57 Lappland shield thoughts...???

[Pink]

Appreciate your thoughts on this Lappland Shield...haven't seen any 57 er's before so appreciate your opinions....
Cheers
FS

[Skyhawk]

Good S&L

Does not have the metal trimmed away at the tops of wings though.

Added a quick iphone image of mine for comparison.

Best,

Jeff

[Pink]

Many thanks Jeff...perhaps a later 'untrimmed' version..?

[Nigel N]

Hi Floyd!!
An nice S&L example, as already mentioned, and a piece made a little later, judging by the finish!!!
The Lappland is an interesting piece, as not only is it not a "57er" as there was never a Swastika, from memory, I think that neither this or the Lorient shield were authorised for wear in postwar years, though I guess that applied more to serving BW guys, rather than ordinary vets, who wore pretty much what they wanted!!!
Personally, I would only consider the S&L, and Souval made shields as acceptable vets pieces.
-Nigel

[Simon O.]

In the history of the Wehrmacht the Lappland is a unique decoration as it straddles both sides of the capitulation. By that i mean instituted and authorised prior to the end of the war but only awarded and produced after.

I also consider it a 'proto-57' by that i mean it was designed in 1945 specifically without a swastika as per allied instructions. At the same time it was designed, the first instructions and suggestions for de-nazified versions of awards were also being produced by the German high command in Norway, some of these designs are recognisable as the later '57' variants.