Dave Alexander

Thanks, Jan. I see now the "I" on the reverse. The order, if I am not mistaken is Leo I, Order of the Crown, then Leo II, right?

Shouldn't the ribbon be blue with a central black stripe?

The 10th Foot (Lincolnshire Regt) wore yellow facings. There is also an inhabitant of the Fens, a particular yellow-bellied frog that is known locally as, what else? A Yellow Belly!

Right, Brian. Bakelite tends to get brittle with age so don't force anything. The red and blue screws by the way were for pre-set frequencies. You netted in on one, say red, tightened up the 2 red screws then did the same on another freq with the blue ones. There is a slot on each one in which a penny fit to tighten them. Frequencies were pre-assigned each day and if difficulties were encountered on one you just flipped the dial and it would lock on the other. Today you can switch to 1000 different ones with the push of a button.

Brian. try spraying it with WD 40 then try to unscrew it. Some were screw and others just popped of. Most of the ones I dealt with were rubber fitted post war and you just slipped the stem in first then eased the rest in. The rubber acted as a kind of shock absober too. The sets all came with a grille or cage that slipped over the front that protected the face, dials and switches from damage. We used to remove these and use them on top of our Benghazis to cook with!

The watches we had if I remember correctly were made by Jaeger LeCoultre, Switzerland. The QM would only issue them with an officer's signature 'cos if they were "lost" they had to be paid for out of your wages. At that time we still had Natl Servicemen in the Army who were making the equivalent of $2.00 per week and couldn't have paid for them in the 2 yrs they were in!

Why not just get in touch with Zeiss Gmbh in Jena, Germany? That would be the best bet.

Normal range in tanks would be about 10 miles using a 4ft external aerial. These were in sections and additional pieces were added up to 12ft for added range, about 30 - 40mls. Using horizontal "skywave" antennas we were able to communicate between the highlands of Kota Belud, Borneo with HQ Singapore and the Hong Kong-Kowloon Garrison. These communicates were spotty at best but they did work. Range is greater at nightime and over water. The skywaves were lengths of wire worked out mathematically as to range requirements. Being an HF set the WS 19 constantly carried static referred to as "mush", sounded like bacon frying multiplied 100 times. After several hours of radio watch you couldn't get the sound out of your head. CW stands for Carrier Wave and was used for morse code, a requirement phased out in tanks in 1959 as the new VHF sets were then being introduced. Being in the Far East we were the last to be supplied with VHF in 1962.

Brian, there are a couple of reasons that I came up with at that time to explain the Chinese markings. During WW2 lots of equipment was shipped to Chang Kai Shek's troops and in Malaya (and Malaysia) in my time we had locally raised Chinese units. For example in our Gurkha Brigade there was a Mule Pack Company RASC, the 81st, I believe that were all Chinese except for the officers and SNCOs. They carried WS 19 sets on wooden panniers on the mule with the set on one side and a couple of batteries on the other. Much of the terrain in which we had to operate was inaccessible to any type of vehicle so the mules became the vehicles. This was the only way we could keep contact with Regtl and Brigade HQ as the walkie-talkies we had only had a range of about 1 mile.

We were still using these sets as late as 1961 in Centurions, Land Rovers, Scout cars etc. The Variometer is used to electronically lengthen or shorten the aerial, the external aerial is attached to it. If you take it apart you will see a long coil of wire with a contact that moves along it as you rotate the dial. The WS 19 was an HF AM transceiver and was replaced with the VHF C42. The WS19 sets that we had were not only marked in English and Russian but also in Chinese.

With reference to the New Hampshire quarter depicting the natural rock formation "Old Man of the Mountain" , just a short time after this quarter was released the rock formation collapsed. It no longer exists except on the New Hampshire quarters.

12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales' Own) OR's collar dog. Amalgamated with the 9th Lancers in late 1959.

A quick guess I'd say a Mk IV or V Male w/ 2 x 57 mm cannon. Built 1917, if we could see the number better it might help.

You are probably correct, Heinrich, these awards were given primarily for political reasons and I see that William fled to England with his father for many years then returned to Holland. Most probably had some monetary or military backing from England to regain his possessions. I have no knowledge of any other ones at this time, good luck in your search.

Sturm - I have only some small knowledge of this decoration but you may find it helpful. As far as I know the first foreigner to be awarded this was Fursten Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg und Grafen Alexander Mensdorff-Pouilly in 1869. You will understand these titles, I do not. The Order began in 1725 so it looks as though no memberships were given in Napolean's time. Foreign recipients, by the way, are only given Honorary Membership unless they held a British Military Commission at the time. Since 1869 I think only 5 more have been given. As Lukasz says the Central Chancery may be able to help more.

Carol, in Google type in Order of the Crown of Romania and it should give you several websites. Choose marksmedals.com/romanian_medals (it has some other stuff after this) and you will have enough to keep you interested for a while. Aloha, Dave

By process of elimination : Type 1 1881 - 1932, Rabbits head (hare, actually) 1922 - present. Had to be made between 1922 and 1932. If the box is dated earlier then either it is mismatched or it was in stock by the medal maker. They probably ordered say 100 boxes and stuck them on the shelf and used them as they produced individual medals. I believe there were 29 different versions of this one medal alone!

Carol - Austrian hallmarks before 1886 were of 2 kinds, both had a cross on them, very clear. From 1886 - 1922 they had the head of the goddess Diana. From 1922 - present contains a toucan's head with numbers to the right,(4 = .750 silver) and city letter to the left (W = Wien, Vienna). The earlier hallmarks had A = Wien, Vienna. So if you can squint at the "rabbit's head" and maybe make it seem more like a toucan's head then it was probably made in Austria. Still can't find a maker though.

Don't know AF or A, I can only assume that it is a jeweller's mark. The letter to the left of the rabbit's head is the city that it was made in, for example P would be Prague. Is your medal type 1 or type 2? The type 1 was from 1881 - 1932 and type 2 from 1932 - 1947 when you had to abdicate. Older hallmarks on silver before this time was of different design and only contained .500 - .799 silver. Hope this helps.

Hard to make out but I'm pretty sure its Czech. Should look like a rabbit's head facing your left. The 4 means it's .835 silver content. Sterling is .925 for comparison. These hallmarks are in use today.

This is the O.G. (Olive Green) tropical uniform made from cotton. You notice how the jacket is lighter than the pants. This is because it was normally worn with shorts and the jacket and shorts went to the dhobi-wallah (laundry) more often than the long pants which were worn a lot less often.

If its only 20cm you are right. It would have to be about 50cm long to be used as I explained. This would probably be used as you said around a wrist. It would only be used as a temporary device, for example if an unruly demonstrator was being arrested and marched toward a police van with one arm twisted behind his back, pressure would be used to persuade them to "come-along". There is a list of simple devices that are used as "come-alongs" that use the threat of pain to ensure cooperation but don't do permanent damage.

Eduardo - this is a garotte. Whoever gave you it probably said it was a "restraint'. The handles are grasped in each hand with the rope running between the index and middle fingers. It is then slipped around the persons neck from behind then your hands are crossed over, it can be done in less than one second. The knots are placed so that the inner two come on each side of the windpipe and the outer two nearest the handles line up with the carotid artery. When pressure is applied you can imagine the result. Too much pressure or too long results in death. These were used to "take out" sentries quickly and quietly, the only difference was that instead of rope, piano wire was used.

During my many years as a Civil Engineer we would produce blue prints for use by construction crews in the field. If we wished to emphasise any particular part of the drawing or instructions we would underline or draw a box round them in YELLOW. When the blue print was run, yellow would stand out as the darkest lines, it would jump out at you. Something to do with the UV light used. This was a principle established long before my time.

Red sash - Something to do with Regt'l Provost Staff, maybe? Also I'm puzzled by the dude on the left being "Pte" when it looks like he is wearing Corporal's stripes.