Where there naval badges for minesweeper and torpedoboat service?

[Felix C]

See U-boat and Naval Airship but not for the surface ships. I understand regarding the fleet heavies as they saw relatively little combat but the small ships did-minesweepers and torpedo-boats.

Are there any badges for service in those branches?

[Chip M]

There was no imperial badge for surface ships. Cap tallies and sleeve rank/branch patches were the main insignia for enlisted men.

Chip

[Brian L.]

There was a Freikorps badge instituted in April 1919 for Minesweeping in the North Sea and Baltic.

Here's a grouping to a sailor of the Freiwillige Minensuchverbände der Nordsee.

He served in Mine sweeping during the war and continued on as a volunteer after the war.

Commonly, the badge came with a yellow mine. But, a scarce variation exists with a red mine. In the photo of the man on the left, he wears the badge with a red mine. I'm in the process of trying to get this badge from the family of the man this grouping came from because he apparently had both versions. But, the red mine seems to have been misplaced and they're looking for it.

This badge wasn't a qualification badge, but served both as a unit insignia and service award.

[Chip M]

It's interesting that this insignia is portrayed one way on the literature and has another orientation in the photo. Both of these insignia (1 yr. vol. chevron and mine) were used during the war, but not in the way that they are in the photo.

Chip

[Brian L.]

It's interesting that this insignia is portrayed one way on the literature and has another orientation in the photo. Both of these insignia (1 yr. vol. chevron and mine) were used during the war, but not in the way that they are in the photo.

Chip

Typical of early Freikorps insignia, this badge is cobbled together from existing Imperial stock. So, the commanding admiral who authorized this put together the Imperial mine specialist badge and the 1 year volunteer chevron to denote the service and the volunteer nature of the service. It's likely all the recipients were Imperial Navy mine sweepers just continuing service after the armistice. Although, they also cleared newly place mines in the Gulf of Riga during Baltic campaign to allow troops to get upriver during the Battle of Riga.

The photo in Militaria magazine to which you refer that shows the badge upside down was a publication layout mistake as far as I know.