Martin W

My favorite zincer,a Schwerin Auxiliary Cruiser.

Not quite"minty" but this zinc Schwerin HSF badge has a lot of its original finish. Regards,Martin.

This has to be one of the nicest zincers i have.A Schwerin Blockade Breaker.The highlights are frosted and the swastika is highly polished.The scans do not do it justice. Regards,Martin.

Fregatte, a very nice looking badge and no doubt of its originality.A very interesting set of photo's and i'm glad that you dad survived the sinking too. Regards,Martin.

The reverse.

John, very nice looking Juncker.I have also seen the tombak badges with both flat and round wire hooks and as Gordon mentioned i do not think it is related to the date of manufacture.I've noticed a variation on the finishing of the tombak badges also.Some have "blued" reverses and some are guilded.Some have no finish at all on the reverse and reveal the base metal only. This example i have is very heavily plated and the finish is similar to that found on Juncker Auxiliary Cruiser badges.The reverse appears to have no finish at all and shows just the base metal. Regards,Martin.

Very interesting Gordon,thanks for showing. Regards,Martin.

I believe artistic proportions and a sense of balance is more true . If you where to put a huge swastika found on many LW badges and place it in the eagle's talons it would crowd out the image of the boat used on that particular badge. Best Regards, Joe

Hi Gordon. to confirm my above comments i talked to Joe Slavick who has interviewed several Kormoran crewmen.They told him for a fact that parcels arrived at the POW camp in Australia with badges for award.They recieved official awards and award notices while they were in captivity. We do not know if it was an official interaction between the warring countries of Germany and Australia directly or if some intermediary (i.e.Red Cross ) was used,but there was some process for making it happen. However,there were no comments from the crewmen about making there own HSK badges in the camps,so the badge that Detmers is wearing in the photo's is a mystery. Regards,Martin.

Scott, even on the Japanese badges the mast is to the right of the swastika. Gordon,is the detail of the badge you posted from a photo of Theodor Detmers of the Kormoran.If so, the photograph was taken in an Australian POW camp and the badge was probably made by one of the crew members.I beleive that the Knights Cross,that he is wearing was sent to him from Germany to the Australian POW camp.There are a couple of shots of Detmers that were take in both the white and blue uniform and wearing his awards in the POW camp. Other surviving crew members of the Kormoran also received awards whilst in captivity,so i am told. Regards,Martin.

Reverse.

Finally,the Pinguin,Schiff 33.

Reverse of second photo.The text reads something like this; "Every forenoon Stuppi plays with the commander on the deck of the boat for an hour.This hour belongs to daily routine". Life aboard ship could get very tedious at times i think.

The second photo is of Kruder playing with his pet "Dackel".

Reverse.

Here a a couple of pictures that arrived on Christmas eve from Germany.They were taken on board the Hilfskreuzer Pinguin(Schiff 33) in 1940.The Pinguin was the first of the Hilfskreuzers to be sunk on May 8 1941.She never made it back to Germany,hence the rarity of the photo's.The first picture is of the Commander Ernst-Felix Kruder and his officers. Regards,Martin.

Great document Gordon and very rare.I would like to get one myself one of these days.The great thing about the Hilfskreuzer Documents is that most of them are signed by the Commanders of the ships,Gerlach,Kahler,Eyssen,Weyher,Gumprich,etc. For interest here is a signed photo i have of Kurt Weyher. Regards,Martin.

Very interesting information Gordon.Thanks. Regards,Martin.

I know exactly how you feel. Cheers,Martin.

Great items everyone.Erik,it is nice that you have the provenance to go with your pieces.This is the only one i have from the 1st U-Flottile. Regards,Martin.

Great photo,thanks. Martin.

Good guess Erik.Looks like another one to add to the list of manufacturers. Regards,Martin.

Thanks Gordon and my apologies to Philipp for posting without permission. Regards,Martin.

Gordon, i just found this for sale today.Seems to match the example you have posted. Regards,Martin.

John, to the best of my knowledge nothing new has surfaced as to who the maker of these badges was.I recently had a talk with Philippe about these badges and the conclusion was "AS in triangle,maker unknown". Regards,Martin.