Turkey Award Documents for the Turkish War Medal Star

[Guest Rick Research]

Despite being the HUGE Ottoman scroll type, this was issued to Leutnant dR Hans Behncke, a Mecklenburg cavalry officer serving as Orderly Officer (Ordonnanzoffizier) on the staff of the 1st Marine Division in

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BELGIUM!!!!

[Guest Rick Research]

Unfortunately there does not seem to be a DATE on this anywhere. Behncke was in Flanders for the entire war. Upper left obverse numbers appear to be file numbers, not a date. Note that on the reverse a GERMAN typed his name in spelled wrong. More filled in in the reverse box, but defying translation in the old Arabic script:

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[Guest Rick Research]

A typical German issued example, with the "Iron Half Moon" (sic!!!) designation--

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Gefreiter Max G?schel was the platoon mechanic of Flakzug 136, the most successful German anti-aircraft unit on the Palestine front. This was for forcing down a British seaplanne, whose crew was captured. Signed by Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, leader of the trans-Suez raids-- and the man who stopped Adolf Hitler in Munich on the night of the 8/9 November 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.

[Guest Rick Research]

A bit more unusual-- a TURKISH issued piece to a German-- Lieutenant Colonel Ali (?) of 11th Army (? Corps?) gave this to Gefreiter Gustav "Azent" (could be something like "Hagen" or Lord knows what), born in Augustendorf, Lippe 1889, and a Gefreiter in Feldlazarett 219 (Nablus/Djenin) 22.12.17:

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The chief surgeon of FL 219 was Stabsarzt Dr. Naubenreisser. This was a hospital unit attached to the Asienkorps.

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[Guest Rick Research]

This lowliest of Ottoman awards was almost unattainable for an ordinary Turkish soldier, yet they were passed out like campaign medals by German officers, who were authorized to bestow it on their own authority down to platoon level.

A SUSPICIOUSLY large number bear the "date of convenience" 30 October 1918 (Turkish Armistice) and I have always suspecdted these were actually often backdated in internment camps waiting to be repatriated home. Note the suspicious date this one was actually filled out.

Assistenzarzt Dr. Max Bachem had been in FINLAND in July 1918, yet there he was on local Armistice Day as the medical officer of Army Signals Section (Aferna) 1701 with the Asienkorps:

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This was a radio unit, and of some actual importance during the collapse, so perhaps he really did EARN this. (A prickly character, divorced, religiously unorthodox, he had served in SIXTEEN units during the war and never received a GERMAN award after an EK2 in... 1914 !!!... for being wounded.)

[Ed_Haynes]

Fascinating stuff!

What is the size of that first lovely Turkish document you posted?

[Guest Rick Research]

The scroll is 9 inches wide and 17 1/4 inches long!

I wish I had had a scanner, back when I thinned things down. HAD a very nice German document to a senior NCO in a Blinkerzug caught in the September collpase in Syria that was "real"-- there were incredible casualties (almost all being simply vanished and forever Missing In Action).

So post away any other TWM documents out there. Anything from BEFORE 30 October 1918 I'd say was actually for something and not a war's over present.

Evil Ricky had a scroll TO THE VERY GUY in "Lawrence of Aarbia" who flies over the Arab camp half an hour in and shoots the place up (and later became an SA Gruppenf?hrer, oddly enough), which I have in my made by me and saved scans, but that's been sold to some person unknown to me, so he can post scans if he thinks that's OK.

[Dave Danner]

"Ass Arzt Bachem" - there's a joke in there, but it's just too easy and too juvenile.

The numbers on the upper corner of your first doc appear to be 8287, whatever that signifies. The name is misspelled in the Osmanlica side, as well, without the "h", though a silent "h" wouldn't be spelled in Arabic script anyway.

[Dave Danner]

Also, we went over this in a similar WAF thread a few years back, but as a reminder, the box here is for unit information on the recipient. From right to left:

ordusu - [his] army

kolordusu - [his] corps

fırkası - [his] division

alayı - [his] regiment

taburu - [his] battalion

b?l?ğ? - [his] company

The "[his]" part is because each of these words carries a grammatical ending indicating possession, as well as, where necessary, a buffer letter.

Turkish grammar is fairly complex, but also fairly logical. The possessive ending for "his", "her" or "its" is -i, -ı, -u or -?. The letter you use depends on the vowels in the word you're adding the ending to, in order to create vowel harmony. This gives spoken Turkish a musical quality. If the word ends in a vowel, like ordu "army" (source of the English word "horde"), the buffer letter "s" is added. We'll leave b?l?k for Lesson II, if anyone's interested.

[John Burchell]

Here is mine. Same size as the one shown by Rick and, based upon the box in which it was mailed home (postmarked 21.12.17), must date from 1917 or earlier. As far as I understand, it was awarded to August Schempp from Lahr in Germany who was at the time with maintenance crew 057 of the Danube Artillery. This link provides all that I was able to learn, with the help of others:

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/sho...+War+Medal+1915

Here are some pictures. Any comments or feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks, John

[Chris Boonzaier]

Mine, the guy also got a EK1 while in the region,,,

[Guest Rick Research]

Ahhhhh. That is as "real" as these get! Infantry Regiment 146 had a BAD end of the war, as that front collapsed.

George Seymour had the regimental CO's medal bar, which I believe has already cycled through Thies and into the void. Major Frithjof Freiherr von Hammerstein-Gesmold had his Pour le Merite approved on 1 November 1918.

[Stogieman]

OK, Remember the scene in "Lawrence of Arabia".... where the German plane roars up over the dunes and blasts the dates out the Brit/Arab encampment?

Here's the document to one of the two guys who actually pulled off that raid....

[Stogieman]

Details: His Name

[Stogieman]

details: The actual citation. As an aside, in addition to a TWM, he was bumped two (2) full grades from Unteroffizier to Vice-Feldwebel. "wegen Tapferkeit vor dem Feinde" an almost unheard of action in the Imperial German Army. Later, Vielstich would end up an S/A Major-General..... naughty, naughty nazi.

[Stogieman]

And the reverse of the document:

[Paul R]

Rick,

This is the most AWESOME thing I have seen in a while. WOW

[Chip]

And here's my little contribution, previously posted in another thread.

Chip

[Theodor]

Just great, Gentlemen, just great!!!

Edited November 8, 2006 by Theodor