J Temple-West

uh.... jerry.....

it looks like you have utterly failed in

resisting them.....

very nice examples - all of them!

my compliments.

joe

I echo that....

Hi Kurt,

The restoration on Mont Orgueil Castle is now complete and once again open to the public.

I'm hoping to do a photo trip to both Guernsey and Alderney during the Summer, so should be able to show some of their bunkers/emplacements on my return.

while in Alderney, I intend to locate the site of the little known "SS" labour camp ?Lager Sylt?. There's not much information on the camp as the Germans detroyed the camp, and most of the records, before the liberation.... If there's anything left, I'll document it.

Many thanks for posting your pictures, Stijn....An interesting thread about an interesting woman.

You may well be right about the badge, although B&NL & Assmann are very similar. The only way to tell them apart, in period photo's, is to look at the swastika

The frontal shot looks like the large swas' of an Assmann.... the side shot, B&NL.

Here's a comparison (Left to right...B&NL, Assmann) having the pictures, perhaps this will help to determine which it is.

Many thanks, jacques.

"CIOS" plaque explaining the restoration process of the bunker and surrounding emplacements Of "Batterie Lothringen"

Rangefinder.

Today.

A priod pic of the command bunker taken during the early days of construction.

And as it is now.

One of the gun positions as it was then.

Position of "Batt Lothringen".

Hi Ian.

Just a little background. "Batterie Lothringen" (Noirmont Point, St.Brelade) consisted of 4x 15cm SK L/45 (SK= schiffskanone-"ships guns") turret-mounted German Naval guns (1917) with a range of 16.5km.

There was a corresponding emplacement on the island of Guernsey and between the two, the channel between the two islands was covered.

As can be seen from the extract from the official listings of the forces in the CI, ?5 Batterie? was based in Guernsey and it would seem that it was allocated the name ?Batterie Steinbruch?. This is just a quick bit of research and is by no means definitive (as can be seen from the question mark next to the entry for the ?batterie? in question).

I will be paying a visit to the local archives in an attempt to find out a little more, so bear with me.

Listing.

Case.

Reverse.

Obverse.

Hi guys,

What do we think of this one? Supposedly an early issue to LC members before the slight change of design in 37/38. The size is 50mm, indicating a late ?Alfonso XIII? manufacture date.

I still haven't heard from the German War Graves. If I haven't heard anything in a few days I'll send off a chaser!!

Johnny

That's very good of you, Johnny. Keep us updated.

Ericos,

You lucky dog...An absolutely superp group.

I've had a go at sorting out the doc's..no luck I'm afraid. If you have my e-mail address, send me some scans and I'll resize and repost them for you.

That is a great photo, jacques.

Any chance of a closeup of their flight badges?

Yep, a great photo of an old ?jack of all trades? campaigner.

Could the Luftwaffe long service medals be a little longer..18/4 or 25/12 seeing that he flew in WW1 or would his early service time not count?

And yes, that is a Bulgarian Infantry badge..Well spotted!

The Bulgarian Infantry badge came in three grades...Gold, silver and bronze.

Hi Jan,

It looks like a good one to me. Nice find!

Hi Eric,

Well, well... I know this bade! Prime example, me old matey.

Has N.H given up collecting?

What a lovely badge, Eric! Interesting to see that Juncker sourced the eagle for this badge from Assmann. One sees this kind of thing from time to time.

P

A look at a side by side comparison wiil show that this is not an Assmann bird, but is fact pure Juncker. Imo both firms, working from the designers artwork, produced a very similar bird for their 1st pattern examples. Juncker then went on to produce their 2nd pattern and Assmann retained the same eagle throughtout.

Hi Rich,

Yes it's the pic... The hinge is all brass which blends in with the gilding. Not unusual to find examples without the blued central piece. I was talking to T.C and, going on the MM, it looks like this badge one one earliest to be marked with the full name after the "CEJ" mark ended.

Oh yes, this came from C.B.

An extremely rare piece, Mike. I've only ever seen one other.

Very nice.

Many thanks for all the kind comments, guys.