TS Allen

Officially speaking, the left collar held a disk with a US, above the regimental number. The right disk held Branch of Service, above a copmany designation. NA (for "National Army") or NG (for "National Guard" could be superimposed above the US on the left collar. The above is according the the 1917 National Geographic which featured all of the service's insignia and flags as a special feature, and was for a long time a common collector reference. These regulation were entirely ignored during the war. The AEF was, in many respects, an organizational disaster, and it simply wasn't practical to try to provide each unite with the correct insignia. It seems that during the war, most units went over to simply wearing US on the left collar and Branch of Service insignia on the right. This simplification may also have been a nod to unit security, as the AEF clearly understood the importance of keeping enemy intelligence from being able to easily keep track of American units. Marine Corps units were originally composed of numbered companies. As the initially lacked any collar insignia, many Marine Corps units transitioned to crossed infantry rifles (all USMC units that served on active duty in Europe were infantry) with a company number superimposed on them, despite this being clearly Army insignia. As one vet later said, "it's what we had!" ~TS

The GWOTSM is the more commonly awarded of the two, it appears, because its been around for longer and also because, compared to the Iraq War Medal, it's awarded for service in a much wider area. I was talking to a Naval Academy midshipman, and he says its not uncommon for mids to have the GWOTSM! Not the prior-enlisted types either, they can earn one on a thirty-day summer cruise in the Persian Gulf! ~TS

To me, it looks one of those state of New York service medals, which I believe go to National Guard, as well as other uniformed agencies, such as the Police and Firemen of the state. It isn't JROTC, I know that (most people call us ROTC, no idea why). I'm a C/MAJ and the BC at my school, and I can ask my adjutant if we give out any star-shaped medals, but I've never seen it or anything like it. ~TS

So, Dieter, how did it go? ~TS

I've seen at least one early Japanese uniform that uses the same system, it was pre-WWI (probably pre-Boxer Rebellion, as it was a cavalry tunic and I suspect that the small Japanese cavalry arm got khaki tunics early, it was the blue type). Strange, though, because the Japanese never had any Austrian advisors that I'm aware of, and the Japanese Army mostly imitated whoever they were being advised by. ~TS

Wow! Impressive find! ~TS

The link below it does go to the picture. I believe the Victory is still floating, but they haven't sailed her for some time! ~TS

Image embedding isn't being cooperative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Constitution_1997.jpg Back in the 1890's, most of the "tops" (rigging) were actually removed, I think. Old black-and-white photos show a ship with cut-down masts and few sails (not sure if she was seaworthy), similar to what the HMS Victory looks like today and also did in that period. For some reason, the US likes shortening its historic objects. During the Span-Am War, the US Army Corps of Engineers blew the top coupla levels off some of the Civil-War era coastal forts, to lower their profile in case the Dons showed up. ~TS

Well, for the Span-Am War in 1898 the strength of the Corps was, as of 30 June, 98 officers and 3,481 enlisted men, it decreased slightly in 1899 to 76 officers and 3,066 men, but by 1900 the Corps balloons to 174 officers and 5,240 enlisted. I just looked up these figures to check the "surplus to the needs of the service" discharge theory, I've never heard that before (and, I actually wasn't aware of the dip in strength in 1899, although I knew the Corps was short on officers in the past-SAW expansion). Very true though, not at all like today. ~TS

Rick, do you have any pictures of your great uncle on the ship as a Marine guard? Such images must be quite rare, I wasn't aware the vessel had Marines stationed on it at that time! I'll PM you about him, I'm a USMC nut (and leaving a year from now for Annapolis to join myself!) and, coming from you, I'm sure you have lots of interesting information about him. ~TS

A member's just PM'd me saying that there was a book published that illustrated Egyptian civil court uniforms prior to WWII. Finding that hat would be absolutely great, because I found one of these books for the UK uniforms thanks to a forum member and thus got a pretty good handle on British civil uniforms, although I'm still a /bit/ fuzzy on some of the dates for pattern changes, as there is a difference between pre- and post-WWI pieces. Anyway, does anyone know any booksellers in Egypt? I'm sure that if this whisk was a patterned item, it would have remained in use and probably be in the book. And Mervyn, since I haven't said it thus far, beautiful whisks! Hopefully the forum membership will eventually be able to ID the ivory one! ~TS

A preliminary search turned up nothing. I'll keep on looking though! Ottoman and Egyptian items are tough, pictures references are limited to a few British officials in books and pictures of the Khedive and the higher level officials in most cases. I bought two British diplomatic uniforms a while back and just fell in love with them. I've now got references to identify most of the British ones (thanks to the forum), Japanese, German, Russian, Italian, and a few others, mostly from detailed photos collected from auctions. I've also been building up a picture library of Austrian uniforms, as their Generals and their diplomats wear very similar uniforms. It still isn't huge but, I can identify the basics very easily now, which can often be very tough with these uniforms that were so similar across Europe. Next I'm going to work on an inventory of tailors so I can date them! ~TS

One of the best references for items used in colonial conflicts always proves to be period pictures. I'd not aware of any published collections of photographs from Egypt and the Sudan in this period, but I'd bet there is one, and, if this was a common item, you can probably find one similar in one of the pictures. Also, if this were to be identified to a Sirdar, it could have been used by an Egyptian official as well. When I was delving into Egyptian court uniforms about a week ago (they're on of the few nations I don't have any references for!) I dug up a few pictures of old Egyptian officials, I'll look around for fly whisks and report any findings. ~TS

Hello, Does anyone know when Kangol Wear was active in making berets for the British Army? They seem to have been one of the larger manufacturers of British berets during the Second World War and also into the postwar era. Somewhere I have a picture of Monty's beret, probably at the IWM (although the one he wore at El Alamein is held in a private collection in the US, he must have had several), the interior shows this company's markings. Horrido! ~TS

Thanks! This is clearly just another case of the American not knowing what he's talking about. Ah well, at least I have this forum to clear this sort of stuff up for me! Now, another questions, are miniatures much in desire by collectors? I personally like them, but do they have anything like comparable desirability to their full-size counterparts as far as price is concerned? ~TS

Hello all, I was thinking about mini medals earlier after reading a long exposition on how beautiful they complemented the mess uniform of the 4th Gurkha Rifles in Bugles and a Tiger, by John Masters, an account of pre-war and WWII service with that regiment. What year were miniature medals introduced? I've seen them, occasionally as Victorian pieces but it seems that for the British Army miniature medals are largely a modern phenomenon? I know that full-size medals were never worn with mess dress, but I assume that the miniature medals that I see for early campaigns (i.e. the Mutiny) are later strikes for officers who earned the medals. Or is this another case of the American collector who likes red coats getting confused? Thanks! ~TS

German was NEVER going to be the official language of the United States. That's a silly urban legend! There was simply discussion to have a bunch of copies of US laws printed up in German. The discussion was adjourned, for some odd reason, and the matter was never brought up again. As English was never made the official language, it would seem silly for us to make it German! The Congressional Record of 2 March 1928, reports Senate joint resolution No. 41, wherein Congress recognized the title "War Between the States" as the proper name for the war commonly, but mistakenly, referred to as the "Civil War". My first thought when I saw this thread was that the 23rd had been in Canada. As Mr. Johnson has noted, the 23rd were in Canada prior to the Crimean War. It is obvious that they were withdrawn, needed by the British empire to meet the threat in Asia and on the Subcontinent. But, did they return during the 1860's? I can't find anything on it... ~TS

I looked through actually and my edition only covers up to February of 1900. I've just been digging through it doing analyses of the pocket designs prevalent on the P.1898 khaki drill uniform, so I'm quite sure its not in my copy. I'm not a very advanced Boer War collector, so no, I don't have one of the helmets. Speaking of the Boer War collection, I just emailed you about one of the uniforms you have for sale on your site. Horrido! ~TS

What page is this on? I have the book, I can't find it. ~TS

Could someone please explain in more detail what this is? I assume these aren't the tactical recognition type flashes! ~TS

Osprey's Men At Arms series shows a similar helmet. North-West Frontier 1837-1947 by Robert Wilkinson-Latham. Plate G, figure 3 shows Amir Ayub Khan, ca. 1880, holding a similar brass helmet. According to the caption in the back "The Amir wore a heavy beaten brass helmet in imitation of the British Albert-pattern cavalry helmet, with with feather plumes, oakleaf strip decoration on front, back and peak, and a badge featuring oak and laurel leaves surrounding a cut star." I could imagine this being an artillery pattern of the same helmet? ~TS

The Japanese field cap looks correct for the Taisho era, but I'm no expert. I'm sure there is one on the forum, though. Looking at the one Meiji-period cap I have, the star looks about right. The Japanese stars of the period were very big. What about Siam? The Belgian Musee d'Armee has a bunch of their uniforms on display. You may want to try to find some pictures online, I've seen them before. The Siamese actually did have I believe some ground troops and an aviation detachment on the Western Front so such an officer ending up in Germany is possible if highly unlikely. ~TS

I doubt the reworked German sabers saw much use. Mad Jack Churchill is probably one of the most interesting figures in the history of the British Army. I can only imagine what a movie about his life would look like, especially with some Hollywood embellishments. Family story has it that one of my relatives was with that Polish cavalry charge, starting out as an officer in a supporting artillery unit and eventually joining in himself as the one battery or so that was there was worthless. Never believed the story myself. I know that there was an Indian Army cavalry unit that made a mounted charge in 1944. You can still find a copy of the article covering it in the online archives of the New York Times. I could swear I had a copy saved but its just another article about Vinegar Joe Stillwell. ~TS

My next door neighbor was the photographer on the USS Missouri for the surrender ceremonies. I assume he was one of several official photographers and I do not believe he was the principal one, but frankly, I've never asked. He's got several albums full of these images, not the newsprints but the originals. I also think he still has a few of his cameras lying around, quite possibly also the camera that originally took this picture. I'm sure he'll be fascinated to hear that he is such an incredibly rich man! ~TS

All I knew was that it had the same number of medal loops and it was bought by a Canadian, I figured that the chances were in my favor with an assumption. Guess I was wrong. Since I forgot to mention it before, beautiful tunic! Fascinating story behind it as well. And I've always thought that these were some of the most striking of period uniforms. ~TS