Say whaaaat?Yup. Posting this for Jason in Kangarooland, who just got it from That Other Ricky. I've held this puppy in my paws, and it is all done up neat and clean and no evidence whatsoever of ever being monkeyed with.
So---
how does a recipient of the Silver Military Merit Medal aka Bravery Medal end up... with a NONcombatant Hindenburg Cross?
If this was a hookback mounting, I'd just say wrong HC put on there. If the threads were sloppy and non-matching, I'd say somebody botched a repair.
But no.
Now, the ribbon for the MMMs and MMO was switched just before WW1 from original dark blue to this ribbon. COULD it be a colonial award (1897 era service...) for which the recipient never got in his application for the general service Colonial Medal? Or for one of the more obscure colonial campaigns, that never HAD a bar authorized for the 1912 medal? And the recipient just updated his ribbon?
In my view, no. Short-timers discharged after such colonial service got a Landwehr Decoration 2nd Class afterwards as an "immediate" award... and a M1825 would have been upgraded to a M1913 by the 1930s.
In my opinion, this is a peculiar award of the "Military Merit" Medal, possibly predating Wilhelmskreuz etc and made as a "what else can we give him?" award.
Orrr....
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