David Gregory

Hauptmann Schmidtmann of IR15 (Minden) in 1914 was identified by Chris (webr55) in a thread a while back.

Among other awards, he had the Dutch Order of Oranien-Nassau when his portrait photo was taken on the eve of WW1.

That is an attachment for small-bore rifles to enable an instructor to check the aim of the weapon while the recruit was learning how to use it.

From the packaging and finish, it was probably a commercial item made for shooting clubs and paramilitary organisations.

Mike,

I don't think so - it appears that on the wagon is still the imperial eagle

Hardy

It was still fairly common to see the Imperial eagle on goods wagons until the various state railways (L?nderbahnen) were amalgamated into the Reichsbahn in 1924.

Considering how many of these awards are sold for relatively low prices on eBay, it is nice to see so many "low-end" medals in wear.

The image gives a perspective on otherwise anonymous collector's items. He obviously wore his awards with pride.

I can see how the Epingle pin mounts are just stuck in where they are needed, but how are the "ball bars" (bizarre, but accurate name) actually worn?

Brian,

Very nicely done. It encourages me to attempt the same thing with a group in my collection.

David

I accidentally stumbled across the on-line issue of a German medals magazine on Tuesday and stupidly did not earmark the site. however, on it was a complete roll (49 pages) for the Franco-Prussian wars' EK for Junngfrau etc.. from 2006.

Does anyone know where this is/was? Further google searches have resulted in nothing.

I think you are referring to http://www.ordensjournal.ordensmuseum.de/, which I believe is a site belonging to a German member of GMIC.

Here is a tag to Leutnant der Reserve Kuno Reusch, commander of 5th battery, Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 108.

There is a book out...

And this guy has some nice ones !!!!

http://membres.lycos.fr/spacemakerfra/main...&plaque=103

Very nice stuff, indeed. However, I don't see why he attributes the Sturmbataillon tag to Rohr's unit. It could be any 5th company.

If anyone here lives in MUC and would take a photo of the house he lived in for me :-))))

The best image available online is from above at Google maps. I bet the church bells were loud!

If I recall correctly, slotted dog tags first appeared in 1916, so I assume that your wonderful example dates from 1915 or earlier.

Is there any available literature on German tags?

By 1936, I would expect to see him wearing a Frontk?mpferkreuz on his medal bar. The photo was probably taken a while before the dedication was written.

Bear,

They are not from the era that primarily interests me, but as an obsessive document collector, I can appreciate how much they must mean to you.

Despite the fact that one of them has been cut up, they are still outstanding pieces of history.

David

Hello,

When working on the 8200 names, correcting, etc ... i came across one very strange unit => Freikorps

A L?H award in 1920 towards a soldier who was in a Freikorps. Either his merits from WWI did reach to get it while he was already a member of the 'Freikorps' or he earned his L?H for actions during the after WWI years? Who will tell

Fun, fun it is

It may be a delayed award for actions or services rendered up to 1918. Interesting, nevertheless.

Very nice.

J?ger - pangs of envy from me!

One entry seems to read Feld-Straf.-Gef.-Abt., which I presume means that he served with a penal unit.

Whether he had been convicted of some sort of crime or serving on the staff of the unit doesn't seem clear.

Very nice and clean.

The backing looks fairly typical for a Godet bar.

Hey, you're good - it _is_ one of those.

Worst eCrap ever of course, though it illustrates what I wanted to explain - and not everyone has such nice pictures as stogie does ...

Knowing the baddies helps to keep the collection clear of this muck.

Unfortunately, I have had to find out the hard way with an MVK2x that used to be a MVK3x.

I have no picture but can explain you what it looks like. The old "4th class" actually was called "Ritterkreuz II. Klasse". Is was made of Gold, was blue enemaled but had no flames between the arms - that's it. This class was one of the originals, instituted in 1866. The swords came just in 1891, so noone wore swords before, even if awarded for bravery. The ribbon was the white and blue one ("Friedensband") up to 1913 for all versions, swords didn't matter.

I finally found a picture, unfortunally a baaaaad cross. Though you can see what about it should look like ...

IGITT. That looks like one of raritaetensammler's offerings.

Bulgarian Bar (a rarity!!, the first time I see a bulgarian bar... probably for sake of more research))

It includes:

1/ LS&GC cross 10 years for NCO Ferdinand edition (1889)

2/ Commemorative Cross for King Ferdinand accesion to the throne 3th. class (1887)

3/ Merit medal 2nd. class (Ferdinand -young- edition type II, 1887-1891)

4/ Serbia War medal silver (1st. class) 1885

Miguel,

That is very nice! Where do you find these bars?

David

In my first post above I omitted one date as follows:

• KVK bestowed on 9 February 1915, document dated 27 June 1918, roll number D11¹268¹/15 (this might be a strangely transcribed D11,268¹/15)

The 15 suffix must refer to the year of the award. All of the other documents feature just the one date.

Hi Scott,

After seeing the results of a number successful and failed attempts to reblue old bayonets and rifles, I would recommend you just leave the bayonet as it is. At its best, cold blueing tends to look patchy. Good hot blueing appears "sanitized" to me. The most I ever do is to remove any existing or prevent any further rust.

It is almost impossible to repeat the original finish and the results seem to lose any charm/patina/soul (delete as applicable) that old items had before their "restoration". If you really want an example with its original finish, wait until one turns up at an acceptable price as they are by no means rare.

Sorry if this is not the answer you wanted to hear, but I would just keep it and enjoy it as it stands.

David

Whoops, in my haste yesterday I posted the document dates and omitted the bestowal dates.

Since that doesn't show the real picture, I'll dig out any others I have and add the bestowal dates this evening. I am sure we will then have a better idea of roll number sequences and how they correlate to the actual award dates.

The only clues we've got are running Roll numbers on the lower left of the award documents.

Anybody have any to report?

I have a document group to a gunner and later Unteroffizier of 1./FAR 4 including the Bew?hrungsabzeichen. In this case, his Braunschweig documents are numbered as follows:

• KVK (later to become the 2nd class) dated 25 October 1917, roll number K4363
• Bew?hrungsabzeichen zum KVK2 dated 25 July 1918, roll number K4228
• KVK1 dated 25 July 1918, roll number K4228 (i.e. same date and roll number as the Bew?hrungsabzeichen above, but featuring a lower roll number than his previously issued KVK)

Here are some other KVK (i.e. later 2nd class) document details in their order of issue where the numbers have not been trimmed off. However, the roll numbers in the lower left corner might be a bit misleading, as I cannot see any system in the suffixes that some numbers seem to have. Can anyone make any sense out of these?

• KVK dated 2 September 1916, roll number D2234 (possibly P2234)
• KVK dated 22 September 1916, roll number K6
• KVK dated 14 November 1916, roll number K456
• KVK dated 3 May 1917, roll number K1155²
• KVK am gelb-blauen Bande dated 24 January 1918, roll number K4563²
• KVK dated 7 February 1918, roll number K532
• KVK dated 27 June 1918, roll number D11¹268¹/15 (this might be a strangely transcribed D11,268¹/15)
• KVK2 dated 31 July 1918, roll number K4353
• KVK am gelb-blauen Bande dated 28 October 1918, roll number K5845

I also have a couple more that haven't been filed in my Braunschweig folder yet. One of them was awarded some time in 1915, if I recall correctly. I'll add their award dates and roll numbers later.

Is Kapit?nleutnant Leo Riedel mentioned anywhere in that impressive tome?

I knew a Sturmregiment vet who received his Afrika document as a POW in the USA in early 1945. Sadly, he recently passed away.