ItemCo16527

I recently obtained scans of two pictures of my great-grandfather. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in the very early 20th Century, probably enlisting around 1903 or so. I was wondering if there is any way to determine which regiment he served in from his uniform. I don't know much about the Austro-Hungarian Army, so I'm a little lost. His name was Josef Georg (a.k.a. Joseph George) Blum, and he was from the village of Billed in what is now Romania. The second picture (wearing the hat) is a real head-scratcher. He appears to be about 10 years older (after he would have emigrated to America). The hat and tunic are Austro-Hungarian, but the insignia on the hat appear to be American. The disc seems to be a U.S. Army Infantry (or Artillery, it's hard to tell) collar disc, and the eagle badge is an American bald eagle with some kind of writing above it. It looks like either "C.M.C.R.C." or "C.H.C.R.C.". I was wondering if anyone might have some idea about this, too. Thanks!

Thank you so much, Glenn! I'd completely forgotten that I'd posted this request. I did a quick Google search for Otto Rasenack, and apparently he'd authored some articles and at least one book, and had been a director of some kind in West Germany with regard to slaughterhouses. He was still alive around 1968. When I have some more time, I'm going to do some more in depth research. Thank you again!!! Jeff

Thank you for your input. I'll be selling it as a put-together now.

I believe it's dated 1942 from what a prospective buyer told me. Another told me the patches are outright fakes.

Hi all, I have a WWII-era battledress jacket that I'm selling, and someone has told me that the patches on it are not originals. I bought this jacket almost 10 years ago, and the seller assured me they were originals. I was wondering if someone here would be able to give me an expert opinion. Thanks!

Ancestry.com doesn't have anything in the way of RN records. The Medal Index Cards are Army-only, although you will sometimes find one to a member of another branch. However, this was usually a case of a relative applying for a deceased sailor or Marine's medals to the wrong office. In my case, I was looking for an MIC for a soldier by surname only and found an MIC to a Lt. Cragg of the Royal Navy. He had been killed in action while serving ashore in France, and it appears his father had applied for his medals through the Army medal office by mistake. For whatever reason, an MIC was created for him even though his medals would have had to be issued by the Royal Navy. I highly recommend using the services of J. Collins Military Research. I've used them numerous times, and not only are their prices very reasonable, but they get your research to you fast. You can find them at this link: http://www.militaryresearchon.com/ Just use the drop boxes to select what branch and time period you're looking for. As for Royal Navy service number prefixes, they had several for various ratings, ranks, and branches. Some examples: J - Seaman & Communications ratings (Signalman & Telegraphists) K - Stokers L - Officers Stewards & Cooks M - ERAs (Engine Room Artificers), Artisians (Shipwrights, Plumbers, Coopers etc.), Ship's Police, Sick Berth/Supply ratings, and Bandsmen SS - Short Service enlistments Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Divisions: BZ - Bristol CZ - Clyde LZ - London MZ - Mersey PZ - Crystal Palace SZ - Sussex TZ - Tyne Y - Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Deferred Enlistment (this would replaced by divisional prefix on actual enlistment) WZ - Wales

Hi Chris, I'm really glad this was so hopeful to you. I didn't post a thread alerting everyone to it because I figured someone had beaten me to it - I probably should have looked harder! You're right, this is a huge step forward for Imperial German research. Hopefully, Ancestry will be adding more things like this in the near future. If this is the reason that the British service records for surnames beginning with P through Z were delayed for so long, then I won't be mad at Ancestry anymore :lol:

You're welcome, Ulsterman. Always glad to help when I can. Just be sure to tell the folks at Ancestry that I'd like a cut of the membership fees for sending you their way :lol:

Hi Chris, If found three hits, but I suspect there were some transcription problems. The rosters appear to have been photographed, rather than scanned, and the camera's flash washed out some of the writing. I also cannot, for the life of me, decipher German handwriting. The three hits are listed as: -Farenlius Dumbacher, born 3 April 1887, Schneeberg (Mittenberg) Unterfranken -Karl Dumbacher, born 3 April 1887, Schneeberg Bezirksamt Miltenberg Bayern -Karuel Dumbacher, born 3 April 1887, Schuseberg Bezirksamt Miltenberg A/M. Untfrk I'm very confident these are all the same person with the first names being transcribed incorrectly due to the poor quality of the photos of the roster pages. The only one where I can make out a Dienstgrad is Karl Dumbacher, and he is listed as a Leutnant. Edit: Upon much closer inspection "Farenlius" definitely looks like "Cornelius". "Karuel" appears to be "Koruel" or "Kornel". "Karl" is nearly indecipherable to me :(

The World Deluxe Membership, which is what you'd need to view these and British Medal Index Cards and service records, is priced at around $24.95/month, or ~$300/year However, with the amount of research I do on my family and soldiers whose medals and uniforms I own, the subscription paid for itself several times over this past year.

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Entries for Landsturmmann Max Siedersberger: 1.

Hi Chris, According to Ancestry: I managed to find the soldier I was researching with no problem. They even have a couple of entries for Hitler himself since he was assigned to a Bavarian Reserve Regiment. I'll post what I've found momentarily.

Thank you so much, Naxos. I really appreciate your help with this :)

Hi all, I just downloaded some entries from the Bavarian Personnel Rosters for WWI from Ancestry.com. I found a soldier whose funeral card I have, and in one of the entries for him, there is a long notation below his entry. I can make out entries like "8. September 1918" and "Cambrai" which I believe relate to his having died of wounds. However, I am having a lot of trouble trying to decipher the handwriting, and was wondering if anyone would be able to make heads or tails of it. I tried to enhance it slightly to help make it a little more legible. Thank you in advance for your help!

This is the only example I have in my collection. A mini-MBE (Military Division) for WWII.

Check out this link to a memorial page for Major Charles Kelly, the "Original Dustoff". He earned a posthumous DSC, among other decorations, for his bravery in Vietnam. He was authorized the CIB, the CMB, Senior Aviator wings, and basic jump wings. http://psysim.www7.50megs.com/dustkelly.htm You'll have to scroll down for a bit, but there are a few pictures of him wearing those badges.

Weird. I always see it identified as the UNCRO Medal. Looking at the UN's site further adds to my confusion http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/medals/unmibh.htm Need more caffeine. Then this will make more sense to me :D

Hi Paul, I don't have much info on this one, so I don't think I can start a whole thread on it just yet. The swallow's nests are applied with small hooks; the kind you normally see used to keep collars closed and secured at the neck. The hooks are simply pushed into the seam where the sleeve meets the jacket itself, and have a habit of popping out. Not a particularly secure method of keeping them on! I'm surprised you hadn't seen one of these before. After having seen what you have in your very impressive collection, I'd thought there was nothing you hadn't seen Replacing the shoulder cord actually took me a couple of years. When I first bought this one in 1998 or 1999, it had everything but the cord. When I got it home, I found a small button sewn under the right shoulderboard. At first I thought it was for a marksman lanyard, but the only Grenztruppen one I had was on another uniform. A couple years later, I got a catalog of East German militaria, and they had an East German Bandsman's shoulder cord/aiguilette for sale. Totally blind luck that I got the catalog and they happened to have one of these available.

This is a British Army medal bar featuring the UN Croatia Medal and NATO Kosovo & Non-Article 5 Medals.

Forgot to add this last night. This is the Nato Medal with Former Yugoslavia clasp in its box of issue. It has the French-style "fork" to attach it to the uniform, as opposed to the standard pin-back.

US troops in Bosnia could earn up to four different service medals for Bosnia, depending on their period of service there. Armed Forces Expeditionary Service Medal -Operation "Joint Forge": 21 June 1998 - To Be Determined Armed Forces Service Medal -Operation "Joint Endeavor": 20 November 1995 - 19 December 1996 -Operation "Joint Guard": 20 December 1996 - 20 June 1998 -Operation "Joint Forge": 21 June 1998 - To Be Determined NATO Medal with clasp Former Yugoslavia 1992 - 31 December 2002 NATO Medal (Non-Article 5) 1 January 2003 - To Be Determined This replaces the NATO Medal (FY) for service in Operation "Joint Forge"

Thank you, Alex It took me forever to get it "just right", and it turned out a lot better than I expected. I think I've finally got the hang of recolorizing photos.

DDR Grenztruppen band uniform. I had to replace the shoulder cord, which was missing when I got the uniform, but the rest of the insignia is original to it.