In navolging van Michel zijn koloniale kurzes Seitengewehr 98 leek het me gepast om nog eens een teken van leven te geven. Tenzij er grote bezwaren komen ga ik mijn caption van op flickr gebruiken. Vertaal-tijd is schaars en ik denk dat de foto's wel voor zich spreken.
I wanted to throw in a new collage for a while already, but I first wanted to proces the big batch. Up first is a new version of the Colonial Collage. I picked up some new items and this called for a new collage.
The topic of today are the German Colonies or Schützgebiete in Africa. I'm rather pleased with the result.
Met links naar de foto's: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paranoid_womb/7788364964/
On the right is a kS98 bayonet, typical for the Kaiserliche Schütztruppe. This example has pressed leather grips with a waffled pattern, the most commonly encountered variant. This iconic bayonet always comes with a sawback blade and the eagle headed pommel. I'm not so lucky to own an example with Colonial markings, but it does have a Colonial frog. These can be distinguished from normal ones as they have 8 rivets instead of 6. The back is also marked for Kolonial-Amt 1906. Recently I was lucky enough to add an all original NCO troddel which was used in the Colonies. These examples are extremely rare, this was the first I've ever seen for sale. It is in Reichs colours.
The card next to it is shows a drawing of an Askari trooper. These native soldiers served the German Empire. More about these men can be found in the link.
In between the scabbard and the hilt of the leather gripped kS98 is a postal seal used by the Kolonial Reichsamt, bearing the Imperial Eagle.
The small CDV at the bottom was made in Berlin around 1904, before a new group of Schütztruppe were sent to Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika to supress the Herero Rebellion. Do note the typical mounted equipment and the Südwester hat.
In the center is a large CDV with a similar scene. Both men are armed with a Seitengewehr 1898, not the kS98, which was issued at a later stage.
On the left is a wooden gripped kS98 dated 1913. These were only made as of 1913 and many were pressed into Colonial service. These types of grips were also more suitable for the tropical conditions compared to the leather ones. I found it with an absolutely mint Colonial frog, where you can still see the original brown color, rather than the one on the left which was dyed black. It is marked K.A. 1909.
On the crossguard is an intriguing marking P 299. This is not the first to be found with a Colonial frog and the current consensus is the attribution of this markings to Polizeitruppe Togo, one of the other German Colonies.
The portepee is a personal tentative attribution, it is a knot for a Colonial Officer, as shown by the red stripe in the center. It would fit better on a sword, but it will do for now.
Hier trouwens nog een linkje naar colonialuniforms van Chris Dale. Geweldige site voor koloniale info trouwens! De bajonet van Michel en de mijne staan er op, maar er is geen directe link naar die pagina jammer genoeg. Ga naar bajonetten en dan polizeitruppe.
http://www.germancolonialuniforms.co.uk/
