Turkey Help with Campaign/Battle Bars

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[Guest Rick Research]

Photo taken at the Officers Aspirants' Christmas party at Motor Transport unit in Berlin-Lankwitz. His rank then was Unteroffizier, which means he must have joined the army in 1915.

I like the way he ends with "Where am I?"

That is the classic and ubiquitous BB&Co Turkish War Medal star. What I can not QUITE see, because his ?1919 Litewka jacket portrait is focussed too softly (not your scans, the original photo) is whether that is what he is wearing in the photo. It looks as if there MIGHT be an UPRIGHT pin behind the top arm of the star in the photo, not the bizarre horizontal pin of the BB&Co type:

Who made these stars-- and when--and where-- is one of the Great Unsolved Mysteries for us "Turkish" collectors. All that can be said for certain is that about 90% of the ones found in German groups are made by BB&Co. WE desperately need a clear, unmistakable, and DATABLE portrait photo showing a BB&Co being worn DURING the war. I keep hoping for one!!!

Since you jogged my memory with the Goeben book, I have started a Goeben photos thread down in the other Imperial sub-section here. I just realized that I never posted photos from my Admiral's album when he was a Warrant Officer aboard that ship:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=18483&hl=

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It is a just an amazing album, I can spend hours over there. I have read somewhere that the Goeben/Breslau incident was a decisive event that contributted to Turkey?s entering the war on the Imperial German side.

Because the book came along with the lot, I thought Wilhelms was in Gallipoli, since some of the men aboard the Goeben and Breslau took part of the Dardenelles campaign.

I will add a few more things. It takes a while to add things up because I try to post only the best pictures I can take.

What is really exciting is that there is a faint possibility I can either get additional items or indirectly get more information about Wilhelms from his daughter.

I believe he was in Russia, sometime in 1917. How much travel an officer could do during the war?

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[Guest Rick Research]

Oh, allllllll over. I have a doctor's group-- he went from FINLAND to SYRIA in the summer of 1918!

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And back to TWMs, there is a second TWM in the group. Although the detail you highlighted surely looks like a vertical back pin, but because I am holding the pictures and both TWMs, I tend to believe the pictured TWM is indeed the BB&Co.

The second TWM is of higher quality, is very delicate, the medal body is marked with a 938 silver content, the pin is marked with a 800 silver content.

In this case I do hope to be able to help a little regarding the BB&Co mistery. I would think that the medal he used during the Turkish campaign was the BB&Co, it has a lot of wear, don?t know if combat wear, but a lot of wear comparing to the silver TWM.

Please look at the pictures, and please let me know if you can relate the silver one to a alreay described maker.

Could this be a plausible scenario; he wore the BB&Co during the war and custom ordered the silver one later during the 20s or 30s?

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