Gordon Williamson

On exercises. Just think of the current value of these M16/18 helmets with naval decals !!!!

With his recruit group, just before the oath taking ceremony.

Werner Starke joined the Kriegsmarine in October 1935 and like also sailors, went through basic infantry training in field grey.

Textbook piece , definitely a "keeper" ! Well done Darrell !

Info on them isn't that easy to come by. I've only found one really useful book so far "Orders and Medals of Japan and Associated States" by J W Peterson. There were three main Orders, the Rising Sun ( for general merit both military and civil), the Sacred Treasure ( also both military and civil, usually awarded as a long service type decoration) and the Golden Kite which was purely military. As far as I can see, awards were by rank. For example, the Golden Kite -Generals 1st Grade to 3rd Grade, Field Grade Officers ( Majors, Colonels etc) 2nd to 4th Grades, Junior Officers 3rd to 5th Grades, NCOs 4th to 6th Grades, and enlisted men 5th to 7th Grades. I only recently developed an interest but got hooked pretty quick for several reasons, first the quality is superb, second apart from some of the really high grade Japanese awards which went to royalty etc they aren't much faked so originals are easy to find and best of all they aren't too expensive though the really high grades can fetch in the thousands. Certainly cheaper than 3rd Reich pieces !

Reverse. Although it looks black in the scan, the centre is deep red enamel.

Obverse close up

6th Class

Not the clearest of mages but looks like a good "50".

Most are indeed smooth but some originals (i.e. L/13s) show some contouring to the edges of the wreath seen from the reverse.

There may well be genuine L/16 Spange out there, but personally I wouldn't touch one with the characteristics of those shown here.

Very interesting Jan Arne. It is different to the one Nick Morigi sells. On the one you show the area where the claws of the eagle would be on the reverse does not stick out as on Nick's.

Reverse

Friedrich Linden

At the nearby Marinemuseum at Wilhelmshaven, they have a "Seehund" mini-saub on display. During our visit they also have an original U-Boat Badge with Diamonds on display, along with the original owners award Knights Cross with Oakleaves and the documents for both.

Engine room

The interior is much more pleasant than on the Type VII and Type IX boats. Much more spacious, with a lot of wood panelling etc.

The periscope. At the periscope in this shot is Horst Bredow , director of the U-Boot Archiv who was with us during our visit. There is a taped sound effects track playing on board to give visitors a feel for the sounds on board a U-Boat in action. Highly amusing to hear a real veteran U-Boat officer like Horst telling us what a lot of cack the effects were. Visitors ended up listening in to him and ignoring the sound effects.

This is where the diving planes operators sat in the control room or "Zentral"

Another survivor worth a visit is U-2540, a Type XXI at Bremerhaven. She was raised after the war, commissioned as the "Wilhelm Bauer" with a remodelled conning tower. After she was taken out of service she was put back as near as possible to wartime spec and became a museum ship. A lot of the interior machinery however, is still the more modern postwar stuff. There are also quite a few original artefacts onboard ( KM visor caps etc).

The U-Boat Geschwader. Only 1 and 3 were ever issued. 2nd Geschwader is relatively scarce. Variants exist with or without dots after the numerals, and some with UBOOT or UBOOTS Geschwader

U-Boat Training Group. Two versions, one with UBOOT and one with UBOOTS

U-Boat Flotilla. Two versions, as one word and split.

U-Boat Training Centre and U-Boat Command. U-Boat Command was only used for a very short period and is very rare.

The only other named ribbons were the Techel and the Sch?hrer . Only five of this class were made but only two were named the others just numbered.