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Robert, I reached out to my favourite antipodean amateur historian who is the most knowledgeable person I know concerning the Australian military. It's his opinion that Richard Graves tales of rescue and his magic unit are exaggerations of the worst order. Which is probably why you can't find any viable authority mentioning it... or him. I quote: "A generation of Australian Boy Scouts grew up with Graves' Bushcraft books in the 70's. I was one of them. I haven't done it in a while but I reckon I can still whittle up a 'four pattern' snare trigger. When I was 14, Dad was posted to Canungra. Canungra was then the Jungle Training Centre and had been since WW2. By then I was a senior scout, called Venturers in Oz. Scouts were based at a place called Fogarty's Farm which was also the jungle survival school run in those days by Billy Bostock. Later Bill's role was taken up by Les Hidden's who became a bit of a TV star. That was well after my time by which the school had transferred to Tully in Far North Queensland. We learned a lot. I was taught Jungle Nav by Clem Ebner who'd been teaching it for decades. Even so, I got regularly lost (and still do) in the McPherson Ranges, with perfect maps, awesome compasses and a tally counter to measure paces. Billy Bostock taught us to make fish traps and spears. All based on indigenous skills and crafts. It was pretty much that experience that convinced me that Dick Graves was full of and had most likely never set foot in Triple Canopy Rainforest in his life. Pretty much nothing in his bushcraft books is relevant to Jungle. What I do know about Graves is that he was a WW1 Gallipoli Veteran. I know from the WW2 nominal roll that he was demobbed as a lieutenant in early 1945 from the 111th Tank Attack Regiment, a unit that never left Australia. A couple of things. A detachment of 60 to the USAF from the Australian Army is going to be commanded by a Major at the very least. You need a field grade officer to be responsible for Administration and Discipline. Goes double for when working with foreign forces. Graves is a bit light on in the rank department. Apart from Graves' forward to his bushcraft books I've never seen any other reference to a 'jungle rescue' unit. Which is not to say that USAF airmen were not occasionally rescued by Australians. Technically they were not 'rescued' by Australians, they were rescued by locals and the Australians facilitated their extraction because they had radios. This was done in the Pacific by Coastwatcher's and in PNG by ANGAU. Peter Ryan's "Fear Guide my Feet" is the seminal ANGAU work. Even then, before the advent of helicopters, extraction was difficult. In the Pacific it could be done by Catalina in New Guinea by Flying Boat if a big enough River was handy. The prospect of walking out by ill equipped and possibly injured aircrew was and is still a non-starter. See here. By WW2 the Australian Army had determined that the key to Jungle Survival was harnessing local indigenous knowledge. Graves knew nothing of this." -
I agree... the Iron Crown ribbon should have NO SWORDS for this German guy. The crossed-swords device on the ribbon of an Iron Crown represents a special "Bravery" award of a second Iron Crown to somebody who already had the Iron Crown from peacetime or from civil service! An Iron Crown device surrounded by a green enameled laurel wreath on a ribbon bar represents an Iron Crown Knight's Cross 2nd Class. Hardly any German officers received this award! An Iron Crown Knight's Cross 3rd Class is the award almost all German officers received. It is represented by NOTHING AT ALL on the ribbon bar ribbon! It was just a plain Iron Crown ribbon with NO DEVICE. This is why I believe the 6th award id NOT the Austrian Iron Crown. In a little bit I will comment about the inaccuracy of the statement about the Golden Merit Cross with Crown. In the meantime... what is your concept of how the Austrian Goldenes Verdienstkreuz mit der Krone am Tapferkeits-Band mit Schwertern am Band should be represented on a ribbon bar? I think you are confusing the GOLDEN Merit Cross with Crown with the SILVER Merit Cross with Crown and that is a huge mistake on your part. -
By Utgardloki · Posted
Sehr interessant, also ähnlich wie beim Schwarzen Adlerorden und dem Roten Adlerorden, gabs das noch bei anderen Kombinationen? Very interesting, so similar to the Black Eagle, Red Eagle Order, does this also exist with other combinations (other German states or also at non German order systems)? -
By Nicolas7507 · Posted
Thank you very much for the clarifications and for checking your sources, Daniel. In this case the Austrian Merit Cross can be ruled out, I guess. Regarding the Iron Crown, I just don't know, what else this ribbon could be... I don't really have a bad feeling with this bar, though. Best, Nicolas -
By Daniel Krause · Posted
To clear some things up here... We can NOT rely on the device of the Austrian bravery ribbon here. Swords and crown make no sense on a German bar. As well it does not fit to have silver swords on that mystern yellow ribbon. An Austrian Iron Crown should have a green laurel leave to show the war decoration, no silver swords....which would be halfway correct for a Swedish Sword knight 2nd class. Austrian awards to Germans were only with war decoration, NEVER with swords. The swords devices were Austrian only. If there are swords devices on german bars, it was "self-awarded" non regular devices. The Austrian merit cross in gold was awarded to people below Officer rank. Paymasters, senior NCOs and that kind of Officials. The basic decoration for a German Officer wss the Military Merit Cross, followed by an Iron Crown or in rare cases a Leopold. Franz Josefs were usually awarded to Doctors and Officials, only in rare cases to normal Officers. Will check my sources and see if I can come out with some suspects. Best, Daniel
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