Erik Krogh

Richard, We seem to have the same collecting tastes! 12th war patrol badge, U-170 soldbuch, and now this. You always seem to one-up me ;-) Thanks for posting. Erik

Thanks for your kind words, Justin. I really like the personal handmade items, particularly traditions badges - they help tell the story of what life must have been like on the boats. U-515 has always been a most interesting boat for me, particularly after reading "Lone Wolf" by Timothy Mulligan awhile back. Best, Erik

Reverse of the SS William Rockefeller plate.

Plate commemorating the sinking of SS William Rockefeller on June 29, 1942 (Wynn marks this date as June 28).

Revese of the SS Baron Erskine plate. The tonnage was a bit exaggerated (the correct tonnage was 3675 according to Wynn).

Plate for sinking the SS Baron Erskine on January 6, 1942.

A pair of U-701 commerative plates. Although both of these plates are damaged, they are nonetheless interesting for the sinkings that they commerate. The boat's logo (a fish) and the logo of the 3rd U-Flotilla (turtle) can be seen as well as "kill pennants".

Martin, Thanks for the post. Most of these plaques were hand-made or were produced in very limited quantities. Of course its difficult to verify authenticity since they are mostly unique. I try to get them in groupings, which seems to give their period credentials some veracity (at least to me). All The Best, Erik

A smaller bowl from the U-515 set. These items are attributed to the boat's LI.

Brian, I don't have any photographs of actual wartime usage, but my guess is that these plaques would be hung in the mess as well as hung in homes of crew members and families. Erik

U-515 hand-carved bowl from the boat's first cruise. The dates and sunk tonnage roughly correspond to research in Kenneth Wynn's "U-Boat Operations of the Second World War".

U-653 plaque from the Kupfermann grouping. This looks like it could be post-war.

Type XXI U-Boat plaque. This came from a grouping of Funkmeister Herbert Kupfermann, who is pictured on page 105 of "Torpedo los!" (with the pipe). Kupfermann served on U-127, U-653, and U-3038.

Minesweeper shield with silhouette of Africa. A similar plaque is pictured on page 421 of Angolia/Schlicht "Die Kriegsmarine" Volume 3.

A shield from the Panzerschiff Deutschland. This came with a grouping from Paul Wirtz, who transferred to the U-Bootwaffe and served on U-31 until she was sunk on November 2, 1940. Herr Wirtz was captured and spent the rest of the war in captivity in Canada, and I have a number of his POW effects as part of the grouping. I will post later. Interestingly, U-31 is the only U-Boat to have been sunk twice by enemy action (it was raised and put back into service in July 1940).

This is a brass U-Boat plaque that came in the grouping with the previous shield for U-373. An oil painting of the boat was the third piece in the grouping.

here are some KM plaques from my collection. First up is a U-373 shield very similar to the one pictured on page 363 of "Torpedo los!" Interesting that the black cat logo is at the bottom, but 373 was attached to the 3rd flotilla, whose logo was the turtle. The lion shield on the top left is correct for the boat.

Brian, The poster was intended to alert the Canadian populace to the dangers of "loose talk" about the details of Allied conveys, such as when they were to leave port. I don't speak French, but I've been told that the text is loosley translated as "thanks for the tip". Below is the printer's information at the bottom of the poster. Best, Erik

Although not produced in Germany (it is Canadian), this is the classic image of the leering U-Boat commandant.

U-24 reverse

U-24 Obverse

U-24 Tradition Badge Here's a new badge that came on the card below. Oblt. Dieter Lenzmann commanded both U-24 and U-3522 (Type XXI) at war's end, so the card seems legit.

Thanks, Paul! :cheers:

Here is the top-down comparison. Please note that the cut-out example is on the RIGHT side (I reversed the order while photographing these and it was such a pain to get them to stay up that I didn't re-shoot using the correct positioning).

Reverse comparison