Sal Williams

Antti, don't eat so much sugar it always makes you so hyperactive! I think I must call your mother it seems its time for a diaper change

I am always amused by children

@ Antti, you crack me up sir!!!! @Wildcard, thanks for the non cleaning advice, Rick warned me away from that the minute I got the piece love that miniature!!! @Glenn, What can I say but thanks again! So I take it that when you made some copies and were going thru them you saw Westmarks name and remembered it? Boy I hope somebody bumps into the regimentals someday! That would be something else! And thanks to all others for the nice comments as well!

Francisco, that is very interesting as well as sad. Where did you find that info? Have you heard anything on the story that I found about one of the crew? This sounds like a very interesting story forming up. Do you know the plane numbers etc. that Sobotka was flying that day? Best, Sal

Don you might be right about your hunch,... I think poor Jacques has suffered terribly since I became a LC addict

Ok I found my books and on the day in question the pilot is indeed noted as being Hans Sobotka of K/88. That means our cross dressing suspect is either Otto Hoffmeister or Friedrich Mueller. So that would mean that the other 2 would have to be aware of the 1 deviant in the plane. Seems odd to me that in 1937 they would be so tolerant of this and not only not report him but be willing to trust him with thier lives as they say on Seinfeld,... "not that there is anything wrong with that

What is also interesting is that it appears that on the small and large 900 you posted the same flaw is there but to different degrees. Perhaps a result of hand finishing? Both of mine seem to show the top "flaw" above the sword to be large very much like the large 900 example you posted (Beautiful piece BTW Jacques!)

Dr Jacques, Yes both my CEJ's have this same "flaw"

Yowza Glenn!! how did you find that out? And how did you remember to even look for it???? Thanks soooo much! If anyone ever finds the regimental that might have his pic please contact me i would love to find out what he looked like. One question guys, why do you suppose this never was put on a bar or somthing of the sort? Seems like he opened the package, wore it on his neck and then put it away forever?

I read this book by Nicholas Rankin about the life of George Steer war correspondant who covered the Ethiopia and Spanish Civil War campaigns among others. This passage was interesting and almost unbelievable to me... On Sunday,18 April 1937 the third air raid of the day on Bilbao took Steer out of the Torrontegui Hotel to see what was going on. Four Russian fighters were chasing three Dornier 17's, new nazi fast bombers nicknamed 'flying pencils'. "Suddenly across the hill of bego?a in front of me fell a line of bombs at top speed. Lightning, thunder,thunder,lightning,prolonged thunder and smoke". One of the bombers was shot down, and Steer went out to Galdakano to see where it had crashed. The pilot, a 27 year old German named Hans Sobotka, was half burned, and his arms were still raised across his face from the last moment before he had gone into the hillside. The 2 other Germans had jumped from the Dornier, but thier parachutes had not had time to open; they had hit the river Nervion so hard they had died of shock. One corpse was unusual;The plucked eyebrows, lipsticked mouth and manicured pointed fingernails on fine white hands appeared to show the Germans were using women as war pilots;but the doctors at the Sanidad Militar in Bilbao were men of the world. They undressed the corpse and scrutinized it. The armpit hair had been plucked and it wore feminine pink silk underwear, but it was, biologicaly,a man. The underwear was hung on exhibition in the Basque departmrnt of defense, and the doctors jotted it downin thier casebooks as'one of the queerer incidents of the Civil War'. This seems pretty hard to believe that a german could go up in a bomber with a crew in drag! What do you think? My books are packed away at the moment but maybe Jacques can tell us who was shot down that day and died. I would like to know if we have at least a match on that day with the loss of 3 crew.

Jacques, how could the grips be different if its all part of the same die? I think that it is just the hand finishing. My 2 CEJ have wider and thinner grip if viewed from the back and it looks like that was a finishing process.

did this thread just move or am I mad????

Thanks Ricky, I was waiting for your reply

Thanks Panzerpioneer, I saw this turkey too! The things that end up as LC on ebay

As to what this bar on the bar is? It looks very cool.

Yes Rick, yet again amazing. We start to take this kind of stuff for granted from you but sometimes I just reel when I think about the info you find out!

But lets see the mark please

hi Ed, These were awarded to legion condor personel so they are appropriate subjects here as well as international. best, Sal

I was really surprised by that one! I have never seen anything like it! have you seen others of this fake before Jacques? I am not trying to cast any doubt,I too am certain it is a fake. Best, Sal

GREAT PIC Jacques!!!!!!

Hi Joe, I would love to have copies as well if you have the time. Best, Sal

This kind of thing is so cool! It kills me when I see photo albums etc. split up on ebay!

Jacques , those are fantastic!

Can you give any more info? Luftwaffe? Why do you suspect so? Best, Sal

Rick, I thought you would be intregued by this little bunch