PKeating

These are the wings we were awarded. Note the Assmann logo, which hasn't changed since WW2. Assmann was one of the firms supplying Luftwaffe parachutist badges to the OKW and OKL. Of course, we wore embroidered versions on our jump smocks. PK

These are the wings they awarded us. Note the Assmann logo on the reverse. Of course, we wore embroidered versions on our smocks. PK

The last aluminium Type 1 I saw changing hands privately involved more than $3,500.00. This is a 'transitional' variant. Some people are put off by the deformity around the diving eagle's talons but if you're what might be termed 'an advanced collector' of Heer para badges, this would be a bonus rather than a minus, given the rarity of these intermediate badges. It is quite amazing that Juncker even allowed them out the door! It's hard to put prices on some things. Wolfe-Hardin sold a cased aluminium Type 2 to a punter for more than $7k recently, having bought it for about $4k. A zinc example went for a reported $3,250.00 through the WAF eStand a couple of months ago. But I wonder if these prices are aberrational. W-H obviously had a moneyed client prepared to pay whatever it took to fill a gap and knew they could milk him for twice what the handful of people in the market for these badges would actually pay. Whoever bought the zinc badge clearly had the maxim about paying tomorrow's price today in mind but I think he'll have to wait quite some time for real values to catch up. If I put, say, a perfect Type 2 aluminium badge up for $3,500.00, I would be surprised if it realised that price. The same applies to a perfect 1943/44 zinc type. A good Type 1 might just see $3,500.00 but the market for these badges is really quite limited. Someone who is quite a serious collector asked me to sell him a nice Type 2 aluminium badge recently and balked when I told him that I couldn't go below ?2,500.00. This is slightly more than the US dollar price of the zinc one I mentioned. This is the problem when you get some dealers and collectors trying to rachet up prices artificially. It messes up things for everyone by rendering their stuff hard to sell. Oh, sure, you can sell your gear for the price you deem reasonable and in line with reality but how will you feel when you see it changing hands shortly afterwards for 40% more? I tried to sell a beautiful Type 1 E-Boat badge by Schwerin recently for about 30% less than the dealers were asking for examples that weren't as nice. Not even one enquiry! The owner eventually sold it here in France for ?800.00, which isn't much more than half its value. In short, these things are worth what people are willing to pay for them on a regular basis, not what one or two examples realised in unrepresentative sales. Look at the Haug Heer para group sold through Hermann Historica: the buyer clearly had more money than sense. I would be astonished if he ever saw the ?60k-plus he paid back. Result? A silver badge I could have had, with a case, for $12k a while ago suddenly shot up to $22k, without the case. I can see the vendor's point of view but at the same time, mad millionaire buyers aren't that thick on the ground in our hobby, despite all the rumours about Spielberg, Hanks, Eastwood, Jagger and so on. PK

No, but I jumped with their sons and grandsons...

Someone made the vendor an off-site offer. By that time, the bidding was past $2,200.00, which is less than you would pay for a Type 2. PK

One has to look at this in the context of a time when common soldiers and sailors could be given 200 lashes for having something minor wrong with their uniform on duty or 600 lashes for being late on parade. Byng was certainly a martyr to official incompetence but one wonders how many sailors were subjected to monstrous punishments by Byng. This is not to justify what was done to Byng but let's not forget that the majority of Royal Navy officers were utter bastards. You had to be, to survive the rigours of such a career. At least he was shot, a quick death by comparison with hanging as implemented at the time, which was the fate of sailors for a wide range of offences ranging from relatively minor to cowardice. They were brutal times. PK

Interesting question. Went for some of the basics first. Still have no 1813 crosses but am patient. Don't have an 1870 EK1 either...but in no hurry. I am quite hooked on 1914 EK1 variants and admit to being unable to resist a good-looking common 1914 EK1 even if I already have an example. Won't pass on a cross if it is made of ersatz materials. I like mint Imperial Iron Crosses but, conversely, I go for "been-there" 1939 EK1 and lightly patinated 1939 EK2, especially with narrow ribbons. Couple of RK. Again, they have that "been-there" look. Can take or leave 1939 Spangen but partial to original ribbon bar Spangen and also to Type 1s. As far as award documents go, I focus on Fallschirmj?ger-related docs, of course, but will go for anything out of the ordinary that grabs my attention. There is a pair of Kanalflieger documents - with the rest of the ME109 NCO pilot's documents - which I have been after for ages, even though they're way out of my "themes". They're just absolute classics and I really flashed on them! Maybe it's the result of seeing the BoB film as a nine year old. Since you started posting WW1 EK documents, my interest in those is awakening. I also like well-made lapel pins and boutonni?res. my nicest being, respectively, an ELS pin and a miniature 1914 Civilian EK2. Wouldn't touch ELS and EK by Godet unless the provenance were surrealistically solid but would certainly go for an L/13 Meybauer ELS. 1957 stuff leaves me cold unless obviously worn by a veteran. One of my favourite pieces is an early '57 EK2 with its ring pushed through the wartime ring of an EK2 with the wartime ribbon mounted as worn. Quite a touching piece. I suppose that's the essence for me: the item has to "talk". Another thing I've been after for ages is a 1914 EK1 in the possession of a friend. It's in a Queen Mary box with the officer's Hesse breast award and his 1930s medal bar with the EK2, Hesse Silver Merit Medal and Hindenburg Cross, plus the ribbon bar. The EK1 is a top notch vaulted piece, privately engraved to the recipient, Kompaniechef in a stormtroop unit, for an action at Thiepval in the first week of the Somme offensive. Probably a present from his brother officers or his men. I don't care how long it takes me to get it and how much it costs me - within reason - but a Thiepval EK1 to a stormtroop officer? OK, it's not the document, which is the award in German tradition, but as Iron Crosses go, this is one of the best I have seen. PK

I've PM'd you.

A magnetic tank is a good sign but your seems to lack the detail one expects of originals. This could be due to image quality. The backing strip looks metallic: is it? Some Gold PVA had Cellon backing strips. Cellon, often seen in Kriegsmarine cap badges, consists of fine rayon thread wrapped in celluloid. Others had metallic backing strips. I remain hesitant about the direction of the weave of the black stripes. The label is also unfamiliar to me. These badges were generally supplied in paper envelopes, like other awards, with the award designation printed thereon. Here's another original Gold PVA.

Here is a Gold PVA. Of course, there were several manufacturers but this gives you a fair idea of what to look for. How many prongs can you feel under the cloth backing glued to the reverse of the badge? Is there a metal backing plate? Is the tank magnetic? Is the backing plate magnetic?

I agree that better shots of the tank would be helpful. Here is a silver grade PVA. Note the level of detailing of the tank. Note too the direction of the weave of the black borders. PK

Here is the other side of the document. You can see that the issuing office, in Germany, was still using its unit stamp complete with the swastika. However, the officer completing the document for Heinrich Karrasch carefully omitted the "SS" designation in front of the two Waffen-SS units cited on the lefthand page and, perhaps at Karrasch's insistence, added a note making it clear that Karrasch had served with the SS-Fallschirmj?ger-Bataillon. Karrasch began the war as a Luftwaffe mechanic with Lehrgeschwader 1, being transferred late in 1944 to a Heer marsch-kompanie in Bielefeld, where he was recruited by the Kompaniechef of Stab/SS-Fallschirmj?ger-Btl 600 and his team, who were scouring the Heer and Luftwaffe barracks across northern Germany for recruits to bring the new FJ battalion up to full strength. As you can see, the Heer 'reclaimed' Karrasch. SS-Panzergrenadier Ersatz und Ausbildungs Btl 35 was the nominal depot unit of the SS-Fallschirmj?ger and SS-Jagdverb?nde units. Some sub-units of SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Rgt 7 were placed in Kampfgruppe Solar, formed by Otto Skorzeny for the defence of the Zehden bridgehead and commanded by Siegfried Milius, who was normally commander of SS-Fallschirmj?ger-Btl 600. After the breakout from Zehden, Karrasch evidently found himself with the remains of this unit, and some officer was kind enough to annotate his paybook, otherwise the military police might have arrested him as a deserter. Interesting that although they went to the trouble of comouflaging his half-year with the Waffen-SS, the document still indicates his service with the SS-FJ-Btl. One wonders if this was due to pride in having served with the Fallschirmj?ger. The annotation "B. -Schein" is interesting. Nobody has yet come up with any explanation for it. Could it mean "Bew?hrungs-Schein"? The original SS-FJ-Btl had been formed with a percentage of Bew?hrungs-Sch?tzen (Disciplinary Soldiers) but the survivors were all "rehabilitated" by the time the remnants of SS-FJ-Btl 500 were transferred to northern Germany as cadre for the new parachute battalion. It is known that the 180-odd survivors who managed to surrender to US forces with the Soviets snapping at their heels escaped being turned over to certain death at the hands of the Reds by playing hard on the reputation of the unit as a probationary or rehabilitation unit for "politicals", in other words, anti-Nazis. Was this document filled out thus to help Karrash to get home without too many problems? Sadly, he died quite a few years ago and none of his family are really willing to discuss that period. Anyway, just another example of the confusion that reigned at the time... PK

This Personalkarte was issued in July 1945. Heinrich Karrasch didn't get any Iron Crosses - although he received the KVK2 m. Schw. - but for the sake of discussion of the topic of denazification, I trust you will tolerate this intrusion into the Iron Cross section in order to illustrate some of the strange things one sees in late or immediately postwar documents.

Interestingly, although the swastikas have been covered, the sigrunen remain visible. This officer only denazified his paybook. None of his other documents were denazified. PK

Quite a document! Here's an example of the kind of denazified soldbuch I was referring to. This is the awards page. This remains more or less on-topic as Scheu got the EK2 and EK1 and this is about denazified awards and documents. However, his urkunden are not denazified. PK

Posting it here will not contravene any copyright laws. It would come under 'Fair Use' provisions in the legislation, particularly as this is a non-profit website for information-sharing and educational purposes. Just credit the source. You already have credited the source! So let's see the document. I agree that denazified awards are just as valid as 'intact' pieces. I have a few denazified paybooks and documents, which underlines the fact that the veteran used them after the war for various administrative purposes. Those ink spots over the swastikas are part of history, just as the removed swastikas on your Iron Crosses are part of history, indicating that the holders wore them after the war. PK

The wings as awarded usually have the issue number impressed on the reverse. At least, they did. Maybe this isn't done anymore. Of all the French wings I have seen in shops and flea markets, I can count the numbered examples on the fingers of one hand. Obviously, many French paras and paras from other countries who earned French wings buy spare badges for everyday purposes but the lack of numbered examples on the market is interesting. PK

Aha! Then you may remember this vista with the lake to one side as you piled out of the Transall... PK

Click here to see the sale. I'm also uploading the images. This badge was discussed on other forums and the concensus was that it was a fake. In fact, it is an extremely rare "transitional" Fallschirmsch?tzenabzeichen (Heer) with the deformity around the first pattern eagle's talons caused by the makers' attempt to strengthen that area of the die. Only a handful of these are known, one of which is the 800 silver version that belonged to Ludwig Eger and which is currently being offered for sale by Eric Queen. The other examples are issue aluminium pieces, of which just three are known to date. Sadly, I got there too late. Someone had evidently made the vendor an offer he couldn't refuse and gotten the sale stopped. But it was faintly amusing to watch the forum discussions because some of the participants cited Eric Queen's book Red Shines The Sun, in which at least two of these "transitional" badges are clearly featured. The swastika has clearly been airbrushed out to comply with eBay rules. However, the badge is absolutely intact, with its fragile aluminium hook unbroken. Sometimes one sees real pearls on eBay... PK

Following on from Dave Danner's posting of a 1989 French Parachutist Badge award document, here is the German version from the same period.

The Spanish Cross on the right is a fake too. PK

I don't collect helmets but I do get excited when I see staggering rarities like this. Hard to visualise something rarer than the black Allgemeine-SS helmet, in M35 terms, but you've just posted it for us to look and wonder at. Amazing! The only Third Reich-era helmets as rare as this are the M36 and M37 parachutists' lids. Magnificent.

Deschler produced some of the best enamel work of the period, easily on a par with Godet. I agree that these awards ranked amongst the best-looking of the later NSDAP decorations. When you compare them to the fugly service crosses and so on, they win hands down an on aesthetic level. Some of the early kampfzeit awards were rather well-designed but that's off-topic. Very nice set. Good luck with researching them. PK

Can you scan and post that page of Marc Rikmanspoel's book? I haven't seen it yet but I gather that Hummel's real soldbuch and some award documents are out there somewhere. PK

What a great site. Bravo Megan! When you refer to variants of the French Croix de Guerre, do you mean official, semi-offical and Vichy variants? You'll see quite a rare one if you click here.. The riband is the standard Vichy type as fitted to the 1939-1940 crosses reissued by the P?tain government to men who stayed or re-engaged in the French Army after the armistice. Then there are the Giraud crosses, the LVF cross and, of course, the TOE cross. PK