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    cabart13

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    Posts posted by cabart13

    1. Greetings to All ...

      Well this project has come to a delightful end. We managed to locate the Davies and Burns families ... Found out that Lt. Davies was a gunner/observer; not a pilot as previously reported ... Both Lt Burns and Lt Davies were in the same formation that got shot down on 29 APR 1917 ... even got provenance linking all the POW's badges that were mounted on the post cards ...

      Here is Martin Davies; Lt Davies oldest son ... and Jane Sewell's hand; Lt Burns grand daughter; she is camera shy

      Martin.jpg

      Jane.jpg

      Lt Burns managed to keep a secret journal while in captivity and retyped it when he got released. I always wondered how Lt. Forrest; infantry, got in the mix with three RFC aviators' badges on the post cards ... looks like they were in the same POW camps for the initial interrogation before being transferred off the front line.

      pg1.jpg

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    2. With the exception of 2LT Houghton (gunner/observer) , all other Officers families have been identified. I am in the process of contacting Lt Davies (pilot) family ... the German mispelled his name as Davis ... 2Lt Burns (pilot) and 2Lt Houghton were crew members on the same plane. Burns, Houghton, and Davies were members of 20 SQN and shot down 29 APR 1917 ... 2LT Forrest was infantry and got captured on 28 APRIL 1917 leading a trench patrol.

      I planned to purchase similar badges as you suggested Jock to preserve the project.

      Dat

    3. Greeting to ALL,

      Well 2017 is a great year for my badge projects:

      2LT Weatherill Abbott Strickland

      RE8 Gunner/Observer - 57 SQN "forced to land" with 2LT Griffith 12JUL17

       

      2LT Harold Morgan Lewis 

      Nieuport 23 Fighter Pilot - 29 SQN - shot down 12JUL17 by Oberleutnant Dostler

       

      Both were first interned at a POW camp in Ingelmunster, Belgium ... Station F

       

      First photo is Mrs. Skelding, grand daughter of 2LT Strickland, with her grandfather's badge.

      Second photo is Mrs. Wolstenholme, daughter of 2LT Lewis, with her father's badge.

       

      Took a while to locate the relatives through findmypast.com and ancestry.com ... I even ordered Lewis' will through gov.uk to locate Mrs. Wolstenholme. 

      Almost 100 years, but the badges made it back to the families.

       

      16730356_10211772030762034_5244957032735068515_n.jpg.6cb0352a371084e93c67cffe657e9232.jpg58f9f1d431d60_image1copy.thumb.jpg.4d213d6f199cdf351372b25a01276a4b.jpg

    4. Good day to All,

      Came across these badges recently. Very well made by the Swiss company, Huguenin, which is written on both side of these badges. I am guessing that these were made around 1926-1928 judging from the national emblem.

      I think these are soldiers awards similar to the Soviet Excellent Soldier Awards.

      It looks like these may have been gold plated or painted with some sort of gold colored paint.

      Has anyone seen these before? I wonder how many exist in a complete set? 

      I got a few more with sport images and will post them shortly.

      v/r

      Dat

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    5. Here are his award cards, citation for the award, and a photo of Grizun with comrades at Bagram. He's the 4th from the right in the back row.

      Nice photo of the group. They are standing on pierced steel planking that lasted till 2005. We nick name it "Steel Beach". The USAF tore it all up and lay down concrete instead. I kept a couple of connecting links as souvenir. Here is a photo of the work in progress.

      v/r

      Dat Nguyen

    6. Hello Mr. Mitton,

      I am not certain of the forum's rules on posting a link to another site so I sent you a private message in regards to markings on UK bayonets. Collecting bayonets is one of my recents hobbies and every reference site that I've seen list X as the marking for the bend test. I was very fortunate to send back most of my bayonets for free using the military postal system. Some of my aircrew friends also took them back if there were available space and weight on the plane.

      @ Jock

      Most of the M18 helmets were gone when I got there in 2005. The ones left were fair to very poor conditions. I have two myself. Almost all of these Afghan helmets will have three holes punched on the right side of the helmet to attach a round badge. I have also seen some very clever Afghans modifying these helmets to look like the M-18 cut out helmet. They would cut the rim off then try to weld a fabricated seam back on the cut out. Their workmanship is very rough and the heat from welding basically destroy a good helmet.

      v/r

      Dat Nguyen

    7. You ought to see how many P1907's I have seen over the years in Afghanistan. Some has similar numeric numbers like the one you showed, but smaller font size.

      I purchased about 75 of the better condition P1907. Most were English, some Indian and no Australian one seen there. There were also plenty of P1888, P1903 and, P1913 back then.

      Recently, you would be lucky to see a poor condition bayonet at the local bazaar.

      v/r

      Dat Nguyen

    8. Best of Wishes to ALL in 2011 ...

      Best of Health and Fortunes to You and your Families.

      Let's start off 2011 with a special die.

      One of the die to make the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.

      Is it the one that made Herman Goering's? I don't know, but how impressive it would be if we can compare this die to Goering's extra Grand Cross he ordered.

      There must have been a total of 3 dies used to make the cross: obverse, reverse, and frame. This is the only die of the three that is in my friend's collection.

      I hope y'all enjoy the photo.

      v/r

      DN post-984-081298400 1293858592_thumb.jpg

    9. Agree with the above. A very nice piece. How much does this piece weigh since it is over a meter long?

      What is the construction please?

      Regards,

      JustinG

      Hello Justin,

      I do not have that info for you Justin. I will ask the owner for you. Knowing him, he will probably tell me what it is made off but I don't think he will take it off is wall to weigh it for us. I am glad you enjoy it.

      v/r

      DN

    10. Well, in the other posting I had suggested the U-boat badge in post #6 was a Pforzheim design but I've changed my mind on that. On closer look the best match is Funcke & Brüninghaus, Lüdenscheid. And interestingly, I'd say the best match for the Close Combat Clasp in post #8 is also F&BL.

      I'm not convinced that the GAB is an RK as suggested by Don, but I can't place it at this time. Perhaps others will chime in as well.

      Best regards,

      ---Norm

      Thank you for the info. Here is 2 more dies to look at for this week. Looks like they are for the WWI Wounds Badge. Sorry for the poor quality photo.

      v/r

      DN

      post-984-047176300 1287816589_thumb.jpg

    11. I think we can safely say these dies are not all from the same manufacturer, since we already see Pforzheim and Gablonz represented, and the owner says another one is from Juncker in Berlin. (Which is the Juncker die, by the way?)

      With regards to die manufacturing, these steel dies are not cut by hand of course. This link to a Youtube movie shows you a bit of the process as used by B. H. Mayer in Pforzheim, starting with the hand production of the oversized design in plaster. It's pretty informative but skips the steps in between the making of the negative Matrize (master die) and production of the actual negatve working dies. The in-between step that is skipped is the production of a positive Patrize (Punch, in English) which in turn is used to stamp out the negative production dies. With each step, minor hand modification/correction of the steel Matrize, Patrize and production die is done before the steel is then hardened. Presumably, most the dies shown in this thread are Punches.

      DN - can you tell us which die is identified as Juncker and how that was verified?

      Best regards,

      ---Norm

      Hello Norm,

      Thanks for the youtube link; that was very interesting. The owner of these dies main interest is weapons he has not put any effort to doing any research to these dies.

      If I tell you what I saw in his collection, you would call me NUTS. I did not believe it myself till I was introduce to him. The weapons and militaria in his collection is by far the largest one that I have ever seen. Some of us dream of owning a collector grade K-98 sniper rifle ... he has about 50 of them. You name the infantry weapon and he has it ... hmmmm, I don't think he has the rifle that shoots around corner. However, don't laugh, he has a complete 88mm canon ... to include the dolly set to tow it around.

      If you can point out the different makers to me, I would really appreciate that Norm.

      I haven't posted that Juncker die yet. Still trying to do more research on this one. It is very unique .... I will post it on New Year's Eve to bring in 2011 in a special way. The owner thinks that only Juncker made this award.

      Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

      v/r

      DN

    12. Would these dies be cut out by hand? Engraved? I'm sure I've read that before but these things look incredible.

      .If they were it must have been incredibly difficult to do.

      Thanks for sharing this photo collection of your friends dies :beer:

      If they are all made by one firm maybe you can work out the maker of some hitherto unknown badges i.e. detemine the maker of just one of the dies from known info on badges and you will i.d. the rest - just a thought.

      Chris

      I have asked the owner of these dies if he knows which maker they came from. He think that they could have possibly came from Junker because he positively ID one die. As for the die, I don't know if they were cut or engraved, but they are very heavy and seem to be very good quality steel.

      v/r

      DN

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