Gordon Williamson

Interior

This one looks more akin to some of the Imperial EK2 boxes, with button down press stud catch on a flap at the front

The most interesting part is the stickers on the base !!!

The Cross itself is unmarked

Little fabric retaining strap for the lid is nice.

Another, rather plain from the outside.

Close up of the mark - a retailer rather than manufacturer.

The cross is unmarked

And what's inside.

Just going through some of the pics for the revised print of the Iron Cross book. Here are a couple of interesting pieces.

Exterior Shot.

Very, very nice Dave.

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Heres a closer view of the image on the card.

The main features of a Hymenn style badge are quit evident on the wartime photo. The "blocked in" deck gun, the filled in area around the eagles neck, the lack of propeller, and also the raised ballast tanks. The Hymenn type were the only ones to represent the tanks realistically with a raised feature and not an indented line.

Here is a wartime "Tag der Wehrmacht" propaganda postcard with photo of the Hymenn style badge.

Very interesting Michel. Clearly this type of flimsy needle pin WAS used on original solid badges of the period as well as hollow-backs.

The badge itself is absolutely correct for a wartime original Hymmen style badge. The solid area around the neck, the lack of a propeller etc are all perfectly good characteristics of a wartime piece. The only anomaly is the flimsy pin which is a type personally I have only so far seen on the hollow back Imperial U-Boat Badges, but this style of pin was indeed used on real badges of the period. Its the combination of this type of pin with a solid backed badge which is anomalous.

The Hymmen style however, were produced in a wider range of variants than any other maker of the period ( tombak, zink, vertical pin, horizontal pin, hollow back etc).

The problem is that this type of badge was heavily reproduced by a certain US dealer in Arizona, and usually came with spurious Schwerin markings. This and the unusual design ( without propeller etc) has a lot of people thinking this type of badge is wrong. It is NOT. This style badge was most certainly manufactured during WW2 by Hymmen & Co and is even featured on a period propaganda postcard, all its unusual features being clearly visible.

Very, very nice Peter, and indicative of the fact that a recipient didn't necessarily go from KVK1 with Swords to Knight's Cross with Swords, but could go from KVK1 without Swords to Knight's Cross with Swords.

Looked down on by some today, but even the lowly KVK2 was accorded a degree of respect at the time. Here the whole unit is paraded to see some of their number being awarded the KVK2 with Swords by the commanding officer.

WOW!!!!!! These are fabulous. More please !!

I'll be going through the whole thing start to finish, changing whatever needs changed/removed, updating whatever I can and putting in as much fresh info and pics as possible.

It will be Rogers decision however in setting the balance between what needs changed and what I'd like to change. The more change, the more expensive the re-vamp.

To what extent are you planning to 're-vamp' the book ..... a few additional pictures, or something more comprehensive?

Marshall

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Close up of the L/15 stamp

As Roger Bender has informed me that my Iron CRoss book is virtually sold out and will shortly be out of print I have been looking around for fresh material to go into the reprint. Though you might like to see this rather nice Otto Schickle L/15 marked EK2.

The type Weitze shows is the type I have seen before . I think this is the type that Michel has also. The Hymenn style also used this type hinge/hook set up on the hollow back version.

Yeah it's interesting. There is another on Weitze's site with a slightly different setup:

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Thanks Rick, I'd seen your doc on the other thread and noted the date. Of course "30 Januar" being the significant anniversary in the Nazi calendar, they probably made group issues on that date each year. Kai Br?ggemann has two of these in his collection, one with the hand executed lettering like the Knight's Cross Urkunden, and another with typewritten details. Interestingly both of these too were on the same date, 1 September, but one in 1943 and one in 1944. Must have been some significance in the 1 September date also.

Here is the award doc for the KVK1. Rare type, note the Gold eagle / swastika and issued at F?hrerhauptquartier. Facsimile Hitler sig as usual, but genuine ink Meissner sig.

Its the Hymenn & Co. (L/53) style. Normally would expect this type to have a more robust pin. Michel has one of these Hymenn style badges with the horizontal needle pin.

This pin though is more like the type found on the hollow back 1930s version of the Imperial U-Boat Badge made by Steinhauer. Haven't seen this type of pin before on a solid Hymenn badge.

Hymenn did make hollow back U-Boat badges though.