David Gregory

SPM and Wildcard, I would love to be able to play, but I feel I don't know enough about cases. Please continue as it will be a terrific way to learn more about them (and the items they contain). David

Tony, The tool set looks commercial to me and the lone eagle stamp is not the sort of property mark I would expect to see on issue equipment. Perhaps someone has added the stamp to make it look "official". It is still an interesting piece of kit. David

Eduardo, I can only echo Tony's comment. It would be interesting to try some then-and-now comparisons of a few places when I next visit some of the towns you have shown. David

David, Good effort and keep going - websites do not grow overnight, but develop over time. Choosing to present information on a limited subject is a good idea as you can concentrate on doing one or two things very well, rather than trying to cover everything. Your potential audience might be limited, but you will probably be able to go for quality rather than quantity. It would be a good idea to avoid anything that cannot be displayed easily by a standard browser. MS Excel can only be displayed by a system that has Excel or an equivalent office suite installed. Not every visitor to your site (or search engine) will use the same operating system and applications as you. What seems fine on your computer may be not be rendered or legible on another system. Keep up the good work, David

Rick, A great gesture and the definitely the right thing to do. Let us hope that the Internet will allow other split groups to be re-united over the years. My only luck so far has been to find an EK2 award document that once belonged to man whose Milit?rpass I have. I just wonder what else is missing or if the two items are all there ever was in the group. David

Dan, It is nice to see that an old warhorse has found a good home. The manufacturing date is interesting, as I had always assumed that production of the MG 08 had been wound down or ceased after the introduction of the MG 08/15. Since they were designed for different roles, it does of course make sense that the MG 08 was still made until the end of the war. One of these is still high on my "Wanted" list, but they just do not seem to show up in Germany very often. Deactivated Russian Maxims and WW2 British Vickers are not too expensive, but just not quite the same as an MG 08. One day perhaps .... David

Jason, Most of those images are completely new to me, thanks again for showing them. An apparently original print of the image shown above with the three A7Vs and their crews was sold earlier this year on German eBay. I do not remember the exact price (it is saved somewhere on a back-up CD), but it went for several hundred Euros. David

Dan, An Italian company called Tauro Model offers a 1/35 scale kit of the A7V and Emhar does some of the British tanks in the same scale. Emhar also offers a kit of the A7V in 1/72. I have an unmade 1/72 scale resin model of the A7V sold by a company called Fine Scale Factory. The H?ndler/Traders-Info link on their site at http://www.finescalefactory.de includes an address for a dealer in the USA. I have seen scratch-built models made of wood and metal of various WW1 tanks in 1/16 scale at a local exhibition. They were very impressive and would probably not be difficult to make with a decent set of drawings. David

Jef, Thanks for showing another interesting image. If I recall correctly, the Belgian army still has an armoured unit training centre there (Leopard 2, etc.). Does anyone have any contacts to forces stationed there? It would be interesting to see what the place looks like today. David

Well, something along those lines. And what does Astrid think of the latest addition to the blade collection?

The tip will be ruined within a fortnight and bits of the cracked handle will turn up under a mouldy leather hat in the boot of your car next year. Very nice knife, by the way (while it lasts).

A Saxon non-combattant or medic?

WOW!

Don, Congratulations. Enjoy researching his exploits. Any documents to go with it? David

I knew I wasn't far wrong Don, A very nice addition to your collection. I was under the impression that you had sold your single awards and you are now only interested in mounted awards and bars. What is next, a PlM? David

Hi Chris, I have always believed it stands for Bekleidungsamt and the K stands for Korps. It is usually found together with a Roman numeral, which corresponds to the army corps district. Does anyone (Chip!) have a written period reference for this? David

OK, silver-gilt. Closer?

Jef, Thank you very much for the great images. I have a number of Milit?rp?sse with Beverloo stamps in them, I just wish I knew more about Beverloo itself. All I have found so far is a little information in Cron and a few fragments of information on the Internet. If I understand things correctly, it was used by the Germans as a training and distribution centre for fresh troops coming from Germany before they joined their final units or were sent to divisional field recruit depots. Many previously wounded troops returning to the front after convalescing in Germany also seem to have passed through Beverloo, too. Most of my photos, notes and books are packed ready for a forthcoming move, but I will dig them out and get back to "Beverloo" as soon as possible. The postcards I have that were sent back to Germany as field post letters mostly seem to be old Belgian stock, sometimes with the captions in German and French. Does anyone else have any more images of Beverloo? Thanks in advance, David

Naxos, What a terrific family group! Did you receive everything together or did you have to obtain his service record details from one of the archives? Did he leave a diary or any memoirs? They would would certainly make interesting reading. David

Christian, The award was issued on the ribbon of the Allgemeines Ehrenzeichen to combattants and on the ribbon you show to non-combattants. There are also two different versions of the award document that use the relevant ribbon as the decoration framing the text. John, Even if it is anonymous, it is a very nice bar. I find the Hessen Milit?r-Sanit?tskreuz fascinating. David

Don, I wouldn't be surprised if it held a nice cross in gold! Am I close? David

Congratulations on winning and for the elegant award. David

Eduardo, Nice images! Do you have any more pictures of Beverloo? Thanks in advance, David

Eduardo, Interesting pieces! Peter, The fighting at Verdun got off to a belated start on 21 February 1916, after being postponed since 12 February due to poor weather. David

Terrific items that are very well presented! Your collection is a good example of a small number of high-quality pieces and shows how effective a focussed approach can be.