Cholm Battle Shield

[Brent Smith]

Just picked up this Cholm battle shield fresh from a US veterans bring back pile ...Never owned one before as I guess they are rather rare ? Did they have a back plate and cloth ?? How many were made as I have never owned one ? Thank you Brent

[Aiceman]

Hi Brent!
You can get best opinions from expert collectors in shield subforum

[Tom Yanacek]

Hi Brent,

As far as I can tell, it appears to be an original. Despite the surface rust I still think it looks nice and it is a rare shield. Approximately 5,500 troops were besieged in Fortress Cholm so the number of awards was quite small in relation to other campaign shields.

Best regards,
Tom

[Tom Yanacek]

Did they have a back plate and cloth ??

Oops! Missed this the first time around.

Yes! They had cloth and metal backing plates just like most other shields.

Best regards,
Tom

[Chet Sowersby]

Indeed, it does look to be a good one. IMO the term "rare" is a bit much as these can be found without much difficulty on a regular basis.

Chet

[Tom Yanacek]

IMO the term "rare" is a bit much as these can be found without much difficulty on a regular basis.

Hi Chet,

You're right! Scarce might be a better word.

Best regards,
Tom

[Antonio Scapini]

Just picked up this Cholm battle shield fresh from a US veterans bring back pile ...Never owned one before as I guess they are rather rare ? Did they have a back plate and cloth ?? How many were made as I have never owned one ? Thank you Brent

Hi Brent, the shield is IMO an original one.

As the other shields this one too can be found with cloth and back plate and without, because as the others it can be bought from soldiers to the LDO shops without back plate and cloth. In period catalogs (if I remember correctly) were listed prices of sales of the shield only and of the back plate only.
It is possible this shield never had back plate and cloth.

[Ludwig]

Looks OK to me!