IJSBEER

The original U-223 crew badge cap badge with original color versus the repro one with the brown cup and green/white background.

Please post original U-boat/U-boot Flotilla badges. Not only I am curious as to what the originals look like. It is important to keep them real, and tell fakes from real ones. There are too much fake badges/pins on Ebay et al. already.

On 21/01/2019 at 22:57, Bubba_Z said:

Great thread Gents!

Here are three ground dug cap emblems that my brother found with metal detector in former KM naval base in Swinoujscie (Swunemunde). All three were attached to the same cap (or to what was left of it). In the same pit he also found zinc unmarked u-boat badge (Meybauer) and zinc Schwerin u-boat clasp. Sorry for bad images. I may ask him to take better pictures if needed.

Cheers,

Hubert

U-1063?   Or perhaps a Kriegsmarine surface ship?  The cat reminds me of U-48 etc. but the fleur-de-lis tell me they are of french (paris) origin. They are probably not u-boat cap badges, if cap badges at all. For they only sport one boring hole. Again, the lilies are rather French than Teutonic.

I was told that this specific cap badge was unique. Meaning that the one I have is the same as depicted above on page 112 of "KRIEGSMARINE 1935-1945: HISTORY UNIFORMS HEADGEAR INSIGNIA & EQUIPMENT BY" by Enzo Berrafato & Laurent Berrafato". I own it, yet I like to reinforce it with real pictures of Kommandant Rosenbaum etc. If you currently own anything relating to U-73, but are willing to get rid off it soon, please don't hesitate to message me. I am not doing this for me, personally. WW2 history should be taught without true untruths. Show u-boat images as they truly happened.

The oxidized green copper is clearly visible, from top to bottom.

On 23/01/2008 at 21:12, Erik Krogh said:

Here's an interesting tradition badge: the Mercedes 3-point star. It is very small (approximately 13 MM) and came in a lot from Detlev Niemann that also included a very finely board-made U-boat in brass (very heavy, for use on a plaque), some photos of U-Boat crews with Albrecht Brandi as CO, and a small folded paper "paper hat" with U-107's "4 aces" logo.

 

I just came across a photo of what is apparently the same small Mercedes insignia being worn by an officer on U-195. U-195 was one of only two Type IX D-1 boats (the other being U-180). If I remember correctly, both of these boats utilized experimental Mercedes diesel engines, hence the Mercedes star as a tradition badge.

 

Here is a sampling of the group, with the Mercedes badge on top.

Erik,

I think this specific paper folded boat does show the emblem of U-3003/U-3013  (see attached picture). I merely wonder as to what the words "Edit Ihrens" mean. Is it a woman's name? 

On 20/03/2012 at 18:23, dedehansen said:

 

Cap emblem from U- 653 worn by Funkmeister Herbert Kupfermann. He

 

was living near my hometown and I got it directly from him 10 years ago.

 

Andreas

one week ago I stumbled upon this cap badge, 4 days too late for my personal gain, because it was already sold. It, however, reminded me of the cap badge that dedehansen had once posted in this forum. They look very similar, but this one has a pin on its flipside, 

I was able to purchase this badge as of recently, which I think is authentic. It no longer has the "safety pin" on the flip side. Do sport your 11. U-Flottille collection!!

What I have learned so far is that the "shadow" on the u-boat is always opposite to the polar bear's face. And I have seen Red/Blue logo versions of both the 1. U-Flottille as well as the 11. U-Flottille.

Fafnesbane, thanks for your support. Erik, thank you for your constructive reply on the topic which you started, many years ago I might add. I think the badges that Ian Jewison (above) and you have shown so far are definitely real, as goes for the pictures that you posted directly above. I can honestly say I had not seen those before and I can't leave this room without holding a degree of envy. "Commercial", is indeed what I think some of these "anstecknadeln" are. See the picture that I attached to this reply, because I own some of them, except for the big yellow ski bunny and the anstecknadel displayed with Georg Högel's U-Boat Emblems of World War II book. The yellow pin really does appear to be a winter sports souvenir of the 1940's. If the crew stole the original design it would be nice to know who designed it originally, vice versa too.

Erik, I will certainly consult the reference material that you pointed out to me there.

In the meantime, please keep posting pictures of similar ski bunnies, dear readers. 

Good day, 

in order to reinforce my U-172 collection I'm appealing to you, gentlemen, to please come forward if

you are willing to let go of or know about stuff that might be of any interest here. Original photographs

and personal belongings of Carl Emmermann I am after, first and foremost, but anything else related to

U-172 might be interesting as well. So, do not withhold on general principle what you might otherwise show.

Thank you very much.

Hi guys,

found this pin on Ebay a while ago and I was wondering whether or not the bunny/hare used in the U-170 cap badge was originally designed by the crew or that the crew took it from an already existing generic "skihase" logo, which would explain for the colors in this pin, because the bunny is undoubtedly the same. Could it be pre/post war?

thanks

Since I paid €650 for it my question would now actually be how much this badge + bierzeitung is actually worth at this very moment. Could anyone here tell me how rare these cap badges are anyhow, provided this one is authentic, but it stood model for the one in the Book "U-Boat Emblems of World II 1939-1945" by Georg Högel. Does that raise the nominal value significantly?

Recently purchased this cap device at an online militaria shop:

Recently stumbled upon a ceramic tile on Ebay.com depicting the laughing (I prefer smiling!) swordfish of the 9. U-bootflottille. It reads:

                   "Zum geburstag MaschOGfr Egon Tschierschke Kommando U-256 Brest, den 20. Februar 1944."

"Owing to the birthday of Maschinobergefreiter (machinist) Egon Tschierschke, U-256 Command, Brest,  February 20. 1944."

The seller stated that it came from the collection of this Egon. Now, I have no particular boner for swastika's but that swordfish looks kinda hot to me. 

If you're about selling anything of your 9th flotilla stuff, please do email me first.

I've recently met a German seller who (I had previously told him I was interested in Cap Badges) replied back to me the day after I had bought something else from him, and he asked me my email address to send some pictures of a certain cap badge he had, running in his family. And this is what he sent me:

The U-boot insignia stands for the German saying "Holzauge, sei wachsam!". The "Turm Maling" of both the U-558 and U-955 featured this emblem. Not sure if "...sam!..." was washed away by the weather conditions on the original u-boat conning tower. My gut instinct says this is real but what do you think? And how much should I pay for it at max?

Came across and bought another one today (http://www.militaria-1939-1945.com/militaria-allemand-21.html) and despite at first sight they look almost the same there are quite some differences. I am not sure if this French site is really selling only authentic stuff like they claim to do.

Thank you Larry. I know that the "lachende schwertfisch" or "sägefisch" emblem belongs to, among other U-boats, the U-96 but what did the real cap badge of U-96 look like? Are there real ones in musea? I want to see one for future reference. Is there for instance a website where I can see all the original cap badges collected? I just want to know whether or not mine is real and exactly which U-boat crew wore it, provided that it is real of course. Is there certainty about the true color of the conning tower emblem of U-96 - if so, can someone show me more of that? Basically: I'm searching for a solid touchstone for these objects. 

The 9.Flottille swordfish is Red, as far as I know, but some individual U-boats use the same emblem in different colors, that's the difficulty I reckon. I'm quite a novice when it comes to this all but please educate me.

Strange thing is, and this has me concerned somewhat, is that the following image (although only on one website) is circulating on the internet and which I located only some weeks prior to this post: 

This seems like an exact copy of the original.....or worse....vice versa. I am not so sure anymore about the authenticity of my hat badge all of the sudden, but it looks as real as it can get.

Peter, thank you so much for your reply. That printing possibility did cross my mind too but need not the printing plate be mirrored? It's a strange object specially because it's very well done and it seems unique so far. The "infantry officer" part I guessed at because there were "Infrantry Officers" in Vietnam but it may as well mean something entirely different, I agree. 

Cheers

Then again, there were two more U-boats having shown the same "Turm-Maling": U-354 and U-606.

Is there an old real depiction available of the 11th U-boat Flotilla shield in color? Why is it always displayed red and white? Was it really?

I found this one 2 years ago on E-bay. The seller owned two copies of them but only this one he wanted to sell to me because of the rust and damages, but can someone tell me to which U-boot's crew this once belonged? Your help would be much appreciated.

I found the U-boot with the polar bear facing the other way around, it's the U-591.

If you happen to have a picture of this submarine with the specific conning tower emblem could you please post it here? Thank you.

I stumbled upon an u-boat hat emblem (shown below) and I am anxious to learn whether or not this is the true insignia that was used back in them days. I myself am not interested in buying it but if you want to, you can find it here: http://www.snyderstreasures.com/pages/germanbadges2.htm  (search for: "u-141")

On this website they show the flipside of this badge too, which I think is in fact the front and portrays a horseshoe. The site equates this insignia with one belonging to the U-141 which I think it is not, but perhaps there is another U-boot with a horseshoe emblem aside from the U-99 & U-640...do you know?

Very neat enamel pin you got there, Dede. It has me thinking for it shows two different hues of blue color and not the red on white used in the fake mützen abzeichen sold on the internet: https://www.google.nl/search?q=11th+flotilla&biw=1182&bih=583&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjsjOK3-fHPAhWlCsAKHSZbCNEQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=4sNoGs1zyEWO7M%3 . Could it be a coincidence that both my plague and your enamel pin use the same colors?

If you ever grow tired of collecting U-boot paraphernalia please let me know and I'll be more than happy to buy it from you.

Thank you for your constructive reply.

I wondered if anyone could tell me more about the brass plate comic strip as depicted below, since I couldn't find another copy of it, or more info about it. There are no serial numbers or whatsoever mentioned on it, but perhaps it's merely an inside joke of the cavalry in Vietnam during them days. The guy I got it from said it was perhaps an anti Vietnam War statement of its days - if so why can I not find a single copy of it elsewhere? It's an almost exact copy of an original 60's Charles Schulz Peanuts comic as shown below but rendered with "vulgaire language". Since the original comic, though, probably was intended an anti-war statement in the first place it only emphasized on it. But I am not sure. Does someone here recognize this brass plate from his own past? Please tell me more about it.

And does the abbreviation "I.O.", in relation to a Huey Slick helicopter, stand for "Infantry Officer"?

Much obliged in advance

Hi folks,

I have a question about an U-boot flotilla artefact I've recently bought on Ebay on sheer impulse. Something tells me it is authentic but I'm not 100% sure. Can you tell me if this is authentic? The odd thing about it is that the polar bear standing on the u-boat is facing eastward, while the original flotilla emblem has him facing the other way around. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_U-boat_Flotilla  The guy I got it from is residing in France and he told me he obtained it back in 2004 at some military antiques sale in Hamburg, Germany. Dimensions : H 21 cm - L 14,5 cm

Thanks