Dave Danner

Communist Bulgaria 15 Years in the Armed Forces 10 Years in the Interior Ministry The last appears from the front to be the combat merit medal, but the ribbon is wrong. The ribbon is for the Medal "100th Anniversary of April Uprising 1876-1976". The reverse of the combat merit medal should have a star and the text "ЗА БОЕВА ЗАСЛУГА" ("For combatant merit").

RIR 98 started out the war as part of Festungsdivision Metz AKA Hauptreserve Metz, which became 33. Res.-Div. The regiment seems to have moved around a lot though. David Gregory has a page for an Oskar Körner who served in the regiment part of the war. He has RIR 98 as part of 9. Res.-Div. at least up to December 1915 and in 10. Res.-Div. in 1916.

Great to know. Thanks for the confirmation!

Karl von Flotow was promoted to Major on 8 November 1914. He was already a Major a.D. in the 1917 edition of Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der uradeligen Häuser. Since he was a native of Mecklenburg-Schwerin but did not receive the Militärverdienstkreuz by 1917 when he was a.D., I would guess he didn't have much wartime service (I only have MMVs through September 1917). Regards

Others wounded that day:

Just two awards: 15.5.17: EK2 15.12.17: Großh. bad. silb. Verdienst-Med. am Bande der Mil. Karl-Friedrich-Verd.-Med.

The colors are right, the lighting sucks. I have to get better pics. I have pinned it down with some degree of certainty to Dr. Max Schmidt, Stabsarzt u. Btl. Arzt, I./IR 71. His SEK3X came from Sondershausen on 5 June 1915. His peacetime EH3b dates from his service as an Oberarzt in the Sanitätsamt of the XI. Armeekorps. He was born in Berlin on 17 December 1874. After service as an Unterarzt in IR 82, he was promoted to Assistentarzt in August 1900 and transferred to III./IR 83. In January 1903 he was promoted to Oberarzt and transferred that May to XI. A.K. In 1904 he was assigned to FAR 11. Sometime shortly after that, he was ordered (kommandiert) to the University of Rostock and then to Jäger-Bataillon 14. In April 1907 he was promoted to Stabsarzt and in October 1907 assigned to the Kaiser Wilhelms-Akademie für das militärärztliche Bildungswesen. In 1910, he returned to FAR 11 as Abt. Arzt for the II. Abteilung. In 1912 he was transferred to IR 71. There is still the possibility that one of the other 670 recipients of the SEK3X from Schwarzburg-Sondershausen also had a peacetime EH3b and got nothing else but the EK and SEK3X, so I can't say with certainty. But your typical civilian recipient of the EH3b and nothing else would have been a citizen of one of the Saxon duchies, so you would expect he would have gotten swords to the EH3b or, if from Meiningen, the Cross for Merit in War. The process of elimination continues.

Here is about the only thing German I have added to my collection in the past three years. This is all I have for scans/photos right now. 1. 1914 Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse 2. Fürstlich Schwarzburgisches Ehrenkreuz III. Klasse mit Schwertern 3. Herzoglich Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden, Ritterkreuz II. Klasse Regards

I agree with Tim. Two Signums (Signa?) Laudis, probably one silver and one bronze. And #5 is the Laeso Militi, or Wound Medal. The photo studio imprint on the lower right indicates it was taken in Innsbruck. Innsbruck is the capitol of Tyrol.

I'm pretty sure such wounds have always been eligible. As the original War Department General Order stated, the Purple Heart was open to one with a "wound which necessitates treatment by a medical officer and which is received in action with an enemy..." They probably had a problem with people trying to claim Purple Hearts for wounds which were little more than scratches, so they began cracking down and focusing on how penetrative the wound was. This would have had unintended consequences for some with traumatic internal injuries, so they had to revisit the criteria to make sure deserving recipients weren't accidentally excluded. The Purple Heart wasn't created until 1932. When adopted, those eligible were those who had received a wound chevron or those who had been awarded a Meritorious Service Citation Certificate by the AEF. Those who received a Citation Certificate for heroism were eligible for the Silver Star, also created in 1932. As noted above, there was also a rule for eligibility for those who might not have had a wound chevron, but could document having been wounded. Sometime early in World War II, they changed the rules to eliminate the meritorious service awards (around the same time they created the Bronze Star?). It wasn't until 1943 that the Purple Heart was extended to the Department of the Navy as well (with retroactive elegibility). A story which may or may not be true is that the Purple Heart was originally only going to be for meritorious service, but the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, realized that while he would get a bunch of Silver Stars for his many citations for heroism while serving with the 42nd Division in World War I, he wouldn't get any Purple Hearts. So broadening the pool of eligibility to include those wounded or killed while doing their duty just happened to benefit him. I suppose this story would be appealing to critics of MacArthur who viewed him as a glory hound.

FAR 60 was part of the 17. Infanterie-Division for the entire war. A short history of the division can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_Division...erman_Empire%29 Infanterie-Regiment Hamburg (2. Hanseatisches) Nr. 76 was also part of the 17. ID. Since Hamburg had no artillery of its own, men of Hamburg who went into the artillery instead of the infantry probably went to FAR 60 or FAR 24.

s?chs. RFAR Nr. 40 was raised in March 1915. It was under the 24. Res.Feldart.Brig. of the 24. RD from 3 April 1915 to 27 July 1917, and then under Arko 140 of the same division until 15 March 1918. It was Heeresfeldartillerie from 16 March 1918 until the Armistice.

Chris, 6. GFAR was under 3. GID from mobilization to 7 May 1915, and under 4. GID from 8 May 1915 to 2 March 1917 (and then under Garde-Arko 4 of 4. GID until war's end).

Which principality is it from? There are about 41 names on the Rudolstadt roll, but the Sondershausen roll for the Eichenbruch is missing.

Lt. d.L. Otto Hoeschel of Landwehr-Fu?artillerie-Regiment Nr. 9 received the Honor Cross 3rd Class with Swords from Schwarzburg-Sondershausen on 26 August 1915

No. none of the medals were displayed. Only the orders, and even these were incomplete.

One thing I forgot. His Princely Schwarzburg Honor Cross was from Rudolstadt.

SEK3X on 30.07.15. The Schwarzburg rolls say RIR 106, but that might be an error.

Thank you for the additional clarification. I was going by the Handbuch ?ber den K?niglich Preussischen Hof und Staat, but the earliest edition I have is 1874. I don't have an earlier one or an earlier K?niglich Preussischer Staats-Kalender.

You are correct sir. Sir Slatin-Pascha (as he is identified in the Staatshandbuch) received the Commander with Star of the House Order of Vigilance or the White Falcon in 1897. The Mecklenburg-schwerinsches Staatshandbuch doesn't list out decorations, but I believe the star next to the White Falcon and above the Friedrichs-Orden is for the Greifen-Orden.

The upper of the two stars on the right breast appears to be an Austro-Hungarian Order of Franz Josef. The lowest breast star on the left breast is for the Commander 1st Class of the Friedrichs-Orden from the Kingdom of W?rttemberg. Slatin received this in 1899.

Mine, which appears to be a later version of somewhat lesser quality:

One clarification/correction: a member of the Order of the Black Eagle automatically held the Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle, not the 1st Class. The Grand Cross badge was to be worn arond the neck rather than on a sash.

According to the Prussian Ordensliste, the father received the Black Eagle with Chain on 17 February 1872. The only 18 January recipient was Adolf Georg F?rst zu Schaumburg-Lippe. The father received his Pour le Merite on 27 November 1882.

The red eagles appear to be based on the Tirolean coat of arms, lacking only the green wreath behind the eagles head. Tirol's flag: