German Imperial Militaria

Borrowed from a friend, who authorized me to share this with you. Yes it's the Kaiser's signature!

 

Absolutely beautiful. That's a great bold signature.

 

I was absolutely amazed when I saw it, and even more when my friend lent it to me so that I could get a scan and a copy of it . Glad yo ulike it. Apparently he signed those for wounded soldiers . The picture is dated 1914 on the back.

 

Definately a great one to own--and an earlywar signature to boot.

 

I scanned it at 600dp so that it could be printed out, enlarged and framed. Feel free to do so , we have permission from my friend.

 

I got invited by a buddy, yesterday, he said he had a German canteen for me. At first glance it looked WWII , but it was slightly bigger. no wonder: it appeared to be 1916 made and therefore from the Imerial times of WWI.

 

Another fine addition to your collection. I've always wanted one from WWI as well.

 

the text is a bit hard to read when enlarged: it says Gbr. (Gebrüder) J.S. RAEL 1916.
I will have more soon I'm currently scanning a picture of a Prusssian memorial from 1870 in Alsace Lorraine and other pics too

 

I got this fine card today. It is a pre WWI Imperial postcard from Gravelotte Lorraine , when this place belonged to Germany. It is a monument that was dedicated to the 1870 war and the fallen of the Schleswig-Holstein 9th Artillery at the Battle of Champenois. It makes me curious. I wonder what's left of this monument in 2008?

 

More here from wikipedia:
Battle of Gravelotte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The casualties were horrible, especially for the attacking Prussian forces. German casualties were 20,163 troops were killed, wounded or missing in action during the August 18 battle. The French losses were 7,855 killed and wounded along with 4,420 prisoners of war (half of these were wounded), for 12,275. While most of the Prussians fell under the French Chassepot rifles, most French fell under the Prussian Krupp shells. In a breakdown of the casualties, Frossard's II Corps of the Army of the Rhine suffered 621 casualties while inflicting 4,300 casualties on the Prussian First Army under Steinmetz before the Pointe du Jour. Losses of the Prussian Guard Corps were even more staggering, with 8,000 casualties out of 18,000 men. The Guard Jäger Battalion lost 19 officers, a surgeon and 431 men out of 700. The 2nd Guard Infantry Brigade lost 39 officers and 1,076 men. The 3rd Guard Infantry Brigade lost 36 officers and 1,060 men. On the French side, the units holding St. Privat lost more than half their number in the village.
Still, the battle was a German victory in that it succeeded in blocking Bazaine's way to Verdun. In short time the Prussians trapped Bazaine in the city and the siege of Metz ensued.

 

If this monument is still there, I would almost bet that the Iron Cross and the Adler-are probably stolen having been taken by some collector. :-(

 

I know there is a new monument for all German casualties, but I doubt this old Imperial one still exists. I would guess it was removed in 1919.

 

A relic from Verdun! This M-1916 helmet with scharpnel damage was found their many years ago.

 

Hello Skipper and Carl,

thanks to the two of you for keeping the thread on page one . I was a bit on tour till now, but I hope that I can make up for it.

BTW Skipper, the marking(printing) on the fieldbottle says to my interpretation Gbr. (Gebrueder) JSRAEL - since I can't see any dot. between the J and S. It is very likely that it was from a German - Jewish company using the Familyname ISRAEL - since RAEL IMO wouldn't be a German name at all.

Below is a scan of one of my most liked medal clips from Bavaria.

View attachment 4973

View attachment 4974

Regards
Kruska

 

Hi Kruska, good to have you back and thank you for the information about the canteen. You have some nice Bavarian medals there!

 

Hi K/ glad to see you back ;-)) Also, believe it or not-about two years ago, I also had two Bavarian Medal Bars-a 4 place and a 3-place bar. The 4-place had the exact same awards as yours does. I traded both medal bars to a friend who in turn made a trade w/ jamie cross.

Anyway, I got in return trade, a preliminary award doc along with two of his awards) that were to an NCO in the third Marine Infantry Regiment-dated 1917-for the Iron Cross 2nd-and both Ek 1-2 are made by the Kings own Medals Maker--K.O.

PS, hopefully soon, you will get those Grand Duchy boards and Franz-Friedrich Cross 2nd cl. that I mailed out to you ab out 10 days ago.

Skipper, nice helmet ;-))

 

Cheers, I still can't believe I have a true Verdun relic at home.

 

Found in a shoe box at the local flee market Yesterday:

A 1915 French POW picture post card from the Göttingen Stalag with original imperial markings.

 

Nice items Skipper, that soldier's looking quite proud! I love the imperial eagle stamp too.

I completed my set of Honor/Merit Crosses today and have all three now (even though they were made in the 30's, they are kinda imperial):

 

and great looking too! Thank you for posting these. I still need the two better ones