Time to play "Am I real"?

[Stogieman]

Am I real? Why? Why Not? Have at it!

[Stogieman]

reverse:

[joe campbell]

a LLLOOONNNNNNGGGGGG time to be in military service...

this would have had to be a real old codger. i suppose not

impossible, but not too many folks who could span 50 years

in the military.

i'd like to see close-ups of the EK and the wiederholungspange.

joe

[Ulsterman]

maybe-no LS, but it did happen (if that is a 1914 award bar). I have magazines of vets wearing similar bars @ 1936! ("Unsere alte Komraden" articles) who served 1870 and again in 1914-IN uniform.

An older recalled Landwehr chap recalled in 1915 and given the EK might not have mounted his schnalle-or bothered to exchange it and remount it-but the award bar was easy to clip on. The battle bars are interesting too.

[Stogieman]

Hmmm... different fold style on the ribbons, different ribbon widths, Prussian Bar in the "South-German" style... ??

[Guest Rick Research]

Pumpkin orange Centenary ribbon. Lifelessly dull dingy battle bars. Replaced (if not worse) suspension ring on the ENLISTED ranks' General Decoration Medal. Blue backing.

I'd pass.

[Ulsterman]

Nobody picked up my battle bars comment huh?

[saschaw]

I'd pass.

Me too. I like neither the battle clasps on the 1870 medal nor the Iron Cross or it's 1914 bar. They come up very often on Ebay. The whole bar seems to be newly sewn, from these pictures.

[Tom Y]

Nobody picked up my battle bars comment huh?

Yup. An improbable if not impossible combination.

Gravelotte-St. Privat & Metz= III Armee

Mont Valerien=V Armee

Edited August 2, 2007 by Tom Y

[Daniel Cole]

It seems odd to me one would have the clasp on the EK for 1914, but no other WW1 awards. As a neophyte collector, I'd say no way.

[Ulsterman]

It seems odd to me one would have the clasp on the EK for 1914, but no other WW1 awards. As a neophyte collector, I'd say no way.

I think that was what Stogierick was driving at. However, such things did happen as the bar could be attached to an extant medal bar quickly and easily, whereas the award of a Prussian KVK would be worn in the button hole until the bar was remounted-sometimes never! However, absent the 1914 re-award bar, (and the "south German style" furled ribbons still don't match the era) but the bars' story says "rump-kicking NCO" who wore a schnalle. The dead giveaway is the bars.

There's a BDOs magazine that details who got what and where and helps identify bar fakes.

However, it is a fact that a few of these old vets served in WW1, which was what I was driving at. The vets magazine I possess seem to have dozens of articles on "old 1870s vets" who served either at home or sometimes- (yee gods!) on the front lines!

I'll post a picture of one such chap later. A few got the Prussian war merit cross (1916) and/or their home states' medal during the war!

I have a printed article somewhere of an old bearded Landwehr vet wearing the 1916 pot helmet and his 1870 bar-taken in 1918!

Edited August 3, 2007 by Ulsterman

[Ulsterman]

here's one officer, Lt d L Oberhauser of the 2 komp., 2 Bayer Landsturm inf. Batt.in 1915 at age 66 , the medal at his chest is the 1870.71 KDM. He went on to get the EK2 and the Prussian KvK and was still around in 1935 to get his HKx.

[ccj]

here's one officer, Lt d L Oberhauser of the 2 komp., 2 Bayer Landsturm inf. Batt.in 1915 at age 66 , the medal at his chest is the 1870.71 KDM. He went on to get the EK2 and the Prussian KvK and was still around in 1935 to get his HKx.

Well, if I'm not mistaken this bar is currently on ebay.