Roeland

hello gents, beautiful collection Garth! I love it, and I totally agree with your opinion on the ordre du Dragon d'Annam. Perhaps you like this image: kind regards, Roeland

Hello, very nice pictures. Thank you for offering your help, I appreciate it very much, however I think I'll manage as I've found quite a lot of information now. I really like the URL you gave to that set (2 tomes) of books about French ww1 generals. I was looking for that for a while, however I could only find pages where people offered it for more than 100 euro for each tpart of the set. I ordered it right away now, that should be a very good source of information, can't wait until I receive it. Thanks again, I wish you a good evening. kind regards, Roeland

What does ''promotion du Tchad'' mean? He graduated as number 97th of 437 (according to his file). Eleve 2e classe 26-10-1901 Eleve 1e classe 3-11-1902 Caporal 8-4-1903 Lieutenant 1-10-1903 Capitaine TT 3-10-1914 Capitaine TD 1-11-1914 Chef de Bataillon TT 11-8-1917 Chef de Bataillon TD 25-3-1925 Lieutenant-colonel 25-9-1931 Colonel 25-12-1935 Nomm? Adjoint de General gouverneur de Belfort 10-3-1939 General de Brigade 8-12-1939 (when the war broke out he was the commander of the tanks from the 4th army), after that he was the commander of the department Jura, on 20-8-1940 he was put on reserve. He died in 1957 at Nice.

Hello G?rard, thank you for saying what the seller wrote. In the meantime I have a lot of other information on this general as well. A gmic member took photo's for me of his file. He had an incredible career, 1901 at Saint-Cyr, he was an officer during WW1, fought in Marocco as well and then WW2. He has been involved with tanks most time of his career since they came in use in WW1. I've translated his career file in Dutch for myself, but haven't translated it in English, I'll see if I might have some time soon to do so and list it here. here's a picture of General Guillot: if anyone has pictures or items related to this man, I'd sure love to buy it, I'll pay a good price of course. kind regards, Roeland

Hello gents, thank you for the reply and information, already a litlebit wiser. The smaller mark on the back is a little sword. kind regards, Roeland

Hello gents, a collection colleague of mine bought this order. We think is is some kind of freemason order or else from some kind of a religieus or brotherly society/associotion. Does anybody recognise the order? or has anybod got an idea of what it could be for/from? Thanks in advance for the help. kind regards, Roeland

Yes, Dutch troops could also wear English medals, I have seen many medal groups from Dutch soldiers with English medals. There was a Dutch regiment (Prinses Irene Brigade) in the 2nd WW, founded in England and they took part of actions alongside the English forces.

hello gents, can't it be he was some kind of special agent or commando? In that case it could be explainable why he fought with the resistance and the polish medals can also be explained for actions with French resistance. I do have no doubt he exaggerated his awards. Also, many decoration systems used to be a mess, like in my opinion the Belgian (as far as I know for example in ww1 one could ask for a medal and there was hardly anyone checking if the person truly had earned it). So as you say Chris, he did things and in his opinion it made him eligable for certain medals and asked for them, perhaps no one really checked what he did exactly. Looking at award descriptions for some medals from Belgium for example: many of them just have a kind of vague description: for resistance fighters, for actions against the enemy etc., a lot of medals did not state a specific periode of service within the resistance nor how special an action had to be but just ''showing courage'', in theory if you would join the resistance for a week you could be awarded a medal for resistance service. Don't know the exact decreets so I can't be sure on this point. kind regards, Roeland

hello gents, I do think he is a genuine war hero, but I also think he knew the decoration system and asked for almost everything he could get, even if some medals are conflicting with each other, like our fellow member explained with the british ones. The foreign legion is perhaps the most decorated regiment in the world and it's soldiers have seen a lot of different action in WW2. Therefore I don't think it is weird he has a lot of decorations, he has seen a lot of action, and probably not just regular action too if you look as some of the places as well as resistance medals. For the people that know/play the games like medal of honor and call of duty, in those games you often play a special soldier, a person that often really existed and has seen a lot of countries and resistance actions. This guy could be a story for such a game. A war hero,but perhaps he should not have worn some medals. which medal is this?: M?daille de S./Officier de l?Arm?e Belge, brevet en date du 01/05/67

looks like the 2nd type of ribbon. The first type has a different kind of green(Darkgreen), and the orange stripe is more yellow(but still orange), this one is poison green with orange. I never studied Latin, but as a historian I come across it often, so I give it my best shot: Patriae means country/homeland servire means to serve Libertas means at own will/at free will put them togheter and you will form a sentence in latin, So I think you can say that it means ''to serve his country voluntary'' For West-Europeans Latin shouldn't be to difficult (to read), even if you don't know the exact meanings of the words, as our languages are often a (partialy) ''bastard'' language of it (because of the Roman spreading over Europe and the Catholic church). In this case, also English shouldn't be to difficult ( I believe English also is a latin based language), you can make the words patriotism, service and Liberty of it (love for your country, service and freedom, so it is not difficult to image what kind of sentence it could be). A lot of unnessecary off-topic information, but that's how you can ''read'' Latin, for whom wants to know. kind regards, Roeland

the emblem on the back is the Dutch weapon (Je maintiendrai). It also is the emblem of the national reserve.

hello gents, as far as I know from the ministerial decisions it is as following: The 1958 up to 1998 model (with model I mean the collor of the ribbon and what it was decorated for): - for personel of the national reserve, reserve bordertroops, Marechausse-reserve (military police reserve), the arial defence force, Rijkspolitie force (the national police, don't know the exact translation), the gemeentepolitie force(local police force, don't known exact translation), emergency guard and emergency guard staff. Don't know if translations are correct, especially the last ones. given for 10 years of voluntary service within these groups. it was called: ''vrijwilligermedaille'' (''volunteers medal''). from 1998 it was called ''vrijwilligersmedaille openbare orde en veiligheid'' (''volunteers medal for public order and security'') changes: -the collor of the stripes on the ribbon -It was given to the people as mentioned in the earlier posts. -the medal itself could, from then on, got a bronze bar on the ribbon (with inscriptions like XV, XX, XXV, XXX, XXXV, XL) this was for people that continuously served among those groups for 15, 20, 25, 30,35 and 40 years, given the fact that during that time , at maximum, had no longer than 2 months of not serving among those groups( don't know if this is clear, but I mean they coulnd't have ''a break'' longer as 2 months during their service). So, it started off more as a medal for service as a military reservist, or for police service, then it changed to award others for their (public) service as well. This medal is collected by many militaria collecters. A very nice looking medal I must say. kind regards, Roeland

hello, it sure is lovely!! I hope you will find the needed insignia soon, good luck. Hope to see a picture when it's complete. kind regards, Roeland

hello, thanks for the info, I thought it had to be some kind of document from an embassy or something. Very interesting. kind regards, Roeland

or does anybody know why the document has the Dutch emblem on it as well as refering to the Pay-Bas?

Hello Peter, a very nice one I must say, don't have any info though on the model of the tableau. I'm wondering what that first medal is and why it is the first one in the row. kind regards, Roeland

Hello Paul, thank you for the information. I couldn't find it on the internet, nor in the French books I had. Certainly a great help. kind regards, Roeland

hello gents, I have this nice commander grade in the order of Nichan Iftikar (Tunesia). I was wondering, what period is it? Thanks for the help. kind regards, Roeland

hello gents, I have this nice commander grade in the order of Nichan Iftikar (Tunesia). I was wondering, what period is it? Thanks for the help. kind regards, Roeland

Hello NavyFCO, can you post a close up from 1 of those first documents? It looks very interesting, but I can't read it. The Pays-Bas are the Netherlands (it lies in West-Europa above Belgium). It also has the Dutch weapon on top with Je Maintiendrai. I would like to see more from this document to see what the connection might be with the Netherlands. kind regards, Roeland

hello Garth, A superb collection!!!! Really enjoy looking at it. I love topics like these. keep on going! kind regards, Roeland

hello, a very lovely lot, looks very nice. It's always nice to have the name of a recipient. any idea about his career? kind regards, Roeland

Hello gents, I was wondering if anyone knows if there are any good books about Marshals and Generals of france from the first and second World wars. I collected photo's from officers of those ranks, such as castelnau, joffre, weygand etc. and now I want info on them all. Just info like birth dates and what battles they have done, doesn't need to be a long story, just basic info. I'm looking for real books about those high ranking officers, I've got +- 60 names I need info on. No internetsites please. any body know a good book (or books)? kind regards, Roeland

Hello gents, the seller told me that grand cordon's with one language are more rare as to those with both Dutch and French text. Would that be correct? Any idea how many orders have been decorated in this chivalry order? kind regards, Roeland

Hello gents, what is the date on the medal? does it say 1938 or 1988? because if it says 1938 I might have an idea about what it is, else not. If it is 1938 it might be for the parade of the Voluntary Civil Landstorm (a kind of national guard in those days). However I can not be sure of course, just a guess on what might be logic. kind regards, Roeland