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    VtwinVince

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    Posts posted by VtwinVince

    1. Gentlemen, if you'll bear with my ignorance, I have a couple of questions. First, I recently acquired a nice Kolonial Denkmuenze, or Elefantenorden, from Heiko. Can someone explain to me the requirements for award of this piece, and when it was awarded? Second, are the ribbons for the Koeniggraetz Cross and Treuen Kriegern Cross the same? Many thanks for your help.

    2. John, my uncle was credited with his victory for January 3, 1918, along with his observer, and they received the cups on January 22nd. Yes, I'm fortunate to have the original Urkunde, and it is the only original I have of all my uncle's decorations, which were many. I've read elsewhere that the late Bechers were given only for more than one victory, so I don't know what this does to that theory.

    3. Thanks for this truly fascinating thread, John, I can't get enough of these things. I once heard that a book was written called The Ehrenbechers: Where are they Now? or something to that effect. I wonder if anyone has a copy of this? It's funny that your source states that the regular Becher was awarded for five victories, as I know for certain that my uncle got his for his first, and he received the goblet only three weeks after the claim was made. How did you happen to find out about your Becher coming up for auction? Certainly seems like an incredible stroke of good luck. BTW my dad was living as a refugee near Koblenz after the war, and his neighbour was Freiherr Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels.

    4. The notion that Austria was "dragged" into the Third Reich is ludicrous. The vast majority of Austrians were avid supporters of the Anschluss in 1938, and supplied many of the top Nazis, including of course AH. After the war the Austrian government cleverly warped history by insisting that Austria had been "invaded" and "occupied" by the Germans and was a victim of Nazi aggression. This of course made them exempt from the stigma of Nazism which has plagued Germany since the war. One only needs to look at the footage of Hitler speaking at the Heldenplatz in 1938 to know that this is utter rubbish.

    5. Les and Brian, you are both right that there were exceptions to the rule, and I don't deny that many allied soldiers were not motivated by revenge. But I think it's time to dispel the notion that allied troops were somehow involved in a "crusade" in Europe, ridding it of evil and being welcomed by the liberated. Let's face it, being German after May 8, 1945 was not a good thing, whether in the east or west. It was open season on anyone or anything German because, after all, they had inflicted Hitler on the world.

    6. Interesting thread, Brian, thanks for posting it. You remind me of the stories my maternal grandmother used to tell me about the winter of 1945-46, when she was reduced to hawking the family's jewels and decorations in order to avoid starvation. This was after the US army "liberated" the area they were living in, Lower Saxony, booted them out of their home, ransacked and appropriated all their property and refused to give them any food. To the victors the spoils, as they say...

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