New group

[Buster]

I got this nice little  collection today, as can be seen it consistes   of the France/Germany star, 39/45 star, & the war and defence medals ,it  also has all ribbons , most still packaged and there are 2 ribbon bars still with the plastic covering. As can be seen the soldiers dog tags  also came with the collection . I also managed to get his cap badge from the same seller.

I traced his son and he kindly gave me some background  on his fathers service.
   He told me that  his father  ( Wiliam Paul  Beechman ) was in the royal armoured corp  as a volunteer  and was part of a unit sent to to help/ relieve British paras at Arnheim Bridge, but his  tank was hit  and  he  unfortunately had shrapnel  and a bullet wound ,  they managed to escape & ended up in a French farmhouse being tended by the farmers  family. They where luckily picked up by  the british a short time after . He was then sent home and recuperate in Glasgow of all places.

[Fritz]

The items are in really crisp condition, the Armoured Corps badge is very rarely seen. A nice piece of history, perhaps you can research more about this? Curious are the plastic covering to the ribbon bars. I have a set like this on an RAF aircraftmans tunic dating from 1944, this was probably early postwar years and I remember seeing these being worn occasionally in the late 50s - early 60s. Sometimes the ribbons underneath were only paper!

[Buster]

Yes Fritz, it is plastic coverings but real ribbon underneath, the full set has never been in a collection & ad can be seen the recipients  never  wore them ! In fact his son said his father had showed  them to him as a child, they where kept in a box in a wardrobe, when the father passed away a relative cleared the house & everything sold as a lot.

 

I did a little digging into the recipient to try and find a little more on his service, this is a list published in the London Gazete March 1947, look who i found, and where he came from originally.,  the full list was people from all over Europe

Turkey,Yugoslavia, Hungary, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and more ! Very interesting indeed !

 

[Fritz]

That was very often the case with medals, put in a drawer somewhere, shown once in a lifetime and never worn, and of course never mounted as a group.
It's always nice to see them mounted, even if they were only worn once. It was more common after WW1 to see veterans wearing their medals for certain
occasions, than after WW2, it just wasn't done anymore, apart from a tiny minority or some sort of celebrity.
As with the former German nationality of the recipient, this was not so unusual. After WW1 a large number of people emigrated from Germany, and even more after 1933, even those, who had served in WW1, either to England or USA, and to many other countries. It is estimated that around 50-70 percent of all US soldiers in WW2 were of German origin, and spoke German to a certain degree. They often served as translators, but also as interrogaters and also in the postwar denazification and re-education, and in the production of propaganda and surrender leaflets dropped on German positions during the war. Also a large number of German communists emigrated to Russia before the war, and
served against their own country. They also infiltrated the German lines causing sabotage and confusion, along with prisoners of war, who had either been forced or persuaded. These were known as "Seydlitz Deutsche", after the General in captivity, who proclaimed the NKFD - Nationalkommittee Freies Deutschland. Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Pieck , Marcus Wolff and many other later DDR prominence had left Germany and settled in Moscow.
Germany's worst enemies have always been the enemy within, who were also the most dangerous, ruthless and revengist, unfortunately, we still have a lot of these people today, as can be observed in daily politics, even more, when they have government posts and "responsiblity".

At least two WW1 books have been written by such persons:

Surgeon with the Kaisers Army - by Stephen Kurt Westmann
With the German Guns - by Herbert Sulzbach

which I read many years ago, latter title was published around 1973, very recommendable. Both of these men had served in WW1 in the German Army, and in WW2 with the British Army - I think in both cases, mainly interrogation and "re-education" of prisoners of war, latter was of Jewish extraction

[Buster]

Thanks for the very interesting information Fritz , great to see his original nationality & name, makes the group even more appealing to me .  I don't think I will be parting with this lot. I was amazed at the amount of people who are on that list, & that's a fraction of them , but i suppose post ww1 germany wasn't the most stable place to be

[leon21]

A very nice group Buster, he could have been part of the Guards Armoured  Division part of General Horrocks

XXX Corps, 2 Army, who were the leading Armoured Tank Division.

Photo below of Guards tanks crossing Nijmegen bridge during it's capture.

 

 

 

[Buster]

17 hours ago, leon21 said:

A very nice group Buster, he could have been part of the Guards Armoured  Division part of General Horrocks

XXX Corps, 2 Army, who were the leading Armoured Tank Division.

Photo below of Guards tanks crossing Nijmegen bridge during it's capture.

 

 

 

Thanks Leon,  he very well could have been, in fact the dealer I got the set from was selling a royal Gloucestershire hussars cap badge that also belonged to the recipient!  

[Buster]

[Fritz]

With Guelphic Crown, late Victorian Era?

[Buster]

To tell the truth, I wouldn't  have noticed  that detail!  I am tempted to buy it just to keep the collection together.

[Fritz]

Compare this crown to the crown of the RAC badge you posted, which is the King's crown, 1902 - 1952

[leon21]

The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars were converted to the 21st Armoured Car Company, Tank Corps

in 1921, it was transferred to the RAC at  regimental strength and duplicated in 1939.

the earlier design of the badge was used during WW2, the pre 1908 was identical except for the letter

I and Y which were between the portcullis and scroll.

The 6th Battalion of the Regiment was formed into the 44th Royal Tank Regiment of the 4th Armoured

Brigade it's self part of the R.A.C. on the 3rd of Sept 1939 when war was declared.

They saw action in North Africa, Italy, and Normandy, on 17th Sept 1944 it came under the command of

the US 101st Airborne Division as part of Operation Market Garden who took part in the capture of the

Nijmegen bridge.

Here is a photo of a Sherman DD tank of the 44th Royal Tank Regiment nicknamed the Donald Duck tank.

[Buster]

That fantastic leon  great information and cracking  photo,  i have decided to buy the badge , its just a pity the group has been split to sell ! Just  Wish i had spotted it before i ordered , would have saved on postage