Beau Newman

Grungy and tattered - But I still like it.

I've noticed this guy a several times. Junk medals on incorrect ribbons. http://www.ebay.com/itm/rare-memory-medal-sucessful-royal-troops-CHINA-1900-1901-ribbon-/191203594484

An invaluable reference. Not all-inclusive but, excellent information on those awards it does cover.

2 and 3 could be Anhalt I suppose but, why 2 of them? No long service with the Centennial is possible but, unusual. The precedence is off for a 1930's bar with the EK in 2nd place. The construction looks pretty good but, there are some red flags for me on this one.

My understanding is that these were post war awards and were unofficial. There was no officially awarded pin-back version of the SCG War Service Decoration. Nimmergut gives dates of 1922 for the flat version with the shield on the back and 1927 for the vaulted version with no shield on the back. I would have to assume that this falls under the category of a Veteran's or possibly Freikorps badge. I haven't seen anything on the numbers awarded.

That's not all that unusual. Originally, he might have had an earlier style veteran's award in that spot. These were officially outlawed when the Hindenburg was awarded. He might have simply pulled the old one out and had the Hindenburg inserted without getting a new bar assembled.

The next to last could be a Turkish Red Crescent medal.

The 20 year cross for Gendarmes.

An interesting Bavarian Gendarme group that turned up at SOS.

I believe it was in an issue of the JOMSA a few years ago.

I think this hollow rayback piece marked "800" on the pin has been posted on another forum.

If I'm not mistaken, Saxon orders were returned upon the death of the recipient. Might this be a case of a returned pre-war non swords award that was recycled with swords added during the war?

In Vol. 2 of Neal O'Connor's series on aviation awards, there is a Sanke photo on page 154 showing Max Muller with the Member's Cross w/Swords. There is also a photo of Fritz Kosmahl on page 148 showing him with a button hole ribbon with crossed swords to differentiate it from an EKII ribbon.

Thanks - I figured it would be a low number since the number of potential recipients had to be small given the requirements for eligibility.

Here is an interesting Commander of the Ernestine House Order with the added dates "1914" and "1918". The cross tests at 14k gold and the weight is 38.1 g. As I understand it, these were awarded to military officers for non-combat achievements. 1918 would be the year of bestowal. I have included a couple of close-ups of the dates. There does not appear to be a standard format for the dates that I can find. Any enlightenment on whether these may simply be later additions would, of course, be appreciated as I haven't seen enough of these to get a good read on it. Any further information on the award itself would also be appreciated.

It is the War Commemorative Cross of the Landesverband Wurttemberg, a Weimar era veteran's group.

Excellent info., as always. Many thanks!

I picked up this silver toasting cup at an auction that is engraved with "AF 10" and "Luhrs" and the date 8.8.13. I have been able to find a Leutnant Luhrs in the 10th Foot Art. in the 1913 Ranklist and have found that he survived the war with a wartime rank of Major in a staff position. Any additional info. on the good Lt. would be appreciated.

That is the Bavarian Medical Service Cross for 1870/71. It is missing the small gold crowned "L" on the reverse medallion and most of the blue enamel on the reverse surround. "A.H." is for Adam Hausinger of Munich, who also made early versions of the Military Service Order and Military Service Cross. The MVK on this group is marked "A.H."

That makes my head hurt. I would say that there is a decent chance that #3 is a replaced Red Eagle. The last 2 are intriguing. I suppose it's not an impossibility since both combat and non-combat service was not uncommon.

To the extent it is helpful, I offer a few observations: There is nothing here that indicates service during WWI so, I would think that he died or retired before or soon after 1914 or simply never got around to updating his group. The 1870/71 bar combination is unusual. The Hallue/Bapaume/St. Quentin combo usually shows up on groups from the VIII Army Corps or 3rd Cavalry Div., neither of which were at Sedan or Paris. I suppose it is possible that he was assigned to a new Regiment after recovering from a wound but, I'm not sure how the German Army handled this in 1871. Identification of "enlisted" grade groups is very difficult, even for military personnel.

This just arrived. A Wurttemberg old-time NCO group with a NC EKI and a Wilhelm's Cross, another NC award, even with swords. The hardest to find, however, is probably the 21 year NCO Long Service Cross. As a bonus, it included his wartime bar that appears to have been stripped to make up his new bar, except for the 15 year Long Service, which had been upgraded.

Much appreciated. I know how difficult it is to run down some of the awards to reservists and civilians. It sounds like the number of awards on the Reuss is smaller than I expected.

I found this frackspange at the SOS. The Ernestine Knight 1st is gold and is probably pre-war. The Reuss 3rd Class w/Crown is a wartime award in spite of no swords as the ribbon is the wartime type that, per Nimmergut, was correct for this after sometime in 1915. The Iron Cross ribbon indicates that he did make it into the combat zone but, the Hindenburg shows that he was a noncombatant.

Nimmergut shows 366 awarded although, I don't think that is gospel as the records tend to be incomplete. It went down to, at least, lieutenants since O'Connor notes that 2 fliers received it.