Gordon Williamson

Tim,

I don't want to breach Patzwall's copyright but if you PM me your e.mail address I'll send you some images.

Has anyone read the latest edition of Patzwall's "Militaria" magazine which has an article on PLMs by Peter Sauerwald including one which is said to be a 1930's Wagner made piece which belonged to General der Infanterie Magnus von Eberhardt (died 1939).

(It is also identical to the piece in the U-Bootarchiv donated by the family of Otto Hersing.)

Both being very much like the "57" type by Steinhauer & L?ck poses the question, if Sauerwald is correct in his assertion, did S&L get hold of Wagner's 1930s tooling after WW2 and use it to make their "57" pieces ??

Wonderful !!

Congratulations Michel. Superb tunic !

And also another Bordjacke ?

You find so many of these, I can't even find one

David,

I fear that this is one of the more recent better quality copies. These are being sold by EGFrames in the UK. If you have a look on their website and compare the exactly profile shape on the reverse shot, it seems to match yours, albeit the hinge block on theirs seems slightly larger than yours. The retaining clip matches too.

http://www.egframes.co.uk/german05b.htm#tr05large

I think such EK related ephemera is fascinating and worthy of a study in its own right. It just shows how much the Iron Cross permeated every corner of German culture.

We are going to cover such ephemera in our Imperial Iron Cross book project and with your permission Greg, I'd like to include this super little piece.

I think it relates to the Vikings as "Raiders" which they often were, (as opposed to Armies which would permanently occupy) being analogous to the Auxiliary Cruisers serving effectively as Commerce Raiders which would "hit and run".

Good choice and one which would look better than the real thing ( i.e. the Destroyer badge shows a Destroyer, E-Boat badge an E-Boat etc - effectively to be truly realistic the Aux Cruiser badge would show a Merchant ship as all Aux Cruisers were converted merchantmen.)

Crew of U-511

Absolutely superb photo. My two favourite naval subjects in one photo, IJN and KM U-Boats. Great to see the Submarine School Graduation Badge being worn

I agree with Don, certainly looks like a "G"

I wonder why Vogler wasn't wearing his hat when his boat went down.

Very few officers ( and very few senior NCOs) had only one cap.

Cheers Darrell,

Is it true that the lappland was never officially sanctioned as a 1957 but a company making the shields ( i presume it was S & L ) made this anyway ?

Grant, I believe you are correct.

Unfortunately the manufacturers of "57" awards were a bit over enthusiastic in what they produced, even including "57" awards which never existed in wartime ( i.e. the U-Boot Frontspange in Gold etc)

Hi Grant,

Yes these are generic cases. I've seen several different 57 badges come in these, always with the large size stickpin miniature.

Cased Balloon Observer

Narvik

Demjansk

Cholm

Krim

Kuban

Close Combat Clasp

General Assault "50"

Flak

Another example of "57" manufacturers producing a 57 version of a badge never awarded. A "200" Bronze.

Silver Panzer 100. Note the use of the Luftwaffe style badge but without Luft eagle.

Numbered Silver Panzer