PKeating

Paul, I swapped it for something a few years ago on the off-chance. I had seen another one in a photograph but had never seen anything like this in the flesh, so that suggested that it was not something produced by fakers or fantasists. It's actually a legitimate WW2 design, Peter. The so-called Stalingrad Shield was a 1970s fantasy piece whose central motif was based on the Tradition Badge worn on the shoulder straps of officers and NCOs of Grenadier-Regiment 134. It was the one heraldic nod the Hitler administration made to Stalingrad. This seems to be a "sweetheart" badge. It is certainly quite scarce. I have only seen a couple, one of which was just a photograph, in over thirty years. The device was based on the Hoch-und-Deutschmeister cross and was worn as a tradition badge on the shoulder-straps by members of 44.Reichs-Grenadier-Division, formed in 1943 after the original 44. Infanterie-Division was all but wiped out at Stalingrad. Hitler bestowed the honour title "Hoch und Deutschmeister" on the new division which was formed in Austria and saw action in Italy in 1944 and then Hungary and Austria in 1945. It is often stated that the emblem was worn by officers and NCOs of Infanterie-Regiment 134 in memory of their fallen comrades at Stalingrad. However, some sources state that the emblem was worn by officers, NCOs and enlisted men of the new 44. Reichs-Grenadier-Division "Hoch-und-Deutschmeister". Infanterie-Rgt 134 was destroyed at Stalingrad along with its parent division, 44 Infanterie-Division, and reformed as a Reichs-Grenadier-Regiment on the new division's ORBAT. It appears as Reichsgrenadier-Regiment "Hoch und Deutschmeister". So, which story is correct? Was the emblem only worn by members of Reichsgrenadier-Regiment "Hoch und Deutschmeister", erroneously described as IR 134, the regiment it replaced, or were all members of the Hoch-und-Deutschmeister division eligible to wear it? Another source suggested that it was also worn on fieldcaps. I have never seen evidence of this but then, I have never seen a wartime photo of the emblem in wear on a shoulder strap although I am told they do exist. And what about enlisted men? Would they have worn this emblem on the side of fieldcaps like other tradition badges, given that it might look a bit odd on a plain EM shoulder strap? This pendant could be a wartime piece intended for wives, mothers and sweethearts - and even sisters - of soldiers serving in the unit. If so, it would have been sold through the regimental tailor or shop and perhaps also by the jeweller who made it, if he had a retail premises. PK

Anyone seen anything like this before? It's the same size as the shoulderstrap device. It looks finer 'in person' as the scanner distorts it a bit. PK

Here's a nice Bacqueville E-Boat Badge that has never been retouched. PK

Two unnamed examples. The Comrac turned up in a London dealers for ?20.00 about three years ago and the other one was given to me by another uncle in Dublin when I was twelve, some thirty-five years ago. I have no idea of its provenance. I will have to call my aunt and ask her but I believe her father was a Clare man. I saw some photos of him with quite a well-armed, impressive-looking group of IRA soldiers. He was, later, quite a well-respected doctor and a couple of obituaries mentioned his service. Regards, PK

Dr William Shannon was my aunt's father. PK

The buyer of the Tynan group appears to be a bit of a bonehead. Even if he thought of putting the stuff up on eBay as multiple lots in order to provoke "the big players" into shelling out even more just to keep a piece of Irish patrimony together, it is a stupid, rash sort of a plan. The fellow should perhaps devote his energies to selling used cars or knock-off perfume and aftershave out of a suitcase. There should be a way of banning this fool from auction houses. Mind you, given the morality of the average auctioneers, there is scant chance of that. This isn't too off-topic, as anyone familiar with WOI history will immediately see upon looking at these solemn features. I showed this to "a Dublin auction house" specialising in Irish independence-related material and was informed that it might be worth as much as ?80.00 but only to the right person because this sort of thing is a bit hard to sell. It looks like a drawing but it's a stone proof of a photographic portrait of Sir Roger Casement. The extract from the 1965 inventory explains that the photograph was done in Dresden during Casement's visit to Germany early in 1916, just before the Easter Rising. Police mugshots and newspaper snapshots outside The Old Bailey apart, this is probably the last picture of Casement. The inventory makes a reference to the image being signed. It is signed by Professor Fanto, who dedicated it to his friend, the Dresden hotel director Gustav R?cker, who assembled a modest but fascinating collection of "celebrity" photographs, autographs and other ephemera during his time at the hotel in the 1920s and 1930s. It bears another signature but it doesn't look like the single Casement signature I have seen. It may be that of the artist who produced the plate or the print. The other day, I paid ?150.00 for a rather nice wartime print of an SS-Fallschirmj?ger photo. I suppose it must be worth twice as much as a period stone proof print - probably a one-off - of the last known photo-portrait of one of Ireland's most significant WOI-related figures, taken during the trip to Germany in January 1916 that got him hanged in Pentonville Gaol before the year was out... Reassuring to know that Dublin auction houses are just like London auction houses... PK

Wonderful! That is the first definite Luftwaffe group for Drvar that I have seen. Fran?ois Saez has a group to a man involved in bombing Drvar in the period before R?sselsprung but this is something else. This photo was issued to an officer of SS-Fallschirmj?ger-Btl 500 before the mission. It has the landing zones marked out. I have put a big green arrow to show the LZ where your man landed. The officers and senior NCOs of the battalion were given some maps and aerial reconnaissance photographs when they confined to the airfields the day before takeoff. This photo was carried on the mission, folded in half to fit into a pocket. PK

I ;ouqkwkeh kwrlokjqwPWALM,S/A..............................*

Something I put together for a magazine back in 2006: It was, of course, edited. PK

What an extraordinary photo! Funny to think that if someone chanced upon a fliegerbluse with Heer insignia, they'd assume it was due to the feverish imagination or ignorance of some wardrobe assistant in a 1950s movie costumiers. PK

Let me rephrase: I do not understand the logic of your remark although I understand the meaning and intent. A discussion about the stolen New Zealand VCs is bound to evolve into related discussion because there have been no new developments in the case. Conversation is an organic thing. Ed Maroli has not "perverted" anything. You can bring the conversation back around to the New Zealand Stolen VC Affair but there is no need to to be unpleasant about it. PK

I don't understand Ed Haynes' "off topic" remark. Everything posted here strikes me as very much on-topic. PK

I think he is probably deploying irony, Kevin. Mind you, many museums are guilty of theft themselves and the contents of most museums are heavily seeded with stolen goods. As for swapping genuine items for fakes, this was endemic in the Imperial War Museum in London as I was coming of age. The staff often aided and abetted when not doing it themselves. Such things went on in plenty of military museums, public and private. There was a theft on one occasion from a regimental museum in London and one of the groups that disappeared contained an example of one of the handful of GSMs with the Northern Kurdistan clasp awarded to Army personnel. Very, very rare and sought after. It ended up in the private collection of a very dodgy fellow - now dead - who bought it from a very posh London dealer with royal warrants all over their letterheads. This dealer was the first port of call for anyone with high end items of 'broken provenance', as the pinstriped gents there used to say with exaggerated winks. Many major dealers knowingly bought stolen gear, making museum theft viable. It is not as bad now as it was, thanks to the internet and the speed of exchange of information, but I am reliably informed that it still goes on. In short, lending or bequeathing things to museums is not the surest way of securing their future, as the theft of the New Zealand VCs reminds us. The thieves were probably acting to order and probably had inside help. And then, on the other end of the spectrum, there is the story of Pun VC and the Gurkha regimental museum. The museum still has his VC but it has been mooted that many of the valuable items in the museum's possession were put up as collateral against financing to develop ideas with a commercial potential to make the museum self-financing in the face of cuts in grants and so on. If they believed they owned it, fine. But the disturbing aspect of that story is the apparent failure on the part of the museum to produce documentary evidence to support their claim that Pun VC gave or sold them the medal. In the end, it seems, the most reliable custodians of historical artefacts, particularly in our field, would appear to be private collectors. PK

Oh...Simon! I surrender! Seriously, what a pair of corkers! Even the wording on the documents! As I sit here, knowing where most of the SS-FJ docs not in my possession are, I ask myself, looking at pearlers like these, if I ought not to diversify a bit where oddball documents are concerned. Ahh...you've trumped us in this thread with these ones. But Jeremy may well be joint-trumper with you. So, let's see who can outdo these spatial babies. PK

Thank you, Jeremy. What a rare thing. I look forward to seeing the group in its entirely. Rgds, Paddy

Nice! I know it's not an EK document but do you have his Mine Sweeper doc? I've never seen one to a Luftwaffe man. I've seen a photo album to one of these men but never a document. I think posting it here will be a 'tolerable' deviation from topic. PK

Very nice Deschler. PK

Nasty copy... Good enough for a museum dummy or cinema prop but that's all. PK

I entirely agree. Apart from anything else, the need to learn at least enough of a language to be able to read it is brought home every time I read English translations of French and Spanish works and realise how far from the original some of them can be. I can read German reasonably well and consider myself, as a document student and collector, very lucky indeed to have been in a German school at the age of six and seven. I would say that some rudimentary knowledge of German is vital for anyone collecting documents and that the ability to be able to read texts on medals and, moreover, in dealers' and auctioneers' catalogues is also very important. The good news for Troy and chaps in his position is that it doesn't take that long to get a handle on the basics for such purposes. All the best to everyone for 2008. PK

If you don't read German, you should perhaps consider the purchase of an appropriate dictionary if seriously intending to collect German awards. You might find it helpful. Failing that, try http://babelfish.altavista.com/. It is not terribly reliable but is better than nothing. PK

A wonderful group. But the photo of your father is very touching. There is a family resemblance! Best wishes to you for Christmas and 2008. Il faut qu'on d?jeune ensemble l'ann?e prochaine. Prosper

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/sho...4633#post554633 PK

For members who might not have seen a DFS 230 assault glider. This was taken near Amiens during 7. Flieger-Division field manoeuvres in 1942. The pilot has levelled out from his steep dive, slowed by the drogue parachute, and is coming in to land. PK

The article actually states: "One of the earliest Bronze awards was presented to Obergefreiter Albert M?hlamann of the Herman G?ring Division on the 19th of December, 1944. The next month, Hitler presented the first Gold award to an NCO." You mentioned that nobody had posted any photos. I did post a link to a dealer's website where there is a group containing a provisional document for the LW NKS. I have no further comment to make about that group. However, had any award documents been produced, it is likely that they would have been just like the other standard A5 format LW flight clasp certificates. Coming back to the article on the WAF website, it is reasonable to point out that had Adolf Hitler awarded the first Gold NKS der LW in January 1945, there would have been photographers and perhaps a news camera crew or two there to record the event. In any case, it is highly unlikely that G?ring would have allowed his prerogative to be usurped like that. Of course, this is all hypothetical and the awards were not produced and any entries in paybooks or "provisional" documents are likely to be forgeries. PK

Wishful thinking on the writer's part. Whatever the clasp is, it is not an LW NKS. The problem with such statements is that they permit dodgy dealers to gull less-experienced collectors into parting with hefty sums of money for what amount to fantasy pieces. PK