MvR belt auction

[Phil]

While I was looking through the MvR items that were up for auction, I realized something that makes me question the authenticity of the belt that was supposed to have been taken off of MvR. The AWM has, in it's collection, a belt that was taken off of MvR. You can view a picture of the belt and a discription of it on the AWM website. Type in richthofen on the search option and it will come up. Unless MvR would have been wearing two belts (one for his flight suit and one, part of his parachute harness) I question the authenticity of the auctioned one. Any opinions about this? Also, I was examining some of my resources on MvR. One of the fuselage crosses from 425/17 was sold to a private collector in the mid 1990s. The other is on display in Canada. It was donated by Roy Brown along with the seat of 425/17. According to Ferko's book "Richthofen" the AWM has one of the top wing insignias and one of the lower wing insignias. This leaves two crosses off of 425/17 unaccounted for (not including the rudder crosses that would not have red paint like the auctioned fabric piece). This narrows the field for the partial insignia that was up for auction. I wonder if someone smarter then me could use the measurements of the fabric piece to determine if it matches the size of an insignia off of the remaining unaccounted for top or bottom wing insignia. Or if there is documentation as to who took the other crosses from 425/17 when it was shot down.

Cheers,
Phil