Sweden Swedish machine gun badge? can anyone help

[medalman90]

Hello all. I came across something today that I really like but know nothing about it. According to the gentelman I spoke to today, thr badge is from the first world war and it is silver. I know Sweden was neutral in during both wars. Any insight on this will truly be appreciated.

[GRA]

Hello medalman90!

This is a normal award for shooting with support weapons. It also exists with crossed rifles for shooting with rifles, assault rifles, sub-machine guns and pistols. This "medal" also exist in gold after re-qualifying for five consecutive years, a gold with blue enamel "medal" also exist (at least for the small arms version), if not reaching "medal" level, a silver badge could also be awarded. As I recall, when I did my national service 25 years ago, it may have been awarded also for ATGW shooting, not only for MG shooting. I think a small sum of money was also included in the award, the badge was awarded with and without money, thus the it has the name of "price-shooting medal" - an award with a sum of money to be won with it. As to the age, well, the crossed rifles version is shown in the "Undervisning för ryttaren", 1916 edition.

/Jonas

Edited June 27, 2014 by GRA

[medalman90]

Jonas, thank you so much for enlightening me about this piece. you wouldn't happen to know where i can find this book, or at least some scans would you?

[GRA]

Here are some scans from "Undervisning för ryttaren" ("Instruction for the trooper") - basically a "soldier's bible" containing all information he needed, from patriotic stories(!) and army organisation to anatomy of the horse. My book once belonged to a corporal from my regiment who served in the early 1920's.

The normal shooting awards (the ones with crossed rifles) dates from 1907 and the MG awards dates from 1918.

- Gold medal with enamel (silver medal 10 consecutive years)

- Gold medal (silver medal 5 consecutive years)

- Silver medal (plus a small sum of money)

- Silver badge (plus a small sum of money)

- Silver badge

The link contains pictures of the awards - "Arméns skyttemedalj..." and "Arméns kulspruteskyttemedalj..." are the relevant ones.

http://medalj.nu/ribbon_list.asp

/Jonas