Heer My General Assault Badges

[Avitas]

Hello all,

I have a couple GAB's now so I thought I would put them up here for a thread, as I will probably end up picking up another in the future if I am lucky The first one is one I recently acquired from Hauptman and has been ID'd as the possible Wernstein maker mark from late war zinc issue. It is in fine shape with a bit of the original silvering left and not much in the way of zinc rot, a great piece!

Cheers,

Pat

[Avitas]

and the reverse with the "w" marking on it. Thanks for looking,

Pat

[Avitas]

Here is a very special badge to me, my Grandpa's bringback from the war that he just gave me on a recent trip up north. He picked this one up in either the Ardennes or Germany late-war, but he couldn't remember a lot of details. This one is an early hollowback stamped tombak type GAB, but I do not know the maker. If anyone can help out with the maker that would be greatly appreciated. It has little silvering left, so it was probably worn for most of the war as my grandfather picked it off of a fallen opponent during his time with the RCAF 412th Squadron in their campaigns in the Ardennes, the taking if the Rhineland and up til the end of the war pushing into Germany. Any help on the maker and comments on it are welcome.

Cheers,

Pat

[Avitas]

Here is the reverse of this early hollowback tombak version GAB with a pin set-up that may help ID the maker. Cheers and thanks for any help and comments on either badge.

Pat

[Paul R]

Although I cannot be of any real help here, I enjoyed seeing your great badges. Thanks for posting!

Paul

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Pat

Nice badges Does the first badge's hinge plate have a W shaped cutout on the bottom of it? I would agree with the Wernstein, a good indication is the bronze washed pin and catch, and the way the catch is up so high. Can you scan me the hinge and catch area of the unmarked badge please? I am leaning towards Rudolf Karneth, but am still unsure.

Edited October 11, 2006 by Laurence Strong

[Guest Darrell]

Hi Pat,

If you are interested in collecting GAB's, I suggest you think about buying Frank Heukemes excellent publication (http://www.heukemes.com/index.php?kat=the_general_assault_badge).

It appears your second unmarked GAB is an unknown maker (#9 as Frank has classified it as 1.26.1) located on page 282-283).

Edited October 11, 2006 by Darrell

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Pat,

If you are interested in collecting GAB's, I suggest you think about buying Frank Heukemes excellent publication (http://www.heukemes.com/index.php?kat=the_general_assault_badge).

It appears your second unmarked GAB is an unknown maker (#9 as Frank has classified it as 1.26.1) located on page 282-283).

The thing that threw me off of that one was the tapered pin.

[Guest Darrell]

The thing that threw me off of that one was the tapered pin.

A guy can go senile looking through all the little differences

[Paul R]

yeah I know. I have been going bonkers trying to figure out my Memellands medals.

[greg.hays]

I can only agree with Darrell Frank's book is certainly a must have for any badge collecter but especially anyone interested in GAB's. I would also say unknown maker #9 for sure and the UU marked example is original as well.........although there are serious doubts out there as to whether the UU mark is really Wernstein. Traditionally this has been the accepted explination of the mark but there is growing evidence to the contrary. Either way both great badges

[Avitas]

Thanks for the expertise gentlemen

I will definitely have to track down a copy soon of Frank's book and hopefully a few more good TR collecting books, as they are hard to come by unless you know the right people So both of my badges are of unknown or mysterious origin, all the better I say. I really like the stamped example, the details are extremely crisp and the eagles head and the grenade/bayo really stand out in real-life 3-D. And as for the Wernstein? made badge I hope maybe soon someone will uncover the mystery.

Cheers,

Pat