. Can anyone whose familiar with these sort of photos venture a reasonable guess as to whether the original of the photo was autographed by Berchem, or if the name would have been added by someone else?

Wow. Got home and realized just how odd the settings on the [shared] computer that I use at work actually are. Anyhow, let's try this one on...

#4

Better?

#3

#2

Assuming you're set for 1024 x 768, these ought to work. Let me know if you're working on an itty-bittier monitor, and I'll adjust accordingly.

On a lark, I emailed the Bavarian Hauptstaatsarchiv to see if they had anything on the owner of an ID'ed ribbon bar in my collection.

Rather unexpectedly, this letter arrived in the mail:

Along with it is a wealth of information. Unfortunately, I can barely make any of it out. My German is bad enough, and then you toss in some Sutterlin, and I'm completely useless:

#1

#2

#3

#4

Could anyone be so kind as to help me make heads or tails of this?

Thanks,

--Chris

It's great to find a photo eventually!

I suppose you already have the information about his son (name, date of death, grave location)!?

For some reason, Adalbert Freiherr von Berchem was a heck of a lot easier to track down.

He's the one with the bandage on his head. (Somewhere on my hard drive, I've got a better pic. Still looking.)

Finally, a face to go with the item.

...and now in today's mail, an envelope arrived from Bavaria that makes me a tremendously happy camper:

...and I was happy.

It isn't every day that you can find a book written by the original owner of an item in your collection.

In time, I found a lot of rather random information about the man. Found the coat of arms. Found a photo of the son that died commanding a Gebirgsjaeger company. Found out what high school he went to, of all things...

He survived both world wars eventually ending up as a Major a.D. in the Luftwaffe, and later went on to publish a book about his time in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment.

With a lot of luck, I was able to track down a copy of that:

Reinhard Kastner was able to provide quite a bit of detail on the history, ultimately providing the final clue that led to the ID. There was a handful of flyers that had the HHOX and the MVO4XmKr, but only one that had Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz.

02.05.1890 in Schalkhausen

Leutnant im 7.FAR

27.05.1915 bay. Feldflieger Abteilung 1 kommandiert

03.06.1915 " " " " versetzt

16.03.1916 Oberleutnant

23.01.1917 bay. Flieger Ersatz Abteilung 1 Schlei?heim

30.01.1917 F.T. Kurs Neuruppin kommandiert

17.02.1917 Beobachterkurs Warschau kommandiert

02.03.1917 bay. Fliegerabteilung (A) 295 versetzt

29.07.1917 F?hrer der Fliegerfunkerschule

05.01.1918 F?hrer der bayer. Schutzstaffel 24

11.04.1918 Armee Flug Park 6 versetzt und zum Kofl 6 kommandiert

09.10.1918 bay. Flieger Ersatz Abteilung 1 Schlei?heim versetzt

00.11.1918 zur FAR zur?ckverstzt

12.12.1911 Prinzregent Luitpold Medaille

15.08.1914 bMVO 4b

22.07.1915 Beobachterabzeichen

10.01.1917 bMVO 4 mit Krone

20.11.1914 EK 2

14.03.1916 EK 1

30.04.1918 Hamburger Hanseaten Kreuz

16.07.1918 Hausorden vom Hohenzollern

Just a hair over two years ago, this all started. I bought a ribbon bar from Stogierick that was identifiable through the hard work of Rick Research and a little bit of luck (and a lot of "Googling") on my part.

(Here shown with the original Astroturf backdrop for old time's sake.)

Meet Freiherr von Berchem:

Well over on the aircraft forum it got them all talking,some thought it was an La-5 and others thought it was a Yak-9 with an Ash-82FN engine and a couple got it right and identified it as a Yak-3 with an American built radial engine....apparently the plane you posted is a bit of a hybrid.

Cool looking aircraft though

Dave

Heck, if it weren't for the aircraft landing next to it with the big red star, I wouldn't have even guessed Soviet. All I knew at the time was that it certainly stood out from the Cessnas.

Wow! A pirate motif!

Umm, errr are there a lot of unmarked Soviet fighter aircraft out your way?

Should we be worrying about THOSE instead of the legendary "black helicopters?"

Not a lot... There was a very well marked Yak-9 out there that day as well. Personally, I haven't had much luck. The surplus stores around the area are always picked clean of the good stuff when I get there. About all I can find is the occasional old twin-seat trainer aircraft. Someone has got to be cherry-picking for a friend, or something.

The commute to my old office had me passing right underneath the approach to the runway for San Jose International Airport. Very close to the airport. Count rivets from your sunroof close. Once in a blue moon, there'd be some odd aircraft coming in, amongst them a MiG-17 and an An-124.

The MiG was downright surreal, especially since I was running on a caffeine deficit early in the morning.

I felt the An-124 pass overhead. That is one LARGE friggin' aircraft, especially when you're in a Ford Escort.

No,I think it's an La-5.

Dave

I've never really been that up on Soviet Aircraft, but now I'm even more confused. I looked up the tail number, and apparently it's a Yak-3U.

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NN...Numbertxt=46463

This is what I was going from when I thought Yak-11: