Ed_Haynes

And with the LG date you can get the recommendation from the National Archives (also PRO). But this will require actually doing research, looking it up, printing it out. And these days, so many expect everything to be free and easy and on the internet!

Oh no, Heiko!!! Our nightmare situation!! Our sympathies are with you and let us know what we can do to help!!

Once again, Herfurt is wrong. Who knows what he based his statements on?

Well said, Jim. But, especially, (the closest I could get to "three cheers and a tiger" ) to the good crowd HERE.

Sorry, I really made that one too easy. Not knowing much about architecture and personalities, I was so excited to actually have won one of these through mundane knowledge/guessing regharding awards that I rushed a question out in my excitement. Knew someone would answer it soon. I just didn't expect it would be so soon: Just over one hour from posting to answer! Correct, of course, Christian! And you have already given us your question. No, I do not have one of these badges. Two were awarded, and only three were produced. And the two that have been seen are both screwback (like the one shown).

The forum is "Heer & Waffen SS Uniforms & Personal Equipment" though?

Assume this is restricted to 3R German, so I have nothing to add. Have found very interesting stuff in British and Indian Army pockets . . . .

OK, this will be way too easy and I am NOT happy with it, but . . . We all known that out colleagues who "do" German awards are overly and perhaps perversely fixated on the backsides, rears, rumps, back sides, whatevers of their awards. Dismissing what that may say about them and their predelictions, we also may want to direct some attention to backsides of our awards. What award is this? (Some very modest "image-fiddling" has been done.)

Forget the armored car, show us the medals show us the medals !

Rick is right, but I personally prefer bars without Nazi "stuff" (including the Hindy Cross). Or, as I said, pre-1914. But so few, so few, of those. And research possibilities are limited.

Thanks for the book references, Gordon. They go onto the bibliography list of things to look for. I still follow the advice I started out with of "books and journals first, medals later on". (Even though I cannot read a word of Hungarian-- doesn't matter!)

No, Rick. The UNCOMMON denominator, someone with broad interests! Thanks for that!

C'mon, we're not THAT bad, Chris. All we do is adopt a shorthand based on the accepted (even if not always linguistically accurate) English version of the name. We are just lazy typists. Our cousins over in German imperial have adopted an arcane set of formulae intended to confuse and alienate the novice. Not us!

Clarifying . . . . Watch this space . . . .

Not to suggest that this is the case here, or in similar cases, but I know of cases where medals turned up for sale (or in collections), the families cried "stolen", the medals were recovered and restored to the families (sometimes at considerable loss to the collector), and a few months later the same medals were up for sale again. While there are surely thefts-to-order to acquire high-end material, sometimes with a little homicide thrown in for good measure, there are also other scenarios possible. And in today's new capitalist Russia, anything is possible.

Nice, Gerd. But "not interested in the research"?!?!?!

Really, a very lovely piece of history. It isn't the "things", it is the history, after all! Thanks for sharing!

His story (and that of his family): http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4129&st=15 and following posts. Be warned: History is powerful stuff.

His medals:

If I understand the intent of this thread properly, . . . The man, Pionier Richard Schwartz, 268th Pioneer Company, 17th Reserve Division:

Pre-1914.

This is hard, and our aesthetics don't matter. Both options represent the usually hidden history of the person and both reflect his time and how he saw and displayed his own service. Given the option, of course, I'd go pre-WWI entirely, though research chances are slimmer.

Moreover, it isn't like the one I have in my collection, so it must be FAKE. Oh, yes, right, Bob . . . . Isn't this a nice place!

In my main field (British etc. medals), there has been great success in using the OMRS and OMSA to publicise lists of stolen medals (as all are named) and there has been a good success rate in recovering stolen medals. This has gained some respectability for our "hobby" in the UK at least. I cannot but imagine that an effort to list, identify, and return legitimately stolen (is that an oxymoron?) medals would be a good thing, but some -- some of us and some in Russia -- might not like the outcome. Isn't anything high and undocumented at least suspect? The sort of "leakage" that was obvious when I visited the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War and, to a lesser extent, the Central Museum of the Armed Forces made this abundantly clear. What is the state of provincial military museum? Empty, I expect, all sold off, and far far away. When the entire contents of the Musuem of Cosmonautics can be sold (both domestically and internationally), why should these small baubles be any exception. While I wish the Russians luck in recovering stolen heritage, I look at the example of the Greeks and the Elgin Marbles and the Indians and the Koh-i-Noor and doubt I'll hold my breath for them to succeed. And I am not sure that ODM are the place to start. In any case, Tsar Putin and his minions will have more pressing matters to worry about, I suspect.

Thanks, Dave. It does remind us all of the fragile transience of internet sources and, correspondingly, of the permanence of the printed media. Write those books and articles!