christerd

Thanks Borg for all info , the picture probably shows a English Whippet after the battle . 

Christer

Fantastic collection Johan 

Its nice to see a super  collection of Finnish Awards 

Compare to collecting German 1939-45 Orders it is dirt cheap to collect Finnsh rare awards . an Knight Cross for example awarded more then 7000 times and manafactured in ?  numbers 10 000??  cost probably 10-15 000 $  

I suppose the only Finnish awards coming close to that price would be the super rare pieces 

like Grand Cross of Liberty cross 1918 , Grand Cross of LIberty Cross w/o Swords 1918 or

1 st Class Liberty Cross with Breast Star 1918 w/swords and 1 st Class Liberty Cross with Breast star w/o swords 1918

And then we are talking about 1-10 issued awards 

For example the rare 1918 3rd class Liberty Cross 1918 with Red Cross , awarded 22 !!

times was sold 2016 for1400 Euro wich is about the same in $  ..... That would maybe get you a empty Knight Cross box 

3 minutes ago, GreyC said:

Hi,

the first one shows a medic of the Luftstreitkräfte treating a pilot/observer.

GreyC

Aha , that explains it, he has a bandage in his hand ...

thanks Grey

christer

Here is some new pics , 

1. Something handed over to a very young looking pilot , the soldier on the left has a 7 on his uniform ?

2. Ground personal showing off bombs 

3. Two pilots talking , the man on the right looks like Ritchofen ?

4. A mail bag ?  What plane could it be in the background ?

5. And last a pic of how well dressed the aviators had to be in 1915-18 times 

Hallo eveybody, 

Anyone recognize this tank ?   Could it be a French one 

christer

2 hours ago, Dave Danner said:

Looks like maybe an LVG C.V.

Thank you Dave  After googling (is that a word? )  the net I think you are right !

First flight in 1917 which matches the Steel helmets . Another puzzle solved 

Christer

Here are  som German photos wich landed in my mailbox recently 

First a Anti Aircraft searchlight , then a Obsevation Baloon and last an airplane with some cool looking motorcycles nearby 

Does anyone know what type of plane it is ?

Very Interesting picture ! Is it a WW 1 uniform ?

Than the Finnish Cross should be a 1918 version and was only 44 such cross awarded 

Could it be Louis Leisler Kiep ? 

What rank ?

Christer

Wow , fantastic !  

Since I collect Finnish Orders and are specially interested in Swedish Volunteers in the war 1918-1939-1941 

this was an exciting picture for me , What I know is that he served as a Driver during the 1941-45 war in Finland.

I haven´t noted him for any more awards. 

He later drove Jaguar D type in Racing if I remember right ?  

Guess not all people know that he was in the war to ?  

Thanks again 

Christer

Fantastic things Mira , sorry to say I´m not good at Chinese antiques   But they looks great !

The black sword looks Japanese ? Could be a real old one 

He must have picked up souvenirs on the way to and from China , and amazing that you still have them in the family.

i haven´t found any more info in my books about your grandfather but they are often written more about after the Germans have landed in Finland and almost everything is about the ground troops. But I keep on looking.

Wish everybody and good 2018

christer 

21 hours ago, Nicolas7507 said:

Looks like a Flieger-Stabsingenieur (Major) to me.

Yes , That was my first thought to , but when I saw pic of Generalingenieurs the looked exactly the same ?

Was is the difference in collar tabes between them ?  Is the color ?

Christer

Hi all, 

Looking through my collection I found this rather simple photo , but looking closer it was more of a puzzle 

He seems to be General Ingieneur , or am I wrong ?   I can not find very much about the Ingieneurs on the net but they coulndt be that many 

Anyone ? The only clue is whats written on the back of the pic "  Berlin Mars 1940 "  

Christer

Thank you Fitzceraldo , 

Always nice to be able to get some info on some old picture , and I haven´got any more information about these units so far 

christer

Hi again Mira , 

Yes the Cross I showed is the 1st Class Liberty Cross from Finland , the second class was very similar but was placed on the breast instead of around the neck.  1st Class was awarded 44 times 1918 but I only have the names of 23 and no Irmer there so far.

2nd class was awarded 271 times and 102 of them to Germans , and 59 to German Navy , I would say that your relative is most probably 

one of them.I have only 38 names of German officers but no Irmer yet.

The Swastika in the Liberty Crossis a very old symbol and since the Order was made in 1918 it was long before the Nazi sign.

Christer

Thank you Heiko and Dave , its amazing what a single photo can lead to 

I have find out what Finnish awards he got , but thinking of his rank he probably got a Liberty Cross 2nd class or even a first class

I will look further and see if I can find anything 

christer

And here is the book pages ( in Swedish ) 

Kurt Irmer is mentioned in several places in the text 

Christer

pdf106.pdf

pdf107.pdf

pdf108.pdf

pdf109.pdf

pdf110.pdf

pdf111.pdf

pdf112.pdf

pdf113.pdf

pdf114.pdf

pdf115.pdf

pdf116.pdf

pdf117.pdf

pdf118.pdf

And just before bedtime I found something 

In the Rangliste of Marine 1914-18 I found his birthdate March 18 1873 , he was promoted to Kapitän zur See August 20th 1917 (if I read this right) and he was retired September 10th 1920 

Kurt Irmer wan on SMS Frauenlob in 1908 so he probably moved to another command before 1916 when she was sunk in the Jutland battle.  But I could found out that he got the Swedish Sword Order in 1908 , I have not found out why , but probably some Swedish Navy visited Germany or maybe SMS Frauenlob visited Sweden in 1908 .... the search goes on

Here is a picture of a Swedish Sword Order 

I saw that Kurt Irmer was on SMS Frauenlob , that was a Cruiser launched in 1902 , she was sunk by a torpedo during the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and only 9 men of her crew survived . He was lucky not to be on the ship then...

christer

Hi again Mira , 

Yes today Finland celebrating 100 years as an indenpendent nation starting Dec 6th 1917  

I began my interest about Germans in Finland April 1918 with collecting Finnish Orders and Medals and started to build a database 

over people who got awards , and soon I realized that a lot of German soldiers got Finnish awards . And so it went on

In the first days of April 1918 , there was approx 9 500 german soldiers in Finland they had 18 Artillery guns , 10 " Minenwerfer" 

and 165 machineguns with them. I dont think there is a translated version of the book series but I will scan the chapter about the the transport fleet and hopefully your Swedish friend can translate it.

Since I have a interest in the 1918 war I collected quite many books about it written both by Finnish and in some cases by German participants , and I will see if I can find some more info about your grand grand father.

Do you have any info about what he did after April 1918 ? 

The name of the book serie is ( in swedish)  " Finlands Frihetskrig , skildrat av deltagare."

It was printed in Helsingfors 1922 and it is 8 volumes in all.

I´ll be back 

Christer

22 hours ago, mira said:

@christerd

Dear christerd,

i was so excited to find your post during my research! I am the grand-grandchild of Kurt Irmer, Kapitän zur See and chief of transportflottes. The exact same picture you posted hangs on the wall of my parents house!

I was wondering, could you give me any further information about him, or how you got to your sources? Do you have any idea where I could look further? Its very emotional to me - I knew he was in China through his work, but that he was involved in Finland too, was new to me!

I would be very happy to hear back from you.

Best regards from Switzerland!

Mira

Dear Mira , 

Fantastic !  

The book where your grand-grandfather is mentioned is  a Finnish book ( written in Swedish) from 1922 

its in 8 volumes and named " The War for Liberation of Finland, told by thoose who participated" 

volume VII is about the German troops in Southern Finland and in chapter 3 written by KorvettenKapitän Bastian is your relative mentioned and the photo.  KorvettenKapitän Bastian has a lot of very respectful words to say about your grand grand father

Kapitän Irmer was head of the transport Fleet and a key person in the movement of troops to Finland in April 1918.

The Transport Fleet was divided into three groups :

1st group :  SMS Kolberg  

Fraktschiff Bahia Castillo 

Fraktschiff Buenos Aires 

Fraktschiff Cassel 

Fraktschiff Frankfurt 

Dampfer Equity 

2nd Group :

SMS Nautilus  

Fraktschiff Schleswig  

Fraktschiff Chemnitz 

Fraktschiff Hannover

3rd Group :

SMS Möwe 

Fraktschiff Habsburg 

Fraktschiff Altenburg 

Fraktschiff Giessen 

So it was quite a big fleet of ships

Some pictures of the fleet , first on shows some ships in Germany beeing loaded in Neufahrwasser 

Second one is Bahia Castillo and a truck beeing lifted on the ship. 

Third one is the ships on the way to Hangö, Finland 

Picture number four shows some of the Ships in Hangö , April 1918

I will see if I can translate some of the writing about your grand-grand father in the book, he did a great work.

MFG Christer Daun

A couple of new ones to my collection 

First a 3rd class Liberty Cross 1939 , not one of rarest but still only 1004 awarded so take some time to find one at a good price 

a medal from 1902 ? next , " The commerative medal of the old Finnish Army" quite rare ( Tiainen rates it as R3 in his book)

a little outside my normal area but when I find some unusual Finnish I tend to increase my area

Then a mini ( just Love minis ....)  a 3rd class Liberty Cross for civilian 1941 only 152 awarded and I suppose less minis '

And two German Ribbon bars from 1918 war , first a Bavarian , could be from GebirgsArt Rgt 2 ? Totally impossible to id of course 

and the another German with a Baden Zähringen Löwen , also hopeless to id ...

Hi Timo ,

At least two companies made these medals , Tillander in Finland and Sporrong in Sweden 

Swedish made was hallmarked and some of the Finnish ones ( LT )

They where awarde until 1937 !  almost 20 year after the war ....

christer

I start to wonder , did this guy buy every order at the kunker auction 2015 ?

Now he have at least 10 objects from the Kunker auction out for sale if I see right 

Christer

He really sell out a outstanding collection  a 1st class 1918 civilian !!! .

One strange thing is the bidder with  few feedback who bids on all his items, but only to a certain level. And he has 65 bid retractions in 6 months. Maybe the seller have a friend as  insurance.....

well well , the Finnish Orders seems to have been a Good investment .

christer