IrishGunner

From what I can see of the shoulder strap; I'm guessing Telegraphtruppen.

Doc may be on to something with Block 4 - his branch being INF. The discharge for C of G relates to his prior service in the Navy (see Block 39); perhaps Med Surge Tech was his Navy rate, but he was assigned to Infantry when he moved over to the Army. Perhaps more odd to me is the entries in Blocks 23 and 24. In 23 he is noted as having a Purple Heart; however, in 24 it says "None" for wounds received in action. Odd.

You always find great little items. Well done again.

Air Force Occupation Badge - Basic Maintenance Qualification.

I'm still with you on this Hardy. I don't think this is a Baden shield. It's a possibility, but not a probability in my mind. I looked to see if I could find something Bavarian with this shape/design, but no luck.

I'm just being contrary here, Chip, but it's a black and white photo. How do you know it's "Baden colors"? Or even gold and red for that matter. There's is no way to know the exact colors in a black and white photo - is there? It could just as easily be white with a blue stripe - the Bavarian colors, couldn't it? It is the shape that makes one think Baden, isn't it? That's what I first thought until I looked closer and realized it's reversed.

My condolences for the loss of your friend. Suicide is always such a sad cause.

I have only a couple very minor documents to contribute to such a project, but on the surface it sounds like a fantastic idea and I would suspect garner a lot of interest at GMIC.

Me too because the Baden shield traditionally has the red stripe going from upper left to lower right. This helmet shield goes upper right to lower left. :unsure:

Must be missing something because I don't see a Chat Tab. But I did find it listed like a sub-forum at the bottom of the page. Nice that you can also open it in a separate window.

A few show up on French eBay. Definitely a medal for the Loire city of Nantes. No WWI history that I know of...site of Nazi atrocities in WWII. Could have a religious connection with the Sacred Heart on it's lower edge. Motto is "Rather Die Than Betray". Interesting piece, but can't find any military connection.

I guess I better publish a new entry since my fellow bloggers are getting ahead I'm being left in the dust. --------------------------- Some of you know - and others may have guessed - from my username of Irishgunner - that I am in fact a gunner. I'm coming to the end of a 30 year career as a Field Artilleryman in the US Army and that has started to color my collecting interests more and more. When I started collecting militaria, I really had no theme other than WWI. I was drawn to that period simply because I believe - as I am sure do others - that this was the pinnacle of ODM. Medals had to be earned and they carried considerable prestige. I think the appearance of the unofficial veterans medals in the inter-war period foreshadowed a gradual dilution of the meaning of military medals. That's not to say that later medals - even more modern awards - have no meaning. Certainly there is both value and honor to many medals today; especially wound and valor awards. But the Imperial period was the golden age for ODM in many ways. So, this is what has drawn me to primarily focus on ODM of the WWI combatants. Initially, I was out to collect examples of every WWI-era medal that I could afford. Not without subtle meaning, my time spent on GMIC has gradually edged me towards more of a specialization. Combining my personal career as a gunner with the awards earned by my predecessors in WWI seemed like a natural progression. I will specifically credit Chris Boonzaier with planting these seeds with his Kaiserscross website. I started to think about an area in which to specialize and possibly create my own website, chronicaling the stories of the men who earned these awards. As I started doing research on some of my acquisitions, I realized there isn't really a consolidated source of information related to the German Imperial Artillery. And thus the idea to focus on that area germinated. There are many web and published sources - excellent sources - which I've mentioned in an earlier blog. But my idea was to consolidate some basic - and unique - information for the casual researcher. I decided to base that initial research upon items representing each regiment of the Imperial German Artillery. And the base piece in this collection was actually acquired in 2006 - long before I decided to concentrate on Imperial German Artillery. A base piece in artillery terminology is the gun that is initially sighted (or laid) and whose fire is adjusted as necessary and then all other guns in the battery base their bearings upon this base piece. And I think my base piece is truly unique and appropriate for this endeavor. My first acquired - and base - piece is a commemorative medal produced in 1914 for the 50 year anniversary of the Fußartillerie Regiment von Linger Nr. 1 (Ostpreußische). The regiment was organized on 16 June 1864 in Königsberg, East Prussia. It saw service in the Franco-Prussian War 1870/71 and of course, in WWI. Pure coincidence that this piece dates from before the war as far as my collection goes, but I think it's an excellent place to start as Europe edged toward war in that summer of 1914. And an excellent connection to the legacy of the Imperial German Artillery. It foreshadows the coming storm of war and is a link to the proud lineage of the Prussian Army. I've researched some already of the 1. FuAR in WWI, but that will have to wait until I publish the website.

I love the coincidence's of life. One of our best memories of touring England the first time - it was 1992 - was staying at a B&B in your old neighborhood of Bexley. I will have to ask my wife if she recalls the name, but it was a wonderful two day stay with a very nice older lady. I recall the wonderful farm countryside.

Well, I'm now quite curious since I saw one of these for sale a few months ago - without scabbard though. I almost bought it, but wasn't sure about it's origin. Come on now - make me feel disappointed I didn't grab it when I could.

You always come up with some great ribbon bars!

Greg, just looking through your USSR gallery. Are these scans or photos? How did you do the different color backgrounds? Well done.

Are sure you aren't a published author in the "suspense" genre? Come on, man, out with it!

Wow, I'd be happy with just one 1870 :love:

Here in NOVA, we have to add flash flood warnings to the traffic reports. I have to cross one very low bridge on my way home - wondering what day this week it will be closed due to flooding.

I didn't realize this decoration existed. It's a very appropriate change to the criteria. Well done, Your Majesty.

The American military is frequently called out by Europeans for having too many medals. On the other hand, I always found it ironic that soldiers in monarchies have few medals to mark the milestones in their personal careers, but there are plenty allow to mark royal milestones.

Now that's a nice VM - great history.

This is a tough question since a definitive list is elusive. The regiments existing prior to August 1914 are well known. On the Prussian side there were 89 Feld-Artillerie Regiments (FAR), 22 Fuss-Artillierie Regiments (FuAR), and several corresponding Reserve regiments. In Bavaria, there were an additional 12 FAR and 3 FuAR. (Of course, this is not even precise, as I've seen in Cron and Jager the numbers add up +/- one or two regiments.) It is the war-raised units that make a complete list difficult; both regiments and separate battalions. Then there are the munitions columns, which add an exponential number to the problem. And let's not forget the Matrosen Artillerie units of the Navy. Pouring through 251 Divisions shows many high numbered regiments; however, without a unit index it's time-consuming to pull together a list. I've started this task, but like all things, other priorities push it far to the bottom of my to-do list. I was going to mention my highest number regiment collected so far; however, when I tried to open the spreadsheet that lists all of my Artillery items (including where/when purchased and how much paid), the file was corrupted and unrecoverable! Of course, this is a huge catastrophe because I have no back-up file. Guess what is now on my to-do list.

Frank, like many things, I think collecting fields are highly influenced by marketing - as in advertising and promotion. Soviet ODMs were highly marketed - and still are to some degree. It's the same with the major combatants of both WWI and WW2 - high degree of information and promotion. Your new area - Russian Federation - is suffering from a lack of exposure. One could say the same thing for ODMs for all the former Communist states. Of course, Russia is the largest, but until the marketing craze kicks in, there will simply be a lack of interest except among true collectors like yourself. I think a big reason for the lack of exposure is also the lack of wartime service; Russia has a few decorations associated with the Caucasus, but that's about it; until there is a conflict that makes the medals more desirable, they will probably languish on the sidelines.