CHOLM shield :: Long-M variant

[bnz. 42]

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...t=Cholm+Shield

Here is the thread that I was talking about...

Regards,
Chris G.

Chris, "azazello" was me (and the shield was/is mine). After my "bnz. 42" account was suspended for one year (BTW for being rude to "experts") I was "azazello" until mods found out that it was my new account. Anyway, since I am an extremely polite member now, I extremely politely would like to ask you, do you have anything related to the subject and the shield itself?

[bnz. 42]

Please explain what you mean by "Long M".

Mike

Mike, There are two variants of original Cholm shields: one variant has Long-M in the word "CHOLM" and another variant Short-M.
Below is a Short-M variant

[bnz. 42]

Just up to until recently (to be exact 2 months ago) there were no period pictures known to anyone that would show the "Long-M" variant shield in wear. That is why some collectors (and to be honest, including me sometimes) were "not 100% sure" about this variant. To be absolutely confident in it - we wanted to see the Long-M shield "In Wear" in a period/pre-1945 picture. The problem was that there are not so many pictures of Cholm wearers- not many were awarded. And even if you were lucky to find a picture with a Cholm shield in wear, due to the low resolution and size of images, it was always impossible to see if it is the "Long-M" or "Short-M" variant.
..untill recently..
Our member Pitomnik (Roman) did a really great job searching hard for it. Long story short, he was able to find the High-Resolution scan of the picture (shown below) in which you can clearly see the "Long-M" in wear. Please notice that this HJ portrait picture has been well known for a long time and was published in many reference books before (including Angolia books) but never in High-Resolution and the shield details could not be seen before.
Thanks Roman for it!

[bnz. 42]

As you can see, I did my "home work" before posting here, researched and studied the Cholm shield in depth from all possible sources for a long time. This award is rare, especially Long-M, and many and even advanced collectors simply do not have enough information on it. I remember Stijn David who is the author of all articles about the Cholm shield on this site http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/camp...elds/cholm.htm as well as many other printed publications. He studied this subject for a long time, wrote books, articles about Cholm shields, met German Cholm veterans, etc ..and after all this, with all his knowledge, bought a fake:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=35151
I am not an expert here but I always learn, compare original examples and analyze them, and it was me who pointed out that Stijn's shield is a fake and supported my observations with facts, not just "hit-and-run" as others.. So I would really appreciate it if you do the same with my shield if you think it is not original for any reason.
Below is another interesting "reference book": example of how much information was/is available tocollectors on Cholm shields: the top shield is presented as an "original example"!

[pantherv]

......

I don't see anything wrong with your shield. It looks like a textbook long 'M' to me.

Could we see a flat scan of the shield as opposed to an angled shot.

[Pascal H.]

Hi bnz,

I am impressed in the way you did your research and presented your conclusions in this thread.
I have never doubted the originality of the so called long "M" Cholm shield and I do think that after reading your thread it would be very hard to deny the fact that the long "M" Cholm shield is indeed a 100% original shield.

Maybe we should pin this thread as it also has the most relevant links to other long "M" Cholm shield discussions.

Kr
Pascal

[deejay]

Keep up the effort. It's threads like this one that are like a treasure imo. It untangles many thoughts and theories about these rare shields. Thanks for sharing this information and all the best !

[Eddie]

Hi Bnz,this is just awesome research,you have done great job on this one.

best regards,

Eddie

[Joe D]

All I can say is, WOW. Very impressive thread on the "Long-M" Cholm shield!

[bnz. 42]

I am glad you find it useful but this thread is a result of our combined work of all us here on the forum
pantherv, as requested, here are a couple straight shots of the shield.

[bnz. 42]

[bnz. 42]

"Lovely" die flaw

[bnz. 42]

cheers

[JustinG]

Very good review and data collected. Job well done.

[pantherv]

.....

Great thread and a nice original shield..