PKeating

Coming back - almost - to German or Germanic motorcycles, here's the Neval roadtest from Issue #1. The opening spread showed the outfit in a garbage dump in the south of France, with my mate and I in matching tangerine racing leathers on our backs in the trash. Had the Ivans and their importers had any money in those days, they'd have sued us. I think that's what they said on the phone at any rate. I suppose I ought to scan some of this stuff and stick it up on the web somewhere.

Hmmm. Let's just say that they toned it down after the Art Director and I left. It lasted for a few more issues, written by guys who were more into modern stuff and couldn't understand that there might have been more to motorbikes than crotch rockets and pulling wheelies. Hey, I'm not knocking them. They did their best. Whatever floats your boat and all that. But we had a ball for four issues. It's funny to see copies changing hands for more than the price of a round. I have quite a few examples of issues 2 to 4 but Issue #1 is scarce. There was another mag around the same time: Road Rocket. Now, RR is very rare. It was put out by EMAP whose executives freaked out over the first two issues. It was seriously off the wall. It was pulled after the second issue and EMAP pulped as many copies as they could. I suppose that FC and RR were really more into the lifestyle aspect and, in that sense, broke a mould. The opposition tried to emulate them but failed. They tried to get me to work for them but a short stint on Motor Cycle News as an editor went nowhere. Ah...memories... PK

Coastal Artillery tunics are, as Gordon points out, quite distinctive in cut. PK

Coastal Artillery?

I wouldn't feel uncomfortable about these. They look perfectly OK to me. Some of these embroidered badges can look pretty ropey and be genuine. These conform to various criteria that suggest period manufacture. PK

"Sixty seconds of rain?" LOL! There speaks an old soldier... "?tanche" translates as "tight". One sees these with various numbers under the word. Wasserdicht is the German word for watertight. If "?tanche" is a reference to watertightness rather than a brand name, then it would suggest a Swiss-French contractor rather than a Swiss-German source. Dozens of Swiss firms supplied wristwatches to the Wehrmacht. many of which were fitted with the AS1130 movement. However, your watch contains a rarely seen Minerva Calibre 12 movement. The important part of any watch is the movement so you have something rather nice there, in a generic case with Heer markings. Whoever made this watch invested in one of the best movements available. However, is there a threaded back missing or does it indeed have a press-in back? The part stamped with the DH number appears to be the inner cover found on many military watches. A couple of the retaining tabs seem to be missing too. Does the movement keep good time? PK

How nice to see a genuine TK patch for a change. PK

Go raibh maith agat! I only just saw this. What a wonderful photo. That is a DKW KM200, made from 1934 to 1936, so 1934 seems logical. The IC prefix places them somewhere in Ostpreu?en. IC was also used in the Memelland after the takeover. The deathshead looks like a second type, which appeared in 1934 and 1935. Standarte Nr 60 was based in Insterberg, which is in what was East Prussia. So there we are! There's a guy here in Paris with one of these in LW livery. Das Kleine Wunder! They're actually really sweet little bikes...for two-strokes. Fast Classics, eh? We had a lot of fun doing that magazine. We were always getting the safety nazi contingent and their friends in motorcycle groups like the BMF busting our balls over some of the articles and photographs. Christ, but we pissed so many people off. I remember the screams of fury - so to speak - from wannabe Rockers when I coined the term "chromosexual" in an article about Tritons. I'd forgotten about it until a fellow in the States posted it on a biker website the other day: http://www.britbike.com/ubb/noncgi/ultimat...8/t/000723.html And then there was the lawsuit threat from a German European Commissioner after I illustrated a front-of-book newspiece about him with a picture of G?ring. Oh man! Mind you, we made a lot of people laugh too. PK

But may we know his real name and address in order to try to blacklist him effectively or, at least, declare him pariah? PK

Extract from a Nepalese article of July 2007: I think anyone with an understanding of how things used to work in British society can glean a fairly clear, stark picture of what happened. IRs 40k was about ?500.00 at the time. The old boy was told by an officer sahib to hand his medal over and, being a good and loyal Gurkha, did so. He was later given a 'gratuity' and the British Army assumed ownership of his VC. I was interested in medals in 1974 and I must say that I have having trouble remembering any VCs changing hands on the open market at the time for ?500.00. I could be mistaken but I seem to recall prices being somewhat higher. PK

Thanks, gents. I was pretty sure that it wasn't a real one when I saw it. Apparently, it's the VC described by the Gurkha regimental museum as that of Tul Bahadur Pun VC. The suspender doesn't look right, for one thing. This is Pun VC wearing the real thing. The image isn't high definition but it is good enough to spot the difference between the suspenders of the VC worn by Pun years before the regimental museum acquired the cross and the VC displayed by the museum. Perhaps the museum has put a copy on display. PK

Click on this link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/IMG_2919.jpg PK

These people are never held liable, except for the well-known German dealer who ran away from his table when threatened by a fellow who seemed perfectly capable of realising his threats. PK

PK

I have a copy of James Brady's statement mentioning his comrade Frank Stringer, whom Brady last saw during the bridgehead action at a place he describes as "Oderbridge", at the beginning of April 1945. PK

I have yet to see credible soldbuch entries for the Army Balloon Observer Badge. As for the badge itself, it is generally accepted that nothing other than a studio pattern was ever made before May 1945. There are no accredited photographs of this badge being worn during WW2. There are a few doctored images. Regarding numbered LW=EKA, this has been debated a number of times and one of the better-known examples featuring in a book was exposed as comprising a questionable badge with a faked-up document based on a normal EKA certificate. Not a single one of the German FJ veterans I have known over the years ever recalled seeing such badges or any of their comrades having a numbered EKA entered in their paybooks. And that's the sort of thing that would have been a talking point amongst soldiers, believe me. Just like the Balloon Badge: such a badge would have been considered extremely prestigious, almost on a par with a Parachutist Badge. Yet no veteran who ever served with the observer units flying balloons is on record as confirming any awards, even on paper. There have been a few "provisional" or "field-made" award documents bandied about over the years but nothing accepted as genuine. It's rather like the LW-Panzerkampfabzeichen and all the other badges instituted by G?ring late in 1944. However, these badges were available in 1957 form because they were approved and instituted. A couple of veterans serving in the BW are reported to have worn the Badge for the Destruction of an Low-Flying Aircraft on their ribbon bars, the justification being a citation for this act, which was rewarded with the General Assault Badge. But they never received the aircraft-killer badge during the war because none were awarded. PK

He put the Spanienkreuz on the wrong side for the photo! Nice EKII award shot.

The other post was useful too: it gave me a smile! That's a nice portrait. A lot of these WW2 tankers were quite small fellows, weren't they? Paul Schmid appears to have the KVK2 and, perhaps, the Ostfront Medaille to go with his S=A. A blast from the past...when I was still interested in badges and things. This is a Condor Legion Tank Badge I owned, with a photo of the recipient, Paul Zundorf. And this is one of the photos I didn't manage to get, because the group was split up. OK, it's not a wrapover but how often do you see this badge and medal combination on a field blouse? Can't remember who has this print but I've marked it. PK

Some of them do it just to piss people off. PK

You got de feever, man! Youse sweatin'! I'm on something nice at 4am. P

Absolutely agree! I never place a bid before the last minute or so when I want something. I'll come in and place twice the item's value in the last 45 seconds. It's a surer way than sniper software but demands a certain sang froid. As you say, the problem with placing bids earlier is that it drives the price up and also alerts the sheep to the fact that something might be worth having. As for group splitters, I would happily take a baseball bat to them. I don't care about the excuses and reasons wherefore. There's a guy in Germany who has an RV with two broken finger joints for breaking up and selling off a photo album that was part of a group for which I paid more than ?15,000.00. He knows I'm going to do it and he keeps a low profile as a result. And I bet he thinks twice when he gets his greedy little vulture claws on dead men's thing now. But it won't save him from digital dislocation when I finally encounter him. PK

I wouldn't say that, Paul! Thanks all the same, but there are a number of people to whom I bow when it comes to non-LW FJ units. Here's one for Hardy! Note the man wearing the GAB on his wrapover just behind the RKT, who also sports a GAB. And here's another man in a wrapover sporting a GAB. The cloth DKiG looks rather odd, doesn't it? Anyway, we should look into how these men earned GABs. Did they qualify because they dismounted to fight? Two of these men have Tank Destruction Badges so they clearly fought on foot at some point. Therefore, they wouldn't qualify for the Tank Battle Badge in Bronze. Unstuf Scheu, in the colour or colorised portrait, earned his Bronze Tank Badge with the Wiking's Recce Detachment. He also received the CCC in Bronze whilst still with SS-Aufkl?rungs-Abt 5 in 1943 but never received any form of 'footborne' assault badge prior to that. I don't think the award of the CCC depended upon a previous IAB or GAB but it is interesting, nonetheless, that he got a Bronze Tank Battle Badge instead of the GAB. Perhaps it was simply a question of which badge a commander decided to request for his men. And just to vary it a bit, the Honour Roll Clasp on a wrapover. This award is scarcely seen as it is but there are not many photos featuring it on wrapovers. PK

Moving back towards Hardy's theme, here are some more badges not often seen on wrap-over tunics. Who can tell us produced the badges in these photos? (Trick question) PK

A few months later, on a home leave to see his new baby, promoted to Oberscharf?hrer. Now, who can tell us which maker might have produced his jump badge? Slightly off-topic, I know, and we'll get back to unusual badges on panzer wrap-overs shortly... PK

Hardy's photo is one of the nicest, most evocative I have seen recently. Do you happen to know more about Klenzer's career? In infantry units, attached specialists like signallers, medics and so on received the GAB rather than the IAB as they weren't "infantry" as such. Artillerymen also received the GAB. Not sure what the criteria were for men in armoured units. I was perhaps mistaken in referring to recce as Aufkl?rungs-Abt personnel in armoured unit received the PKAiB. In this photo, Klenzer has evidently not yet qualified for an PKA but, then again, he might simply not be wearing it. In this photo of the same Unterscharf?hrer, for instance, he is just wearing his LW Parachutist Badge. Whatever the case, these are all very rare sightings. PK