Gordon Williamson

If this piece is one of Klietmann's (him or her) pieces there's nothing to fear, I guess.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ORIGINALES-Eichenlaub-m...1QQcmdZViewItem

Not one of Klietmann's but before anyone screams "fake" this is instantly recognisable as a nice enough Steinhauer set. I guess thats why there have been so many bids - these are not easy to find.

Very nice indeed! Especially good with provenance to such a long serving U-Boat commander. First time I have seen a Schwerin U-Boat Badge modified this way.

As already pointed out by Prosper, those LDO marked pieces ingathered by the Pr?sidialkanzlei were subsequently awarded in the normal way.

However, C E Juncker also made Oakleaves, usually marked L/12 with an 800 silver mark. So did Meybauer, who marked their pieces L/13. Steinhauer & L?ck are also believed to have produced Oakleaves. When retail sales of the Knight's Cross were forbidden, LDO-marked pieces were appropriated by the Pr?sidialkanzlei and awarded to recipients in the normal way.

I tend to suspect however that just as S&L didn?t bother to mark any of their retail stuff with the L/16, Godet may have added the L/50 mark to all their Oaks, whether for retail or not.

The interesting thing is that even after regulations were tightened up, no S&L pieces carried the L/16 mark - unl;ess of course all of their Knights Cross production went towards fulfilling official orders, with no spare capacity for the retail market.

Did S&L press that tooling back into service for the 1957 re-issue?

For sure. If you are fortunate enough to pick up a very very early 57 set of Oakleaves, the quality of die striking is superb, very crisp detail and up to wartime standards. I've never seen a 57 set of Oaks by S&L that had any sign of frosting though.

S&L would appear to have concentrated on their Iron Crosses and German Crosses in terms of postwar restriking. Strange given the vast amount of tooling they must have had, that they didn't seem to bother much with other awards. (Though I do remember seeing loads of those 1st Pattern E-Boats with the "o" mark and crappy hinge fitting appear in the early 70s.)

Surprising that they didn't restrike their Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross as their version is easily as good if not better than Deschler's.

The Steinhauer Oakleaves are an interesting case ( as is their Knight's Cross). Both are illustrated in their retail sales catalogue as items number 12 535 and 12 534 respectively. The Oakleaves sold at RM13.80 including ribbon and case and the Knight's Cross at RM 34.50, also with ribbon and case.

This catalogue contains a notice that the firms mark for retail sales copies is L/16 so clearly post-dates the introduction of the LDO regulations, yet no Steinhauer Knight's Crosses or Oakleaves have ever been seen with the LDO code so it seems that one of Germany's biggest and most important medal making firms and the one which "created" the 1939 Iron Cross, was simply ignoring the regulations.

Last time we correct your English ;=)

Merci !

Well, Roger tells me the supplies are due to arrive from the printers on Monday so in the USA at least it will be out just before Christmas. Probably be into January before I see a copy myself. It has panned out at just over 400 pages, large format with well over 1000 photos.

I'd just like to publicly thank Michel, Fran?ois and Thomas Huss for all their help on this one. Without them the final product would have been but a pale shadow of what Roger has been able to produce.

Now compare yours with this genuine, but non-Schwerin piece. Look at the areas ringed. Solid area around gun, solid areas around eagles neck, lack of propellor, and the way the saddle tanks are portrayed, in relief, as opposed to as a groove.

It lacks the detail of the original, but no doubt that this is what it has been based on.

Sorry Vince, I should have been clearer. When I said the mark was spurious, I didn't mean it was inaccurate, but it doesn't belong on this badge. Here is your badge next to a genuine Schwerin. The two designs are completely different.

I'd agree with Michel and Joe.

Original Souvals exist with both round and angular form RS letters but so do fakes. The LDO mark itself doesn't necessarily mean its wrong, but even though this one has the correct wartime style pin fittings, the sloppy quality combined with the L/58 suggests to me that this might be a postwar piece assembled from original wartime parts before Souval went over to using their distinctive postwar style retaining clip.

I'm afraid this is a fake. It is based on the original type shown in this thread

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=12841

but has incorrect pin fitting and spurious SChwerin maker mark. This type comes from a well known fake merchant in the USA.

and Klaus Ewerth (not a great view of the SK unfortunately)

Two more U-Boat men.

Udo Heilmann of U-97

Looks like a perfectly good original L/18 piece.

Dan

Apart from the colour, the only other difference is in one of the Kanji on the reverse.

Mine have a bit of crazing to the enamel. I'm sure others will be able to show us finer specimens in due course.

Naval Wound Badge being worn

Silver naval mini

Naval in Silver. Unfortunately flare from the scanner makes it appear much brighter than it really is.

Black Naval Mini

Naval in Black

Gold Naval Mini

Naval in Gold

Are we including buttonholes?

Oh Yes indeed !

Some silver minis

Some Gold minis