Frontreif and Westwerftabzeichen U-boat awards

[Norm F]

Hi Chris,

Due to WAF's server upgrade yesterday, all the images I posted which were illustrating the differences between "accepted" examples of the Westwerft-Leistungsabzeichen and your examples are gone, hopefully temporarily, as Simon Orchard says it will take several days for the 2 and half million images to be ported over.

The links to your images at the top of thread are already restored but there's no view of the reverse of the Frontreif badge (there never was).

I think we'll have to put the discussion on hiatus until the images I posted reappear but perhaps in the meantime you could post an image of the reverse of your Frontreif for future reference? The WAF software accepts jpegs up to 1200 by 900 pixels in size and automatically resizes photos bigger than that when uploaded.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

Just adding some search terms to help find this thread in the future:
Naval dockyard workers achievement badge
Westwerft Leistungsabzeichen

[RKC]

Norm:

There was also another "Shipyard Worker's Badge" which was awarded as a 'Second' pattern by KRUPP to the shipyard workers at the French yards later on that was VOID of a National Emblem.

I acquired one many years back that was 2-piece construction with outstanding detail work on the 'submarine' & the 'cogged gear wheel'. The submarine was separately made & slipped through the open gear wheel & nicely soldered in place. The stickpin was then nicely soldered to the back of the wreath top & the entire piece was "nickel-chrome" plated.

Not finding anything like this in Angolia's "For Fuhrer And Fatherland", I wrote to the German Embassy in Ottawa & sent them photos & asked if they could search for any information for me from their archives in Germany. They responded about 3-weeks later & stated that it was 'the second pattern' which was awarded without the National Emblem [reason unknown to them at present time], & that they confirmed it's existence.

My dealings were with the 'Military Attache' Office within the Embassy in Ottawa & that was probably around 1979.

Ron

[Martin W]

Here is an example that i picked up from the e-stand here some time ago.

It was not expensive,so i figured it might be worth getting.

It is a heavy piece for it's size,possibly cupal ?


Regards,Martin.

[rhudspith]

Hi Norm, that is my badge shown in post 7.
Out of interest I had the chance of a frontreif badge many years ago but when I had it in hand i was not comfortable with the construction and overall appeareance.

[Norm F]

Hi Norm, that is my badge shown in post 7.

Hi Rob,

Yours is the nicest condition example I've seen so far of the type generally accepted as original wartime. Is there any story behind it?

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

Here is an example that i picked up from the e-stand here some time ago.

It was not expensive,so i figured it might be worth getting.

It is a heavy piece for it's size,possibly cupal ?

Regards,Martin.

Hi Martin,

Cupal would have to be lighter than Tombak, not heavier, so I would guess it can't be Cupal?

When you compare yours to the modern copy posted earlier, there are some notable similarities in the pin knurling and base plate as well as the contours, etc. but yours has better detail. I would guess either the modern copy is closely based upon your pin (of unknown origin) or they are both from the same post-war source but different times of production?

Best regards,
---Norm

[rhudspith]

Hi Rob,

Yours is the nicest condition example I've seen so far of the type generally accepted as original wartime. Is there any story behind it?

Best regards,
---Norm

It was part of a group of good miscellaneous U-boat badges that Angolia sold. One of them was a milk cow traditions badge which I passed on but should have got. From memory I think Richard Hall ended up with that one. I lost touch with Richard some years agon, not sure if he is still around or not. Nost of them were pictured in the km series reference books. This one was can be seen in KM Uniforms and Traditions vol 2 page 126.
regs
Rob

[Norm F]

I just stumbled across this old thread from 2011 with what appears to be a good example of the accepted Tombak variety.
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=538556

[Norm F]

reverse

[Norm F]

Two more examples of the zinc version.

[Norm F]

Two more examples of the "accepted" types - one Tombak and one zinc.

[Norm F]

Here's one that's on e-stand (and on the dealer's site as well) that looks very much like the Tombak ones in this thread but has a white/silver finish and different kind of knurled pin. Haven't seen this variation before but I can't see anything particularly wrong with it.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

view showing the knurled pin on this one.

[Norm F]

The example with the broken pin associated with a Soldbuch and shown in post #11 recently came up on Weitze's update. Some images: