Max Simon Eberhard, one of my favourite groups

[Paul L Murphy]

This rather impressive group (unfortunately photographed on black ) is one of my favourites. It was awarded to Artillery Captain Max Simon Eberhard and comprises the following : -

1914 IRON CROSS 1ST CLASS, OLDENBERG FRIEDRICH AUGUST CROSS 1ST CLASS, TURKISH STAR, 1914 IRON CROSS 2ND CLASS, SAXONY ALBERT ORDER KNIGHT 2ND CLASS WITH SWORDS, OLDENBERG FRIEDRICH AUGUST CROSS 2ND CLASS WITH ?VOR DEM FIEND? BAR, SAXE COBURG GOTHA SILVER KARL EDUARD MEDAL, HAMBURG HANSEATIC CROSS, WWI COMBATANTS CROSS, AUSTRIAN WWI WAR MEDAL WITH SWORDS, HUNGARIAN WWI WAR MEDAL FOR COMBATANTS, BULGARIAN WWI WAR MEDAL FOR COMBATANTS. MINIATURE VERSIONS OF LAST 10 MOUNTED ON BAR, MEDAL RIBBONS OF LAST 10 MOUNTED ON BAR.

I also have the following documents : -

FRIEDRICH AUGUST CROSS 2ND CLASS CERTIFICATE, FRIEDRICH AUGUST CROSS 1ST CLASS CERTIFICATE IRON CROSS 2ND CLASS CERTIFICATE, FIELD LETTER CONFIRMING FOUR AWARDS, WWI COMBATANTS CROSS CERTIFICATE (1 issued in Shanghai and 1 issued in Vienna), LEGITIMATION CERT.

1931.

Eberhard was a captain in the 701st Field Artillery Abteilung. So far I have not done any proper research on him but he has an impressive array of metal !

Regards,

Paul

[Ed_Haynes]

Pretty!

Which clasp on the Turkish War Medal???

[Deruelle]

Beautiful group I like the CM2. But why there are swords on the ribbon bar and not on the medal bar ? If somoeone has got an answer

Christophe

[Guest Rick Research]

Please post the award documents for the German awards.

He is not on the wartime rolls for the Carl Eduard Medal, but that was a pre-war award without swords or date bar too. Also not on the Saxon Albert Order X rolls.

[Guest Rick Research]

Aha. His name was not Max, Simon, EBERHARD...

He was Max SIMON, changed after the war to Max SIMON-EBERHARD.

Albert Order Knight 2 X while still plain old Oberleutnant SIMON in Feldart Rgt 62 on 21.2.16.

The Honor Rank List confirms his last name change.

Leutnant 22.7.06 W, 5th Battery Feldart Rgt 62 in May 1914 with no awards.

Oberleutnant (would have been on 28.11.14 but seniority unknown to me)

Hauptmann 18.12.15 G8g--

which means the Saxon award was delayed for quite some months, and he was decorated for whatever it was BEFORE his December 1915 promotion.

Not on the Carl Eduard roll as Simon, either.

[Chip]

German archives list the Feldartillerie-Abteilung Nr.701 as being assigned to the Asienkorps in 1918. "The German Forces in the Field, April 1918" list it as being with the "Pascha II Formation".

Chip

Edited September 18, 2006 by Chip

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes indeed. "Pascha II' was formed with the foolhardy intention of retaking Baghdad-- with forces so minimal that could clearly never have happened.

The "Orient Rundschau" (magazine of the Bund der Asienk?mpfer) for 1 August 1934 states that Feldartillerie Abteilung 701-- the ONLY artillery in "Pascha II" was equipped with truck-drawn Feldkanonen 16 (2 batteries) and Feldhaubitz 16 (1 battery), with a theoretical strength of

Staff: 9 officers and 19 enlisted men, 11 Turkish other ranks attached

each battery: 6 officers, 103 enlisted men, and 7 Turkish other ranks attached

and a Minenwerfer Kompagnie with 4 officers, 83 soldiers, and 5 Turkish other ranks attached.

The Turks were handlers for the unit's pack mules.

That gave a PAPER strength of 25 German officers and 308 German enlisted men.

However the usual attrition of sick who never reached the front and casualties during the collapse of 1918 meant that when the unit was repatriated in March 1919 aboard the steamer "Lilly Rickmers,"

only 14 officers and 197 men returned to Germany alive/with the unit.

This from the 5 April 1919 "Angeh?rigen-Ausschuss der deutschen Truppen am Schwarzen Meer und in der Turkei" passed out as flyers on the streets of Berlin asking for any news of any units' whereabouts and safe return or internment.

[Chip]

Rick,

Thanks for the additional info. "The German Army in the Field, April 1918" also lists Feldartillerie-Abt. Nr. 702 and 702 in Pascha II, with question marks. Guess they were wrong about that.

Chip

[Paul L Murphy]

Rick,

Let me see if I still have photos of the documents. I have them scanned and embedded into a word document so unless I have kept the original scans (which is 50:50) I may need to e-mail you the document with the embedded images since I do not know how to extract them and resave as JPEGS.

This group has been on my "to do" list for ages but I never got around to it. What you have found out so far is fascinating.

Cheers,

Paul

[Daniel Murphy]

Paul,

I Found this on him. That is all it say about him, but here is the link as well.

Dan

1932 saw the establishment of the Deutsche Shanghai Zeitung, owned and edited by the former army captain Max Simon-Eberhard. The paper's performance was rather poor but there was an improvement when a professional journalist, Paul Huldermann, took over. In January 1936 the paper was reorganized and renamed Ostasiatischer Lloyd to profit from the reputation from the former newspaper.

http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla62/62-walh.htm

[Paul L Murphy]

Dan,

Many thanks

That explains what he was doing in Shanghai when he got the Combatant's Cross. I thought he might have been a military attache. A failing newspaper editor is far more interesting !

Regards,

Paul

[Paul L Murphy]

I knew I had them somewhere. OK, here are the documents to Simon-Eberhard.

First up his 2nd Class Friedrich August Cross. Appears to be granted in October 1916 for December 1914, or am I misinterpreting it ?

[Paul L Murphy]

Next up his Friedrich August Cross 1st Class. This appears to have been awarded in September 1916 for May 1915 ?? Rather strange that it was given to him before the 2nd class award ?

[Paul L Murphy]

Third up, his Iron Cross 2nd Class awarded in the field in February 1916.

[Paul L Murphy]

Next up, a rather crappy looking document confirming the following : -

Karl Eduard Medal on 31/7/1917

Iron Cross 1st Class on 3/5/1916

Hamburg Hanseatic Cross on 10/6/1917

Turkish Iron Half Moon on 27/8/1917

This document is to him in Feldartillerie Abteilung 701

[Paul L Murphy]

Jumping ahead, his Combatant's Cross certificate issued to him in Shanghai in 1935.

[Paul L Murphy]

January 1931 certificate for the Hungarian War Medal with swords.

[Paul L Murphy]

And finally a 1937 certificate for the Austrian War Medal with swords.

Apologies for not posting these earlier, I had forgotten where I had put the images.

[Guest Rick Research]

VERY interetsting indeed.

Oldenburg issued NO award documents for the Friedrich August Crosses at all, so what you have are regimental entitlements that got processed to authenticate the paperless awards. The delays mentioned are indeed between when bestowed and when the reimental attestation documents were drawn up.

His very late indeed EK2 is a mystery and must simply be ITS paperwork processing date and not when originally granted--also probably originally in 1914.

The quite strange "Certificate" of awards granted while in Pascha II's Feld Art Abtlg 701 is CLEARLY erroneous, mentioning an EK1 mere weeks after that strange EK2 ... in 1916... over a year before the unit even existed.

Simon(-Eberhard) is NOT on the Saxe-Coburg roll for the Carl Eduard Medal (not that that can be taken as 100% and there were certainly non-Roll awards made well into the 1920s) but there seems no reason whatsoever for him to have gotten one at that time or in that place.

I wonder very much if the undated "Certificate" was used by him to legitimate awards that... were otherwise "undocumented" nudge nudge wink wink. Would not be the first time that THAT happened. Hamburg's rolls are someplace in the city archives, so I suppose eventually if not dumped in the trash somebody will transcribe them all.

Now, as to his SPLENDID Shanghai Hindenburg Cross:

Consul "Kriebel" was Bavarian Oberstleutnant aD Hermann Kriebel (1876-1941), "military leader" of the amorphous confederation of "Kampfbund" members who

marched behind Hitler during the 8/9 November 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.

Kriebel was convicted and served time in Landsberg prison alongside his proto-F?hrer. In the famous photo of Hitler, Ludendorff et al standing on the steps of the courthouse, Kriebel is the pickle-pussed fellow wearing his old uniform and spike helmet next to Ludendorff, looking like twin "before" models for constipation medication.

Eventually Kriebel wandered into China as a military advisor to the Nationalists from 1929-33, and being "in situ" and an Old Comrade with a claim to compensation, was made General Consul in Shanghai in April 1934.

I am fairly certain, but can't find my notes, that he had moved along and was the Nazi Consul in San Francisco when WW2 started. Since he died in 1941, he may be BURIED in California.

[Paul L Murphy]

Very interesting indeed. I know the photo you are talking about and he certainly looks constipated ! I am sure I have a copy of it somewhere so I just need to dig it out.

If the EK2 paperwork was late, and the award itself predates Feb 1916 then the date of the EK1 may not actually be unusual. Could it be possible that this certificate was just "setting things to right" for medals that he had been legitimately awarded and they issued it in the name of his unit at the time of the certificate, rather than the time when he won the awards ? I presume Major Bisher was the unit commander ?

I have managed to find out from some Turkish internet sources that he was entitled to the Turkish decoration so the only one that is definitely "dodgy" according to the medal rolls at the moment is the Karl Eduard Medal.

Any ideas how Kriebel died ? From his photo I would imagine heart attack and high blood pressure !

[Josef Rietveld]

Pretty!

Which clasp on the Turkish War Medal???

Same question again,

Paul, can we get better pictures from the clasps on war medal and on ribbon bar?

regards

Haynau

[Paul L Murphy]

Let me see what I can do. The medals are not with me here in Moscow but I will see if I can rescale that part of the photo which I have in order to show it better.

[Stogieman]

Hi Paul, a rather splendid group. I can see exactly why this is one of your favorites!!

[Paul L Murphy]

Here is the best I can do on the details of the Turkish medal. Still not great I'm afraid.

[Guest Rick Research]

Too tiny and reflective for me-- other than appearing to be two DIFFERENT ones. Maybe Dave Danner can read them this way.