Colonel J’s Articles

Women Regimental Chefs Joseph P. Robinson. These are the women who were Chef's of regiments. I think this is a pretty complete list from 1913. It was customary for select regiments to appoint an Honorary Chef.  Some regiments had hereditary chefs and others could be a...

Women in Uniform Joseph P. Robinson. I'm not so sure why this became an area of collecting but it is growing.  The Germans got into a large amount of propaganda obviously, but one of the "series" was Fräulein Feldgrau.  These were young pretty girls in feldgrau...

Student Societies Joseph Robinson 19 September 2006 We have all seen these pictures. Students with swords generally dismissed as some sort of university fraternity. The intent of this article is not academic, but merely to bring collectors some knowledge about what...

Military Service Joseph Robinson 19 September 2006 We have all seen these pictures. Students with swords generally dismissed as some sort of university fraternity. The intent of this article is not academic, but merely to bring collectors some knowledge about what...

Looking Deeper Into History Looking Deeper into History. Joseph P. Robinson. 20 August 2005. This is an incredibly famous picture. Students worldwide of World War I have gazed upon this picture to get a feel for the German assault in France and Belgium in 1914....

Life in a Garrison Town Joseph P. Robinson  10 Aug. 2004 This book written in 1902-3, was banned in Germany , and the author found himself the object of courts martial. .  The book was banned as it "libeled superior officers."  True, but was generally admitted to be...

How You Became an Officer Joeseph P. Robinson 26 May 2005 This article started out as a hunt for information on German imperial cadet helmets.  As one thread lead to another, I found that I had to learn more to figure out what I wanted.  It took a long time to have it...

NCO Helmets NCO Helmets There was no such thing. The old pearl rings for enlisted helmets are often called NCO helmets on eBay. Somebody somewhere got the idea that a Pearl ring that was not an officer must be an NCO. A common fable.   The problem lies with an...

M15 Steel Helmet Plates M15 Steel Wappen Joseph P. Robinson. In 1980 a collector named Lector Orrick started to put together a study on steel helmet plates.  This was published in the Journal Kaiserzeit, and this article expands upon that.  The question that we seek...

The Free State Artillery Pickelhaube MC Heunis---O.V.S.A.C. Study No.9 JUL-SEP 2004 Little Prussia in the Veldt Pickelhauben of the Orange Free State ORANJE VRIJSTAAT ARTILLERIE CORPS historical study and re-enactment group If you are interested in receiving any of...

Where Are the Enlisted Landwehr Crosses? Where Have All the Landwehr Crosses Gone? Joseph P. Robinson. 3 December 200 This might sound like a song from Peter, Paul and Mary but while I was working on Ersatz things, this kept bothering me. Why are landwehr crosses on...

Upgrading Kürassier Helmets Upgrading Kürassier Helmets Joseph P. Robinson. December 1, 2005 Collectors have struggled for quite some time with the upgrading of the steel Kürassier helmets. Only in the last several years has there been an understanding of one year...

Spiked Helmet Maker Marks Joeseph P. Robinson This concept came out of a list in the old Kaiserzeit Magazine. This current attempt has both pictures and more volume than the old listing. However, it is a work in progress. There is no telling how many errors are in...

Latin American Pickelhauben Any additional information about this matter, will be duly appreciated. My email is : ricardojarafranco at gmail.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfBnQWD9IIQ Ricardo Jara Franco August 18, 2011   CHILEAN SPIKE HELMETS Chile is probably...

Scroll Helmets Joe Robinson Several years ago a friend of mine named Martin asked a series of simple questions concerning a filz helmet he had bought that had a scroll Wappen on it.  My opinion flipped back and forth and I really do not think I did Martin any great...

Pickelhaube Fakes and Doctor Jobs Joseph P. Robinson 22 Nov. 2007 We have all seen our share of questionable items. But how can I be sure? This is a tough one that all collectors sweat over. The guys who collect medals have bunches of fakes they have found.  It makes...

 Parade Plumes Joseph P. Robinson. 15 November 2005. Not a great deal has been written about the individual plumes used on pickelhaube. Randy Trawnik, in his new volume "Spiked Helmets of Imperial Germany” devotes an entire chapter to parade plumes. This short article...

One Year Volunteer (OYV)  Joseph P Robinson June 24 2009 I have been tardy in rewriting this article. The original one was a bit confusing and I have learned more. We are only talking about 2 or 3% of the population. The vast bulk of citizenship did not have the...

Landsturm George Wylie and Joe Robinson 20 March 2009 There are lots and lots of confusing pictures about Landsturm.  This is easily traced to the fact that most people do not understand the Landsturm and that there was no real standardization.  With the exception of...

Landwehr Crosses the Basics Joseph P Robinson 2 December 2004 In response to a series of questions I thought I would jot these thoughts down. Janet was Air Guard and so we try to do mostly reserve helmets but fail. Step 1 is to understand that the proper title is...

Kammerstempel - Infantry Joseph P. Robinson.--much of the data in this listing was provided by Hartwig Busche. His manuscript on infantry is unparalleled. I have endeavored to give credit to the owners of photographs who have given me permission to publish them....

Meldereiter Joseph Robinson This article has its genesis in a helmet that came into the possession of Randy Trawnik. It came out of the estate sale in Arkansas and was sold on eBay. Glenn Jewison and Marshall Daut both shared information as we tried to determine what...

Hessian Shako Joeseph P. Robinson There are no answers that I know of in this monologue. So if you have an opinion or any other information please share it. This is just confusing and I thought I would share some of my confusion and try to explain it. Quick...

Helmet Stands Joseph P Robinson There are TONS of options to use as helmet stands. Antique spools are sold all over eBay.  Styrofoam heads abound but I think look poor. Coffee cans, candles and other homemade items can work and can be inexpensive.  The idea is two...

Helmet Covers - Uberzug Joe Robinson I have been tracking some information on Uberzugs for a while. There are many holes in this article and research. It is intended to be a continuation of the research in references. As was once said in a recent book by Trawnik, no...

Kürassier-Regiment Königin (Pommersches) Nr.2 Kürassier Regt Nr 2 Wappen Joe Robinson December, 2014. Our latest book is on the battle of Halen. In that engagement on 12 August 1914 four German cavalry regiments charged eight times into glory and disaster. It commonly...

Some Thoughts About Filz Joseph Robinson 26 May 2005 A few thoughts on filz.  This is not intended to be any kind of final word but rather a method of generating discussion on the topic. We always hear a lot of misconceptions about filz. The old one was...

The Relative Cost of a Pickelhaube Joseph Robinson Draft 2 25 April 2007 update Bowman in Volume 1 pg 345-348 talks about period values of pickelhauben but offers no sources. He states that Lieutenants made 120 Marks a month and that a helmet was...

Depot Marks Joseph Robinson and  Maxime Chaffotte 22 June 2007 --update Dec. 2014 (This is an international effort.  Maxime Chaffotte and I are trying this together.  We welcome your improvements!) We have seen all sorts of stamps and marks on the back visors of issue...

M91 CHINSTRAPS & SIDE POSTS Joseph Robinson, and Amy Bellars February 12, 2005. Introduced in 1891, the M91 chin strap is by far the most common chin strap on helmets. They're mostly associated with issue helmets, and leather chin straps. But officers and chin scales...

The Brunswick Running Horse Wappen. Joseph P. Robinson. 29 November 2005. The single most popular helmet is that of the first and second Battalion 92nd Infantry Regiment, prior to 1912. The acquisition of the Neumann catalog brought up a few points about the enamel...

The American Pickelhaube Joseph P. Robinson. 26 May 2005. In late 2004, a pickelhaube sold in a small auction house in New York.  This was an incredibly unique pickelhaube. Competition for the piece was fierce, and the final price was much higher than almost anyone...

German Tactical symbols 1914 Joseph P. Robinson This is a long-overdue very very short synopsis of the German Tactical Symbols used on maps at the very start of the war in 1914. These morphed over time however the general staff officers used these symbols for...

English-language overviews about the organization of the German Army tend to be extremely convoluted. It is helped by the fact emphasized by the renown author Holger Herwig that there really was no German Army prior to the end of the 1914 Western offensive. Rather,...