Kriegsmarine U-96 & 9.U-FL hand crafted badge ?

[Bison]

I found by chance this badge last week in a "brocante" in Northern France and I would like to know your advice on it.

My assumption is that it could be a true one, which belonged to a submariner named "Herman.Z", appointed to the famous U-96 in 1940 (?) and after in the 9th Flotilla in Brest.

Subject to your expertise.... I don't know many things about German submarines.

It is around 73mm long, 40mm high and 0.5mm thick, made from solid brass probably coming from ammunitions.

Regards

[Michel]

I found by chance this badge last week in a "brocante" in Northern France and I would like to know your advice on it.

My assumption is that it could be a true one, which belonged to a submariner named "Herman.Z", appointed to the famous U-96 in 1940 (?) and after in the 9th Flotilla in Brest.

Subject to your expertise.... I don't know many things about German submarines.

It is around 73mm long, 40mm high and 0.5mm thick, made from solid brass probably coming from ammunitions.

Regards

Bonjour Bison,

Bien que nous ne puissions avoir de certitude sur l'originalit? ou non de ce type d'embl?me de coiffure, celui-ci me semble plus que suspect.

Un peu trop de litt?rature pour ?tre honn?te, que ce soit dans le texte ou dans la frappe je n'aime pas trop.

Cordialement,

Michel

[Naxos]

Bison - there is no one by the Name of Herman Z listed as a crew member of U96.

http://ubootwaffe.net/crews/crews.cgi?surn...=;year=;bquery=

Hardy

[RichardT]

Bison - there is no one by the Name of Herman Z listed as a crew member of U96.

http://ubootwaffe.net/crews/crews.cgi?surn...=;year=;bquery=

Hardy

Hardy, be mindful the "ubootwaffe's" crew lists are not complete so there may or may not have been a Herman Z who once served on U-96.

Richard

[Naxos]

Hardy, be mindful the "ubootwaffe's" crew lists are not complete so there may or may not have been a Herman Z who once served on U-96.

Richard

Richard, you are absolutely correct;

Let's say the likelihood of a Herman Z having been a crewmember of U96 is very slim.

Another problem is that in German Hermann is always spelled with two n at the end but there again - perhaps he run out of real-estate and had to shorten his name to one n.

Hardy

Edited March 5, 2008 by Naxos

[RichardT]

Richard, you are absolutely correct;

Let's say the likelihood of a Herman Z having been a crewmember of U96 is very slim.

Another problem is that in German Hermann is always spelled with two n at the end but there again - perhaps he run out of real-estate and had to shorten his name to one n.

Hardy

No disagreement here Hardy.

Richard

[Bison]

Thank you all for your answers.

I suspect, too, it could be a fake... it is so easy to copy such a badge. However, I have a doubt. And Michel you are right, there is too much litterature on it, this is not usual ... but exists in some case.

I have wrote a letter to the U-Boat archive museum in Germany to ask their advice...

In this book : "Les hommes des U-Boote", from Jean DELIZE ISBN : 978-2-35250-045-2 (I think it has been published in English), one can see two similar models.

For "Herman.Z" I found three possibilities :

- Hermann Zander, who was the commander of U-1205, without knowing its previous appointments ;

- Hermann Zobel, who served on U-605, belonging to 9th U-Fl in 1942

- ??????? Zesch of U-96. I found the footprint of a "Herman Zesch", with a sigle N, in TEXAS, USA, in 1945, married with Evelyn Kirchhoff.... but the probability that he was the same man is near to zero, I mean.

Fake or true, this badge allows me to get into this incredible world of the German U-Boot crews.

Thanks again, and I continue my search....

Bison

[Naxos]

Hi Bison;

Research is an exciting and rewarding exercise regardless of its success. The serendipitous information one acquirers from it is an invaluable side effect.

Good luck, Hardy

[Bison]

Thank you Hardy

I fully agree with you.

Regards

Bison

[Michel]

The second sawfish is a fake made by a collector five or six years ago...

Same for the bear, well know fake made by a french dealer.

[Bison]

Hello

I come back to you to give you the incredible results of my research about this little badge.

First, I got contact with the German U-Boot Museum. I had a kind answer confirming that Zesch was actually Funkmaat on the U-96, but unfortunately with no certitude about his christian name...

Second, I received a kind answer from a former officer of the U-96 I succeed to find !

I quote : "no doubt that the owner of it was the radiooperator Hermann Zesch" I asked him the question of the double mention "U-96 and 9.FL"

He replied : "None of our former members of the crew U-96 found any answer to the question. [...] As Hermann Zesch died a couple of years ago our problem must stay unsolved".

I will continue to write to him, and hope he will share his memory...

As a conclusion, this badge is authenticated and identified to belong to Funkmaat Zesch, radio in the U-96. You cannot imagine how I am happy with that !

Yours

Bison