MJC

I have been looking for the awards and decorations for Generalleutnant Karl Kettembeil, but without success. If anyone can assist, for whatever period/era the data is available, I would be appreciative. I have an otherwise full biographic file. Thanks.

Born: 27 Apr 1890

Died: 12 Apr 1976

Congratulations Paul, a stunning acquisition. :jumping:

I especially like the Oaks and Laurels combination on number 5. Wish I had one! :jumping:

Thanks for confirming the era. Cheers! :cheers:

A colleague of mine has a ribbon bar whose metal frame is marked "Tz" in a stylized format. Is this the name of the backing manufacturer or jeweler? Some guy in Pakistan?

I will ask for images, and thanks in advance.

Well, not as clear as I had hoped, but maybe with a little squinting.....

I hope you find these images as interesting as I do. Of course, it would be nicer if they were wearing their jimcracks and gongs!

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I love finding material like this. This last set is clearly staged, but it is interesting to note that with the exception of Hausser (SS), most of the men were allowed to retain their ranks. Whereas their rank has been removed in the candid, "unstaged" images.

You can also clearly see the facial scars Hausser received during Falaise encirclement.

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In the immediate post-war period, the Allied powers realized the unique knowledge German military leaders had accumulated, and proposed a working relationship between US military historians and several hundred officers. The result was the Foreign Military Study series of 2200 texts covering combat, technical topics, and staff experiences.

Here are photos of some of the participants. Hopefully, they will be clear despite the forum limitations.

Paul,

I hope you don't mind me jumping into your post, but I have a marginally better copy of his image.

Cheers,

Mike

This post may be of interest to WWI researchers as well.

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=32993

Merry Christmas,

Mike

mjc@westmorelandresearch.org

For the past year or so, I have been compiling a name list of personalities who are featured in the excellent Heinrich Hoffmann photo collection at NARA. There are roughly 30,000 images by best estimate, and I have identified nearly 950 distinct names so far. Most of the personalities are military, but some political figures as well, and there is a good balance between formal portraits, group, and location shots. All images were taken between 1928 and 1945 and are in original negative format, with contact prints available.

Until now, there has only been an outdated and decidedly inaccurate name list, that is unavailable to the public in any event. NARA will receive a copy of my list upon completion in the new year.

The list is much too large to post here, so what I am proposing is this. If you want to determine if your "man" has an image in the Hoffmann collection, email me his name. If he is on the list, I will take a digital image of the contact strip and send it to you for your reference. Please don't ask for "Hitler" or "Himmler", or any other overtly famous personage, there will be hundreds of hits, but if you have been salivating for an image of "Grenadier Jakubeck", this is your opportunity.

Please note that the contact strips, while often excellent in and of themselves, are reference sheets and the photographic quality may be lacking. If you want to order a beautiful professional copy of the print, you must use one of the three NARA approved photo vendors. We have no relationship with any photo vendor, and we will not recommend one over another.

This is simply an opportunity for you to determine if a photo exists within this excellent, unindexed collection. I will try and accommodate all requests, but please note that I may have to limit the scope of this offer if the number of requests gets out of hand. Rather than send a private message, please email me at the address below.

Merry Christmas,

Mike

mjc@westmorelandresearch.org

Hi Gents,

Thanks to all for the posts and advice. And too bad it is just a "display" bar, it is very pretty to me.

Saschaw, I can't comment on the price since it was a gift, but your post seems to imply that there is some collector value to the bar, even if it is simply a display piece. I would think that the real value would be supported by the fact it was owned by a real man, and represents his military and civil contributions, rather than just a bar cobbled together to look pretty in a windowshop. I would rather the former, but appear to own the former, if only temporarily as I plan to return it. Am I misreading this?

Thanks again for all the help and Merry Christmas. :cheers:

OUCH. So the truth does hurt after all!

Back to the dealer it goes, and thanks for the insight. Christmas will be a little bleaker this year, but I expect I'll have a new ugly necktie that I can tie into a noose!

BTW, where does one go to purchase 2008 Award Rolls mentioned in your response?

Reverse. Thanks.

Is there any chance you learned gentlemen will share your impressions of this hopefully real, and hopefully identifiable bar? I know the CM2X ribbon is reversed, but everything else looks correct to this untrained eye.

Please be nice, it is Christmas and this is one of my presents I was expecting the ubiquitous ugly necktie, so this will be a bit of an improvement over prior holidays.

You may want to see if the "odd" militaria site has similar values. Congratulations on your new bar, whatever the cost. Beautiful. :jumping:

Hi Glenn,

That is an interesting site, but I can't figure out how to convert the citation. After a cursory examination, NARA does not identify any "JG 300" footage, though they have miles and miles footage. If there is a copy there, it is likely unattributed. Sorry I couldn't help.

Mike