Max Simon Eberhard, one of my favourite groups

[Gerd Becker]

I have blown the picture up a little. Maybe its visible now.

Paul, absolutely fantastic group And as a former Imperial Mini Collector i really like the unusual Mini-group.

Gerd

[Guest Rick Research]

Ahhh.... beeger and blurrrrrrrrier, but

On the ribbon bar is "Suez" which Simon-Eberhard would not actually have been entitled to, since that crsossing of the canal into Egypt occurred 1915-16 before "Pascha II" existed. Probably a case of nobody could read the squiggles, anyway!

Here are the ones I have: two "Suez" bars on the top ribbon bar, then a "Black Sea" and a "Palestine"--

[attachmentid=54794]

The later head of POW camps in Norway during WW2 actually WAS entitled to the Suez bars he wore on both his TWM and "close enough" Liakat medal with sabers bar ribbon.

[Dave Danner]

Ahhh.... beeger and blurrrrrrrrier, but

On the ribbon bar is "Suez" which Simon-Eberhard would not actually have been entitled to, since that crsossing of the canal into Egypt occurred 1915-16 before "Pascha II" existed. Probably a case of nobody could read the squiggles, anyway!

Here are the ones I have: two "Suez" bars on the top ribbon bar, then a "Black Sea" and a "Palestine"--

Just to be technical/anal, it doesn't say "Suez"; it says "Qanal". Also, I'm weak on the actual history, but I don't think more than a platoon or so managed to actually cross the Canal. Most of the fighting was in the Sinai.

I can't make out the other bar; it might be a stretched out variant of "Qanal".

[Ed_Haynes]

Thanks, Dave, you beat me to it. "Qanal" for sure, though two very different variations. That threw me, as I always forget how bizarre these could get in the hands of German tinkerers who had no clue what the words meant. I can dig out some campaign details, as I have several groups to the guys on the west bank (obviously lots of Indian Army there).

[Guest Rick Research]

Yass but I was translating.

Actually there were TWO crossings of the Suez Canal, in force (ragtags and bobtail ends though the composite unit assemblages were)... though they did not LINGER. That wasn't the point. Causing panic and attempting to induce the Brits to sidetrack a permanent garrisoning force there was.

Though that didn't work out.

Good idea, though.

(And better than the legendary Rommel ever did, too. )

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=11391

[Paul L Murphy]

Are there any decent English sources for information on these particular German activities (campaigns is probably too grand a word for them) ?

[Guest Rick Research]

No.

The Bund der Asienk?mpfer (1920-38) published voluminous articles over the years often on "micro-unts" that were literally platoon level. UNFORTUNATELY they are on newspaper "quality" paper. I have a flyer/diplomat's bound set, but these are too fragile to open and scan-- the pages would disintegrate. Occasionally a semi-complete run bound run turns up on German book lists, running around ?700 the last one I saw.

The BdAK also published hard-bound annuals for at least SOME time in the later 1920s if not into the 1930s, containing articles-- but I have never seen one of those. I have ONE on microfilm from an ancient veteran which I have never been able to read since I do not have a microfilm viewer!

Most of the German units in the Turkish theater were simply too small to have ever come out with a regimental history. Besides the 146th Infantry Regiment, Reserve J?ger Battalion 11, and (up in the Caucasus) Bavarian Reserve J?ger Battalion 1-aka-J?ger Regiment 29-aka Bavarian J?ger Rgeiment 15 (with sub units Reserve J?ger Battalions 7 and 9-- the latter of which, at least, did put out a WW1 history) the German Middle East forces were a ragtag and bobtail of grandiously named "Battalions' that were companies, and "Regiments" that were undersized battalions.

The memoirs I have seen (Liman von Sanders being a prime example) are generally of top people far removed from the front, more concerned with CTA "legacy" complaning about how nothing was their fault than any use as operational accounts.

The single best Order of Battle and general campaign overview that I have ever read is

Carl M?hlmann's 1940 "Das Deutsch-T?rkische Waffenb?ndnis im Weltkrieg"(Verlag Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig).

That may well be the single best, most useful, and valuable German account. M?hlmann gets into everything from grand strategy to weather conditions during battles to where individual desert well drilling platoons were stationed at what times. God knows how he got it published in the Third Reich during wartime-- it is a timeless classic of scholarship and intensely researched detail.

But in English? Current? Recent?

Nuppers.

[Paul L Murphy]

Somehow when I was writing the question I had a sneaky feeling as to what would be the answer.

Oh well, I guess I shall have to continue in blissful (partial) ignorance for a while longer.