Gordon Williamson

I doubt if you will see this one mentioned in any reference book Joe, it looks very much like the fake that David Littlejohn had in his collection. David was well aware it was fake. It has a very "rough" finish to the obverse.

i don't think L/17 was a maker of any of the

juli 20 wound badges....

L/12 maybe???

joe

Solid Silver 800

Naval Silver

Obtained with the centre medal missing, but quickly replaced thanks to Stogieman.

Gold Naval

Black Navals, "blued" steel at left, painted at right.

Here's a "Mattgelb"

There is no shortage of speculation about Narvik shields but much less in the way of firm information. No so long ago those zink Narvik shields with the space between the wings and eagles head were being bad-mouhted as fakes, now the fashion has changed and they are accepted as genuine ( which they are). Those with a shorter, stubbier tail to the "9" in the date are often claimed to be fake too, which is also nonsense. I have an original wartime publication which has a photo (not a drawing) of a Kriegsmarine Narvik shield which clearly has a shorter stubby tail to the "9".

I don't think anyone really has any definitive information on exactly which firms made the Narvik shield.

Darrell,

No its Tombak.

Grant,

The short answer is Yes. Whatever the original branch of service, if the individual carried out the requisite number of assaults/combat days, whatever, he would qualify, so KM troops could and did qualify for the Infantry Assault Badge, General Assault Badge etc etc.

Hello All,

Regarding the late war land units made up of Navy men , i know they could have been eligible for the tank destruction strip but could they also qualify for the Inf assault , gen assault and CCC ?

Thanks

Grant

On Page 23 I suspect the number 31242 may be the Feldpost Number. In which case his unit would have been 55 Vorpostenflotille. Are there any other clear entries showing a FP Number ?

This is the type often referred to as Juncker. They sometimes have a "double strike" to the lettering.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the follow up.

I have no problem in accepting the suggestion of only one maker for the issues to the Legion Condor with more coming later as war erupted. I was more interested in how it was ascertained that the type shown in the book was the Legion Condor type as opposed to any other type with a flush swas.

Possibly an attributed original group with this type in it ? Who knows, but it would be good to tie down firm evidence of this specific type being the Legion Condor badge through first generation evidence.

Maybe some day

Jim,

The new Revell kit, out in February I believe, is stunning. Its a Type VIIC/41 with the extended tower with extra Flak armament, snorkel etc.

You can see a built up pre-production example here.

http://modellversium.de/galerie/artikel.php?id=1689

Although the Revell figures are in that soft plastic they are very well detailed. More appropriate to a harbour scene with most of the sailors being in their "blues".

When the new one comes out I doubt if I will be able to resist chopping the hull down and "waterlining" it in a seascape.

Hi Darrell,

The smaller boat is a simpler kit in 1/125 scale that my mother gave me. Bless her heart, I can't believe she even remembered me talking about it. Aren't Mom's great! The hull is cut open with a very simple interior. With some work it can be made into a nice model. It's really more of a kids kit.

The larger Revell 1/72 kit is killer. There are SO many after market items available for this kit you just can't believe it. Yes, you can cut the hull open and add several available compartments if you wish. But with this kit, you will have to open the hull up yourself. Since this is my first boat, I will probably just concentrate on the hull details and see how I do with that. I've wanted this kit for a while now, and now they have a US Gato Class sub coming out in 1/72!!!

Does anyone know what the differences are between this boat and the "Atlantic" version boat Revell is releasing??

Very nice example indeed. I hope you don't mind but I have edited your first three photos to trim off the excess white surrounding the actual photo, which made the images huge.

Of particular interest here for those maybe not too familiar with the Tellerm?tze is the fact that actual issue pieces had a cellulose/plastic former inside the hat band as can be clearly seen here. Private purchase pieces will often have the cardboard formers more commonly found as band stiffeners, but official stores issue Kriegsmarine caps (as opposed to private purchase) is one of the few 3rd Reich pieces of headgear where it is good to see plastic !

Hi Joe,

Thanks for that, I'd be interested in any further info you can dig up. It's not that I doubt Hamelmann's word, I'm just interested to know how the theory came about. I can quite understand how only one firm might initially be involved, then more added as war broke out, but as there appear to be so many variants of the "1st Type" ( i.e. the different helmet shapes, bows at the base of the wreath etc), how do we know that the type shown by Hamelmann is the one true "Legion Condor" type.

By the way, there is something else which makes the one I showed above rather tasty. Its a screwback ! Complete with screw plate with "Mickey Mouse Ears" lugs.

Can't believe I was able to snag this, after it had sat for several days in the Saleroom in this Forum at a very, very fair price.

Just picked up this fine silver Wound Badge thanks to Stogieman.

It is not of course one of the types that Hamelmann states as being for the Legion Condor, but as there are a number of inconsistencies in his book, I wondered what the general concensus amongst those who specialise in SCW awards is on these badges.

Hamelmann states that only one firm made the true Condor Legion badge, but doesn't quote a source for this information. Does anyone know of any firm information that this was the case? (I don't see the small numbers issued as being particularly relevant as there are numerous examples of mutliple manufacturers for awards only bestowed in very small numbers).

Is there any real concensus over his classification of these into "Prototype 1939" ( i.e. like this one, with flush swastika) and "1939 1st Type" with the stepped swastika ? Or is it all really just a case of contemporary manufacturers variants ?

Just obtained from DaveB. No particularly rare awards, but I just couldn't resist it at what was a very fair price.

However, being pretty ignorant of Imperial pieces outside of the EK, what can anyone tell me about it and what the awards suggest re rank etc ?

Anybody???

Colin,

I believe the code number 720 on the face is a "Festa". Alpina carried the code 592. The Alpina second hand dial was larger and the hands a slightly different shape.

Looks like a nice watch, but my only comment would be that I have never seen one of these with the eagle/swas mark on the casing, only ever the serial number.

According to "Military Timepieces of World War 2", the KM marking was already on the dial, and so it was not necessary for the marking to appear on the back of the case.

Here is a pic of an Alpina I had.

What you have is a Seventh Grade Order of the Rising Sun. You can read more about them and see several of the other grades here.

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?act=ST&f=91&t=728&st=0#entry4044

The ribbon is indeed the same colours for all of the grades, though some grades have the addition of a small rosette to the ribbon.

The U-boat guys will love this-- any idea which submarine the crew badge belonged to?

Rick,

Its U-318. The crew badge is a representation of the character Kuttel Daddeldu, a sailor "hero" created by the lyricist/humorist Joachim Ringelnatz (1883-1934) in a poem he wrote in 1924.

The image on the crew badge is probably based on a "self portrait" of Ringelnatz on stage performing the poem as the character.

Must have been my Monitor at work. Looked definitely blue but here at home on my own PC screen it does look green.

Unless there is something wrong with my monitor, the colour of the backing looks dark blue so it would be a regular KM breast eagle for the blue shirt rather than Marineartillerie which would have either a mouse grey or dark blue green backing.

Beautiful piece Greg, thanks for sharing !

You can find close ups of the Red Eagle in this thread

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3869

Richard,

Its not a Bootsmann rank patch, its the insignia worn on the shorts of the sports kit.