Mutterkreuz mother’s cross

In the early 2000s, I bought the beautiful, but anonymous, ribbon bar of a Saxon officer that is the subject of this article. In this feature, I will detail how I went about identifying the original o

How the Thule Society’s warped vision of supposed German Aryan heritage influenced the rise of National Socialism

On a frosty New Year’s Day in 1944, a young soldier from Newcastle married the love of his life with barely four hours to spare. My father, Corporal George Bell, a conscript with the Royal Electrical

Among the many remarkable aspects of Clara Schumann’s life was the fact that she gave birth to eight children – seven of whom lived to adulthood. Given she lived in the 19th century, it is astonishing

We ended last month looking at the soldier’s pocket books of the 19th century. Sadly very few of these documents survive. They are NOT included in any Army papers that have been stored over the years.

Three months after German forces captured Fort Douaumont in February 1916 (see issue 1 of Iron Cross) a calamity befell the occupiers, predominantly comprising troops from the Prussian Brandenburg reg