Chris Boonzaier Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Some of you may know one of my pet peeves are collectors going on about how the Iron Cross in WW1 was devalued for a bunch of reasons that IMHO are just dead wrong. One of them is the argument "Towards the end of the war there was a rush to give awards to men before the war ended... and the cross was further devalued by postwar awards, where anyone who felt he had been hard done by and overlooked could apply". I find this baseless, uninformed and generalising about something the deprecator seems to know nothing about. I was cataloging a bunch of stuff this evening and found this "cheap" post war award..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 "obviously a guy who thought he was hard done by and went looking for an award after the award... yada yada yada".... Here is "his war".... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Lumsden Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Methinketh he deserved his EK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 He was there basically from day one, at Verdun for the whole battle, took part in the Champagne battles in 1917, was there for the 1918 offensives.... and got nada.... until after the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Methinketh he deserved his EK. Methinkssoto ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dond Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Makes you wonder why he had not gotten it earlier....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Makes you wonder why he had not gotten it earlier....... He was in an ammunition column, small unit, rated as "very good" and no punishments... I guess they did not get large quotas of EK. Best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wolfe Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Hi Chris, I know this is a pet peeve of yours and rightly so. Everyone has their own opinion about the EK whether it was devalued or not and why or why is was not. You opinion is based on research over a long time so it holds a lot of weight. Other opinions seemed based on the attitude, "because I say so", as their qualifications of fact. Perhaps if the EK had been named the attitude would be different, in fact they would cost many times what they do now. You have just added more validity to your opinion, well done. Regards Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernhard H.Holst Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Hello Chris. Thanks for showing this. This man served the entire war on the Western Front including during the worst part of the Battle of Verdun. The munition transport, really all transport coming anywhere near the frontlines were arty targets and oftentimes with devastating results. The observation means re. balloon, airplane and other were more and more utilised with good effect. I dare say he deserved the cross. Bernhard H. Holst Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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