U-boat badge.

[hui01]

Hi.

I need your help with this one.

Is it a good one?

Who can the maker be?

Thanks.

Regards Brian

IMG_1641.jpg

IMG_1642.jpg

[Norm F]

Hi Brian,

That's a zinc U-boat attributed to the so-called "unknown flatback" maker.

See this thread, and the threads linked within it and within those and so on...

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...latback+U-boat

Possibly a post-bombing Pforzheim maker, or possibly Rettenmaier over in Schwäbisch-Gmünd (evidence is speculative based on badge features and anecdotes) with a distinct possibility of production that continued post-war. That particular example looks quite nice but a lot of them look quite crude or even cast as you'll see in some of the linked threads.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

Sometimes that odd shaped main pin is referred to as Deschler-like since it's similar to that used on Deschler crosses, but a very similar pin appears on a variant of the Rettenmaier L/59 marked EK1 like that shown here (posted previously by 5tefan in the cross forum).

The name of Rettenmaier tends to turn up more often in flatback speculations than does Deschler. Both firms continued in business after the war ended (as did B.H. Mayer over in Pforzheim).

Best regards,
---Norm

[hui01]

Hi Norm.

Thank you very much for your help.

I will keep on loking for another badge.

Regards Brian

[Norm F]

For future reference just adding a link to the old discussion on a flatback GAB with Frank Heukeme's anecdote about the Rettenmaier connection.
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...06#post1583406

And another interesting speculative thread on the flatback origins:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...latback&page=2

Best regards,
---Norm

[BubbaZ]

Hi Norm,
Thanks for the links! I agree about the u-boat, it's unknown 'flatback maker'.
I also think that there was not one maker and one maker only who made these flatback awards. Too many different reverse setups and too many finish patterns for just one late war maker.
Cheers,
Hubert