Mess tin lid

[Schachbrett]

Item with the soul.
Cheers

[Takeo]

Hallo !

"La Croix De Lorraine" translates as the Cross of Lorraine. La Lorraine (Lothringen in German) is an area in France, next to Alsatia (l'Alsace). My ex-wife is the great-great granddaughter of the former Governor of Alsace-Lorraine when it was Prussian territory. The cross of Lorraine has been a widely-used symbol over the ages by various sides.

Mess tin lid: the motto "Qui s'y frotte, s'y pique" (He who touches it will sting himself") was the motto of the Belgian volunteer "Légion Wallonne" (Walloon Legion), led by Léon Degrelle, who fought on the Eastern Front with the Germans. Their symbol was the Lorraine cross.

Their Belgian Flemish counterpart was the "Legion Flandern". I am Flemish.

Tschuess.

Takeo.

[ironcross1]

Thanks Takeo , very interesting piece of history there , its an amesome lid im very proud of it , so much so that im at present im makeing a lead light window with the cross of lorraine in class for my bunker room , cheers mate Raymond

[Sass]

Hi Takeo!
Excellent explanation! Thanks!

[JPhilip]

Hello,
The Legion Wallonie symbol was not "la Croix de Lorraine", but "Les bâtons noueux de Bourgogne", a symbol made of two crossed knotty branchs.

[narwa44]

But this one was found in Estonia, probably this one belonged to one of the guys who was in the service in the SS- Flandern, no any French language are available in this area...

Hello,

A number of Frenchmen served in the Sturmbrigade Wallonien. And since a battle group (Kampfgruppe Ruelle) was engagend in the Dorpat area in august 1944, the probabilty that this item might have belonged to a (French) member of the foresaid battle group is to be taken into account.
Yours,
Eddy De Bruyne

(I don't think any Frenchmen would ever have served in the Flemish unit because of language difficulties)

[Dimas]

I think it's a more to Wallonien- there was a lot of French natives and mostly French speaking... Langemarck is flemish speaking Belgians, or?