Dear Tore, we hope you come back very soon, gentleman!!!
Now, another bit of my collection. A while ago, I showed a few Colonial Medal Bars, that I have in my collection. I explained a bit more about the conflict and one my “Ordensspangen” in the Link below.
This picture complements pretty good my Colonial collection, but it doesn’t with the medal bar in the link and we will see below why.
Having a look at the picture, we see an NCO of the “Schutztruppen”, who were based in the German Colony of South West Africa. Starting with the grade and having a look at his collar and cuff, we can deduct, that he was an “Unteroffizier” with the “home” or Grey Uniform. As an example, I have just added a picture of an officer Uniform to see the colours, both of the uniform as well as the Cuff and Collars. As you can see, the last 2 are blue, this means, that this officer served in South West Africa.
It is important to point, that the uniform was the same for the other colonies, but it changed only in the Collar and Cuff. For example, in the German East Africa, the colour was white, while in Togo or Cameroon, they were red.
Another thing, that point us, that this “Unteroffizier” served in the German South West Africa is, that he was the “1907 Südwest-Afrika Denkmünze” or the commemorative medal of the fighting against the Herero, that took place in that colony between 1904 and 1908. To be awarded with this medal, this person should have been taking part in this conflict, between January 1904 and March 1907.
The other decoration, that he is wearing, is the Dienstauszeichnung 3.Klasse or Service Medal 3rd Class from the Kingdom of Prussia, which was awarded after 9 years of service. This is the “Old Model” prior to 1913. It is also important to remember, that the “war” years counted double to receive this medal. This is why, I said before, that this picture didn’t match with the Medal Bar in the link above, because the person in the picture served in the Prussian army and the one in the Link, in the Bavarian one.
A Nice and Clear Picture.
Sources:
Picture from the Bayerische Armeemuseum