U Boat Badge Questions

[Philippe DB]

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[Frank Heukemes]

I also went through my files and found another massive example of these, although unmarked. It is owned by "iron" of the German SDA forum. It looks refinished but original to me:

[Frank Heukemes]

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[Hans N]

Interesting U boats, to say the least. I wouldn´t neither mind to have one of the massive in my collection, can´t say that i don´t like them. They have a nice feature and good details IMO.

[vonStubben]

Hollow sub badge

Hi Bob,


Very interesting and design wise the best eagle I have ever seen on a U-Boat. Although I have never seen the solid variant I like it vry much.

I think you might find this interesting, I always kept this brother of your hollow badge in my files. So your badge isn't alone out there

Don't remember who these pics belong to so I hope it's not a problem that I post them here for comparison.

KR
Philippe

PS: the halfway excepted hollow U-Boat features the Hymmen design if i'm not mistaken.

Hello,

Nice badges!

I was going to purchase one of these hollow examples some 13 years ago but I made the mistake of walking away from it, returning 5 minutes later only to find it had sold to the very next person who saw it, needless to say I lost the only opportunity I have ever had at obtaining one of these so far. I personally believe them to be period examples as they are very well made and have excellent detail.

Philippe, I don't believe they are of Hymmen manufacture although they look very similar. The give away I believe being that these examples include the screw at the end of the propeller shaft whereas Hymmen badges have no screw.

I may be wrong but that's my two cents worth.

Regards,

Chuck

[Mike Kenny]

Hi,

I have no problems with the solid example, although whether it was made with the mark or added later (by a pre-45 reseller or post-war) is anyone's guess.

The hollow example would not be for me. The hinge, pin and especially the wide thin catch are too reminiscent of 57ers. The strange patchy grey colour (?over the finish?) also has me scratching my head.

Regards
Mike K

[Bob Hritz]

Mike,


The badges I posted were the solid, massive zinc and the hollow stamped tombak. Philippe's photo shows a badge, from the same dies, made of stamped zinc. The patchy gray areas are where the gold laquer finish has micro-flaked away from the gray zinc base metal. This is commonly found on the French made naval badges. Just a poor choice of base metal, but they were not intended to be used for 6 decades, especially the later zinc badges. I certainly would not mind having the badge Philippe posted as the third variation. Of course, variety is what always intrigued me. I know they are not for everyone, but it does show a development of the manufacturing types. If you could compare the pins, they are all the same, but shortened, in the same style for the hollow badges. Now the question is WHEN was each type made?

The FL has me stumped. It could also be a personal property mark and not a maker's mark at all.

Bob Hritz

[Tiger 1]

Great badges Bob!

You may be on the right track about the FL being a personal property stamp. I have seen similar types of stamps on machinist's tools and gauges to ID the owner. A basic stamp like this would not be difficult for a machinist to make.

I have pictures somewhere of a hollow U-boat badge that I once owned about twenty or twenty five years ago. In hindsight I foolishly let it get away from me for something I no longer remember or have. I'll have to find the pics and compare the details. You have my curiousity peeked.

Just some thoughts.

Tony

[Frank Heukemes]

Gents,

If it was an owner's stamp, how would the finish be possibly preserved and immaculate inside the stamp? Impossible, IMO.