David Gregory

Dolf,

Those are very attractive awards.

When does the Military Merit medal date from and are there any other versions of the Portuguese War Cross, i.e. not the 1917 type?

Are there any Interallied Victory Medal variants or only one design?

David

Nice photos... I must get there some time soon.....

Another GMIC trip in the offing?

Tony, your great photos have me checking my diary to see when we can go. Flanders is only 3 hours by car from Dortmund if traffic on the Antwerp ring road is not too heavy.

They are going to drive collectors out of TR and into other areas, Imperial for instance.

I hope not.

Now if I can just do something with this lot

Tom,

I'll do you a favour and make some space for it in my study. Just send it to me.

Thanks in advance,

David

Tony,

Excellent then and now views!

When you are going again and shall we share the petrol?

David

I missed that bar by (literally) 3 seconds. It really wanted to come to my house. Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhhh.

Ditto

For someone with poor eyesite, they're working pretty good tonight. Here's the front. Now the thing that really, really bugged me about this bar is the construction/materials and "feel/look" would have me believing the bar to be right. Only one problem. NO Bavarian would put the MJ behind the first two. Never going to happen. Nope, don't think that way.............. it isn't going to happen.......... But WHY is it like this??

If it was made that way around 80 years ago, an ignorant or desparate tailor might have had no Meiningen ribbon when he assembled the bar.

Solomon,

Excellent first real post! Nice to see you here and your English is much better than you think.

I know you have a number of very interesting Lippe items and we all look forward to seeing them.

David

Hi BJOW (terrific moniker by the way),

It seems to be the cap badge of the 17th/21st Lancers & The Queen's Royal Lancers.

Cheers,

David

I will try and locate those titles. Has "sources of information" ever been a topic? Perhaps other collectors would have favorite sources they could share. Thanks Chip.

Kenneth,

You might want to start here, which will keep you busy for a few long winter evenings.

Failing that, just ask, as there are a few members of this forum who will be able to point you in the right direction.

Cheers,

David

Chip,

What does volume 1 cover and when will volume 2 be published?

David

Otto,

As a document collector who likes groups, congratulations on finding what you have already. However, the fact that it belongs to your family is the most important thing.

The Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz document is the first one I have seen dated post-1918.

Do you know of any other items that belonged to him which you are still trying to obtain?

David

What is his name? If I may ask? I should be able to find him in the regiments history!

Andreas,

Thanks for the offer, which I was going to ask as a favour by PM. I have listed his details as follows:

Unteroffizier Heinrich Muhl volunteered for active service and joined the recruit depot of Infanterie-Regiment 168 as a replacement recruit in August 1914. In October he was posted to 9. Kompagnie Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 221, part of 95. Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade, 48. Reserve-Division fighting near Ypres before transferring to the Eastern Front in late November. He saw action at Lask-Pabianice, Lodz and Kawka-Bzura before transferring to Hungary in January 1915. He fought in the Carpathians until he suffered a broken leg in February. After recovering in various reserve and field hospitals, he was posted to the machine gun company of Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 254, part of 76. Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade, 76. Reserve-Division in February 1916. He saw action on the front at Riga, in Siebenb?rgen, at Kronstadt, the mountain fighting at the T?rzburger Pass and pursuit through and fighting in Rumania until the ceasefire in December 1917. In March 1918 he was transferred to the Western Front and took part in the Kaiserschlacht as part of Hutier's 18. Armee until he was wounded in the left cheek by an artillery splinter near Birnaville in September. Awarded the EK II, Hessische Tapferkeits-Medaille and Hessisches Krieger-Ehrenzeichen in Eisen.

I'll look up the exact date and details of his wound when I get home - it would be interesting to see some scans of the pages relating to the unit's activities at the time.

Many thanks in advance,

David

additional pictures

Joel,

Nice find. It is an Ersatz-Reserve-Pass, which is essentially a Milit?rpass issued for a member of the replacement reserve. If you are not familiar with them, Milit?rp?sse are the Imperial equivalent of the Wehrpass issued from about 1935 onwards. The Ersatz-Reserve-Pass sometimes also contains information not found in a Milit?rpass, but usually entered in a Soldbuch.

As a record of a soldier's military service, it will probably tell you more about his time spent in uniform, from induction and training right the way through to discharge and pension entitlements, than any other single document. The entries in the various sections provide plenty of research potential.

A quick perusal of your scans indicates that he was a confectioner by trade and possibly did not see any active service. Entries on pages not shown might reveal more about the previous owner.

While they seem to be highly under-rated by most collectors, I have lost count of how many I have and cannot get enough of them.

I actively collect Milit?rp?sse, Soldb?cher and award documents, preferably in groups. The actual awards are only an incidental sub-section of my collection.

David

Andreas,

Excellent family group - shame that the documents are missing. It is astonishing what turns up still in the possession of families.

I have the Milit?rpass of a man who served with the MGK of RIR 254 and who was awarded the EK II, Hessische Tapferkeits-Medaille and Hessisches Krieger-Ehrenzeichen in Eisen. They must have met and quite possibly knew each other.

David

Chris,

That book has been on my "to get" list for longer than I can remember. Look forward to your comments when you have had the chance to review it.

David

And we'll expand the thread! Check out Medal #2. eweeeeweeeeee

Looks like G?de's finest!

Hi,

Any problems are down to the film studio, which probably didn't get the actor's costume right.

David

Gordon,

I read the unit as 3. Kompagnie, Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment 85 from the image of the document.

The regimental staff and I. (to which 3. Kompagnie belonged) and II. Bataillon were raised in the Flensburg area and initially assigned to the garrison on the island of Sylt (which is now a very expensive holiday resort). III. Bataillon was raised in Schleswig and intially assigned to the garrison on the island of Pellworm.

In autumn 1914, the regimental staff, I. and II. Bataillon were transferred to the West. The regimental staff became the staff of IR 362. After a number of assignments to different formations, I. and II. Bataillon became part of RIR 79 in the autumn of 1916.

Apart from the fact your man was almost certainly somewhere on the Western Front when he was awarded the EK2, I don't have anything else on the unit at the moment.

David

One of the words looks like V?geln to me but I'm quite sure he didn't have time for that. It's probably another town nearby.

Bit of a Freudian slip, Tony?

The name of the town is D?beln.

Since the inside front cover also features some Russian handwriting and he was in the Dresden area towards the end of the war, he probably ended up in the Soviet sector and had the Cyrillic alphabet sheet as part of learning to live with the new order.

Interesting Soldbuch!

Paul.

Number 5 looks like it might be a ribbon for the Dienstauszeichnung 1. Klasse - a pin-back broach - issued until 1913.

David

Jens, I still regret not bidding on that very nice combination.

Who can show any other awards suspended from their ribbon in the buttonhole like Ulsterman?

When my scanner starts behaving itself, I'll post some more.

Paul,

Nice score. I have a great weakness for anything from Mecklenburg (both Schwerin and Strelitz), and I find the crosses hard to resist.

None of mine are mounted back-to-front like yours, but it is not unusual to see Iron Crosses and various other awards with the reverse showing. It has been suggested that this has something to do with an expression of disappointment over the passing of the empire. That may be the case, but the former proud owner may just have preferred to emphasise the message relating to decoration.

I recently acquired a cross that has polished lettering on both the front and back. It is something I haven't noticed on any others, but I will check to see whether the others have just dulled a little over the years. You should be able to see if yours has this finish quite easily.

David

bronze = earlier?

zink = later?

Hi Joe,

Your zink medal is in very nice condition. You are right about the earliest medals being made of bronze and the latest ones being made of zink. There were also bronzed versions made of a replacement metal issued at some time in between the two types.

All of the ones that I have or have handled seem to have very good details.

David

The China vet medal bar thread shows how awards could be suspended and worn from a tunic buttonhole, which seems to be a popular image for many formal portraits made when awards were bestowed.

The Iron Cross is probably the most frequently seen award worn in this way, but it was also used for HHOX crosses and orders and decorations from many other states.

Does anyone have an example of a ribbon modified by having two reinforced buttonholes added to it for this mounting arrangement?

Please show your photos of awards worn suspended from the buttonhole.

I'll start off with a simple portrait of Unteroffizier Keller of 6. Kompagnie LIR 65. This is one of a few portraits of men from 6. Kompagnie who dedicated their photos to their "dear comrade Gefreiter Hasselmann", who might have been recovering from wounds. The photo was taken in Villers sur Pareid (spelling?) in June 1915.

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