peter monahan

Spot on, Walrus! The "Hasty P's" are the "Hastings and Prince Edward (county) Regiment". A noted Canadian author Farley Mowat served with them in WWII, in Italy, as a 19 yr old intelligence officer - bright lad. He wrote of it in a book titled "And No Birds Sang" (biog.) as well as in "The Regiment", a more general work, and even describes his own breakdown and running away after days of sehlling and no sleep. Excelent account of a really nasty campaign for our boys. The "Rileys" are the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, whose first battalion were decimated at Dieppe (70% killed, wounded or captured, I believe). Peter

Hi guys, I have been told the loops were for supporting the sporran belt or vice versa. If you have a look at the hanger(which I believe is an original hanger for the kilt) it has two closures at to clip onto both sides of the kilt. A collector from another site who is familiar with kilt wear provided that information. I may be wrong about the loops being for hanging but they are very unlikely to be for the sporran belt. A sporran belt is too small to support a kilt, which is fitted anyweay so it won't fall down, and the belt, properly worn, starts below the top of the kilt at the back and crosses the hips on a downward angle, essentially held in place by the weight of the sporran and the wearer's hips. Check some photos of kilties and I think you'll see what I mean. My tuppence 'orth Peter

And as an exercise for the student: Which units bore the following nicknames? British cavalry units: "The Emporer's Chambermaids", "The Cherrypickers", & "The Tinbellies" Canadian infantry (militia) units: "The Hasty P's", "The Rileys", & "The Vandoos" Peter

I believe the loops are simply for hanging the kilt when not in use. Peter

RAz Punch "Azad Hind" into the search engine here and you'll get the other site. Some few photos of varying degrees of plausibility/accuracy but none seem to show any Indian volunteer wearing any ribbons at all! P

RaZ I know nothing about WWII german stuff but I seem to recall a fairly lengthy discussion of the "Azad Hind" ["Free India"] troops not too long ago on some part of this site. Off the top of my head, the Azad Hind were recruited among Indian Army POWs captured (mostly) in North Africa. I believe they only ever amounted to a couple hundred men and were, after some false starts, eventually taken into the SS and organized as an anti-aircraft battery which may or may not have seen service late in the war (in Germany?). Don't know if that rules in or out any of the ribbons on the bar but hope it's some help. Ask Ed Haynes for more info.,; he's the Indian Army guru around here! Peter

I didn't know any cavalry units commemorated Wolfe - he was a groundpounder after all. One infantry unit - name escapes my aging brain wears a black tab on the back of the collars (officers, at least) to mimic the black ribbon ties they wors in their queues after Wolfe died. I always thought that the "death or Glory boys" borrowed the skull from the German LiebHussaren just 'cause it looked cool or maybe 'cause they had an honorary colonel from Germany. Jump in any time, Michael Johnson! Peter

Megan Any info. on award criteria and such? Just curious. Peter

A Russian unit in German service, I think. One of the Cossack groups, maybe? No idea at all about "real" or not.

Yes. If we gave them new toys they'd just get them all dusty anyway.

Not the last days of the Leopard at all! Canada has just announced that we are going to lease and buy Leo IIs from the Germans and Dutch for use in Afghanistan! I particularly like the description of the Dutch ones, which apparently the Dutch Army found surplus to requirements after the Berlin Wall came down. They are, and I quote " low mileage and have been kept in heated storage". Only driven on Sundays by a little old armourer sergeant! Plus, they're to be airconditioned becauase apparently steel boxes, tracked or otherwise, can hit 50 degrees Celsius in southern Afghanistan in the summer. Peter

Yes, the army (and society in general) were very big on "improving" the lower classes. A Victorian notion, as Leigh says, the temperance leagues often went along with regimental "reading rooms" (newspapers, some improving books and religious tracts) as an alternative to grog and knocking shops. There are several medals, or issues of the medal, I believe. The one I've seen previously was diamond shaped and had a reference to "Total Abstinence" and a plain light blue ribbon. I believe it might even have been named. Sorry, can't remember any more. BTW, it looks as if we are almost neigbours! Peter (Alliston, ON) Monahan

The difference between WWI & WWII is quite interesting. The various Allied powers seem to have given out decorations to each others' soldiers pretty freely in the Great War. I once owned a group to a British Officer of Indian Cavalry (Capt. Branfoot, 30th Lcrs) who had received the Rumanina Order of the Corwn, one of the nicest looking decorations I've ever owned. ASs far as I can tell he may not have known where Rumania was and certainly never served with any, but a former messmate remarked (somewhat cynically perhaps) that "Branny" wasn't quite good enough for an MC and so got the Rumanian gong "which they sent around by the basketful at Christmas time". Makes a good story anyway! Peter

Correct. Modern methods result in a paper with a far higher content of acid than was the case 100 years ago, hence the deterioration which is/will be so common with more modern docs. A pity, but the up side is that the really old stuff does hold up remarkable well! Peter

The info. I've read also points out the discrepancy in the naming and said that there was a "2nd LT C. Smythe" in the Indian Labour Corps. So... ? A replacement ? The fact that the family has all SIX of his medals is signifiicant too. A possibly dodgy singleton from a group of 6 is hardly the sort of stuff to invoke the Cultural Properties Act over, IMHO. As interesting in this all is the role of Mr. Dave Thomas who is a (self-appointed) saviour of Cdn militaria from the clutches of anyone who wants to buy it. A tricky issue and I applaud the idea, but he seems to work by calling all the papers then asking others to pony up the money to "save" these from eBay. So the publicity drives up the price and when the medals are 'rescued' some museum in Canada is then asked to buy them, possibly outside their collecting mandate and certainly without prior reference to their budget. I have a feeling that Mr Thomas will "cry wolf' too often and then some real treasures will go offshore.

I have had the pleasure and privilige of being at an event - the re-dedication of the Stony Creek battlefield memorial in 2000 - with members of the 3rd. We re-interred three partial skeletons, 2 British & 1 US at the site, in Hamilton (Stony Creek), Ontario. The guard were the pallbearers, dressed in impeccable Rev. War uniforms and performing their duties without audible commands. They also attend at Arlington National Cemetery, as mentioned, and guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there. I believe it is a voluntary duty. A very impressive body of men! Peter PS: By complete coincidence, the chap who runs the pub in my town is ex-Old Guard.

Rick For replacement parts (repro) try Googling "Dixie Arms" in Tennessee. They sell a lot of repro. 19th century muskets and parts to re-enactors. Peter

Jim Seems redundant to me: "You fire what we issue you, Private!" I doubt many dum-dums were issued in this century but some guys probably did "field modifications" such as the ones issued above. I'd guess, however, that the ones who did had a serious hate on for the enemy - not as common as you might think - and were brave or dumb enough not to worry about the consequences of getting captured with dum-dums on their person. That would likely have extremely negative effects on one's health - sort of like having a sawbacked bayonet in War One did. My tuppence worth Peter

If you were paying close attention there, you'll see I changed my call in mid-stream there, so to speak. But I think the photos are a true match and a Model 13 is what you have!

Here we go: "French Cavalry pistol of the Year 13" (AN xIII) (That's year 13 of the Revolution). A standard arm for Napoleon's mounted troops. You lucky dog! Charleville, btw, was the name of the armoury. A very popular piece to reproduce, BTW. So there's a good bit of info out there if you look for "AN XIII" or "Year 13 pistol". It's doubly interesting that it has an 1812 marked barrel! Perhaps the last of the "Year 9" (AN IX) model barrels used with the newer mountig system (Google "AN IX" to see the differeence in the front ends of the two) I haven't anything yet on the markings but the look as if they might be factory proof/inspection marks, except for the engraved "Mar 13", which confirms that it the "new model", replacing the Year 9 ones. Check this site for some picks of another one: http://www.antiquefirearms.com/pages/217.htm. And if you tire of it, let me know! Peter

Bear Charleville was one of the principal manufacturers of arms for the French Army for several centuries. (The "Charleville musket" was the French and American counterpart to the "Brown Bess".) This looks to me like a standard pistol - the number of stamps suggest an "issue" piece rather than private purchase. I believe the model is "1797" but French isn't my field and I can't locate my one decent reference on the subject. More as I find it. I'm very envious! Peter

From the Indian Army List, 1924: Seymour, C. G., Maj. Ret'd, I. M. S. - Operations in the Abor Country, 1911-12 The War of 1914 21. - Operations in German E. Africa between Sept. 14 and Jany. 18 - Despatches, London Gaz., 30 Jun. 16 and 7 Mar. 18. Hope this helps Peter

The epaulette doesn't seem to fit the group - button seems to have an anchor on it and the braid up the center is very "un-British" (if that's a word). Maybe French - colonial troops of some sort? Peter

Sorry gents! Didn't mean to provoke a political debate. Me, I can live with French cornflakes - it's a traditiona by now in Canada, tradition being defined as anything you do two years in a row without a government grant the second time. I agree with Rick though, either it's a VC (British made, awarded by the Crown) or it's a copy. If it ain't the original, Latin is as good a language as any because, basically, it doesn't matter. I think the intent of the quiet but determined lobbying was to "get the VC back". In fact, I'd bet most Canadians, if they knew anything at all of medals would assume that the VC is still our highest decoration. The "made in Canada" idea is typical of a committee of politicians - well intentuioned but clueless. Oh, sorry, two bad words in one sentence - the "C word" and the "P word". Sigh! The latest twist, which may almost make up for the whole dumb idea, is that Her Majesty will bestow a "Canadian VC" on our Unknown Soldier, a Vimy Ridge casualty, who lies in Ottawa at the National War Memorial. But our esteemed PM won't confirm this, only says "We'll let you know". Sigh again! Peter

Yes, I expect we will here from the Etruscan Liberation Front or the Association for the Promulgation of Neo-Druidic Values any day now, Darrell. Never mind the fuss we'll get when some media dweeb identifies Latin as a "dead language" and all the toga party types jump in topoint out that it's really just Italian before it went to college.