Uncategorised Most unusual award on a bar ?

[P.F.]

-Claudius: You are very welcome. This group is my favourite out of all the medal and ribbon bars I am lucky to own.

I have seen that 4-place medal bar before. With the exception of perhaps period photographs, it, and the bar I own, are the only two I have ever seen with the White Elephant Order. Perhaps more will appear in time.

-Chris: This is understandable. I, for one, look forward to seeing your new acquisition once it arrives.

Kind regards

Pierce

[Herr General]

This must be a very rare one:

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

are the two on the left dutch?

[Dave Danner]

Hi,

are the two on the left dutch?

Indeed. Military Order of William (Militaire Willems-Orde) and Expedition Cross (Expeditiekruis) with bar for Atjeh 1901-05. I would guess a Prussian reserve officer who was living in Sumatra during the Aceh War. Perhaps an active officer seconded to the Netherlands Army and then transferred to the reserves.

Another example of an unusual award, albeit for an Austrian: the later-General der Gebirgstruppe Franz Böhme was an Austrian Army observer with the Italian Army in Ethiopia. He received the Commemorative Medal for Operations in East Africa (Medaglia Commemorativa delle Operazioni in Africa Orientale) with swords. It is second-to-last on the Ordensspange in this photo: '>

Edited October 12, 2013 by Dave Danner

[Leutwein]

Should also be rare.

A nice decorated Southwestafrica-veteran. Unfortunately still unknown...

...At the end of his bar he is wearing:

Royal Victorian Medal

May be he will be indentifiable by the english and bavarian awards.

Best wishes

Karsten

[Leutwein]

Should also be not often seen on german medal bars:

Medal for Meritorious Deeds and Achievements (China) or Chinese Commemorative Medal (China) ???

Look here:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/58416-double-dragon-for-marine-generalarzt-dr-oskar-nenninger/

Best wishes

Karsten

[Leutwein]

Also very rare (at the end of the medal bar) :

African General Service Medal with the battle clasp: West Africa 1908

His name Feldwebel Schultze-Dewitz, who received his decorations for his actions in Cameroon.

Best wishes

Karsten

[Chris Boonzaier]

Also very rare (at the end of the medal bar) :

African General Service Medal with the battle clasp: West Africa 1908

His name Feldwebel Schultze-Dewitz, who received his decorations for his actions in Cameroon.

Best wishes

Karsten

There was a guy some years ago on Ebay selling a group to a german officer with the West Africa 1908 bar. Also his WW1 stuff. He was if i remember correctly a POW in Russia, escaped, had an article written about him.

I exchanged mails back and forth with him, trying to figure out a trade, but in the end someone else got it all. as a Boobie prize i got an extra EK1 from the group and a beer bug with EK deckle... Stupidly, stupidy, stupidy i lost the name of the guy :-(

[Leutwein]

There was a guy some years ago on Ebay selling a group to a german officer with the West Africa 1908 bar. Also his WW1 stuff. He was if i remember correctly a POW in Russia, escaped, had an article written about him.

I exchanged mails back and forth with him, trying to figure out a trade, but in the end someone else got it all. as a Boobie prize i got an extra EK1 from the group and a beer bug with EK deckle... Stupidly, stupidy, stupidy i lost the name of the guy :-(

Mhmm interesting.

In the DKB of 1911 (AKO 21st April 1911) are only two men listed who received the African General Service Medal with the battle clasp: West Africa 1908 The only officer who received the West Africa 1908 bar was Hptm. von Stephani but he died in 1936.

In the magazin: "Döbel, Bernd (2002): Eine britische Kriegsmedaille für deutsche und farbige Soldaten der Schutztruppe in Kamerun. In: BDOS Jahrbuch" you will find the info that also Vzfw. Buchholz received the African General Service Medal with the battle clasp: West Africa 1908 So there were in total only 3 awards to germans and one of them to an officer (Hptm. von Stephani).

In that case your man must be Hptm. von Stephani!! Do you have any pictures of that group??

Or do you mean the estate of Schultze (since 1954 Schultze-Dewitz and in WW2 his last rank was Oberst) ?? His estate was offered by Niemann some years ago.

Best wishes

Karsten

Edited October 15, 2013 by Leutwein

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi Karsten,

now that you say it, i am not sure... It is possible that it was another British award. For some reason i think it may have been somewhere in East Afrika, but also recieved one of the Africa medals with a special clasp somewhere between 1900 and 1910...

Is there a list of such officers? i.e. those who recieved british campaign awards?

[Leutwein]

Hi Karsten,

now that you say it, i am not sure... It is possible that it was another British award. For some reason i think it may have been somewhere in East Afrika, but also recieved one of the Africa medals with a special clasp somewhere between 1900 and 1910...

Is there a list of such officers? i.e. those who recieved british campaign awards?

Hello Chris,

as I understand the content of the Bernd´s article correctly, I would say that only three germans received the African General Service Medal. There were no awards for German-Eastafrica or other german colonies. I don´t know if there were awarded any other british campaign medals to germans...

....but I don´t think so (except China 1900/1901!).

Oblt. von Stephani was the only german officer who received that british award.

Best wishes

Karsten

Edited October 15, 2013 by Leutwein

[Chris Boonzaier]

I will see if I can dig up an old medals yearbook, maybe they mention awards to Germans as well...

[Chris Boonzaier]

OK, Finally..... my entry into the most unusual medals for service in the German Army..... These awarded for service in a Garde Regiment 14-18.

I suspect he had the EK2 as well as he suffered a major wound and this usually qualified.

[turtle]

Hmmmm .... did he move to France after the war or became a french citizen, because he maybe was from Alsac-Lorraine and then claimed / got his Croix du Combattant around 1930?????? Veeery strange and I´m keen on learning more about this!!!!!!!!!!

[Chris Boonzaier]

Any further suggestions as to how a German soldier may have had these?

[dante]

Served in the legion....captured 1916, re-joined German army 1917........

[Chris Boonzaier]

Here it is....

[Chris Boonzaier]

Metzger came from Alsace/Lorraine, was part of the German Army fighting in Belgium and on the Russian front, presumably wounded in September 1915 and nvalided out.

As such he would very, very likely have had an EK2 and Wound badge. As service in the German army was not the "fault" of the people who lived in Alsace/Lorraine, and as far as I know, they did not qualify (or were not allowed to apply/recieve) the Hindenburg Cross, the French awarded them their equivelent, the Combattants Cross, and in this case a wound medal.

Noticibly absent is a War service medal and victory medal, which a soldier serving in the French army would have recieved.

He probably had the EK2 and Wound badge in a drawer.....

[Dave Danner]

Georg Metzger was from Kirweiler, Zabern, now Kirrwiller in the département du Bas-Rhin.

He was severely wounded and appears in Prussian casualty list 367 of 30 October 1915 as a member of 12.Komp., 1.Garde-Reserve-Regiment. The Gefechtskalender of the 1.Garde-Inf.-Div. has the following: "17. bis 27. September - Verfolgungskämpfe in den litauischen Sümpfen". On 4 October 1915, the 1.Garde-Inf.-Div. was withdrawn from the line and put on trains for the Western Front, arriving on 15 October and going into OHL reserve. So if he did return to his regiment, he would have been fighting against French and Commonwealth troops from then on.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Dave,

you are a star, I quite some time looking for him on the wounded lists and drew a blank. I got it from a guy who lives about 10km away from Kirrwiller, so that fits.

His campaigns are listed as Belgium and Russia... and end there, so i guess the wound kept him out of the rest of the war.

Thanks a million,

Chrris

[turtle]

I should have read here first, before "guestimating" over here: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/60457-why-did-this-man/

Very interesting story by the way! Were those ex-german service men from Alsace/Lorraine eligible for the Hindenburg Cross, when Germany conquered France in 1940, just as the Austrians and Czechs in 1938??

Edited October 26, 2013 by turtle

[Chris Boonzaier]

A good question... I have no idea. If he was badly wounded enough to get invalided out, he would have had the EK2 and Wound badge... Maybe by even applying for the French awards he would have crossed some forbidden line in German eyes...

[IrishGunner]

A very interesting story and twist of fate.

[Kekoa Dettloff]

On 10/3/2013 at 00:50, Auseklis said:

Royal Order of Kamehameha I maybe? I think I've seen one in a Naval Rangliste around 1900.

Might be a little late for tastes, but I ran into this image a while back while researching on Captain Henry Berger of the Royal Hawaiian Band.

 

 

[Claudius]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 14:32, Kekoa Dettloff said:

Might be a little late for tastes, but I ran into this image a while back while researching on Captain Henry Berger of the Royal Hawaiian Band.

Hello Kekoa Dettloff;

Welcome to GMIC.  To answer your question, No it's not too late to add to this thread, or any other thread here.  Thank you for posting this unusual medal bar!

You mentioned you are researching Captain Henry Berger.  Is there a reason for your research?  A relative or you collected some of his possessions?  Just curious.  What can you tell us about him.  There may be some on this forum that have more information on him.