Some how I can't find the thread where we were discussing the variant U-boat badge belonging to von Schroeter my friend Steve Previtera photographed and presented in his great book THE IRON TIMES. As promised, I wrote Steve and below is what he reported back about the badges of Schroeter and the mistakes he made in his. again GREAT, book:
"The two badges of Herr v. Schroeter are a portion of his decorations he showed me when I visited his house. I asked him about them, but concentrated on the Iron Cross and KC in particular as this was the subject of my book. I felt however it was important to include all the decorations as he took the time to lay them out for me and explain them. I admit now that I do not know much about badges so I simply listened as he described one as the copy he kept at home and one he wore to sea (as I remember the exchange, it is on tape right now somewhere as I copied my notes from recordings) But he said that these were his original badges and that he was captured by the French. He was warned by another person just before going into French captivity that the French would go through his things and take anything they wanted. He handed off his awards to a fellow he knew that was a civilian in a town they were passing through. This guy held on to v. Schroeter's decorations until after he was released from POW camp (two years or so) Horst reclaimed his decorations and these are the ones he showed me and I photographed. I asked him if he was sure, he said yes, so I included them.
And this leads me to another point, of which I appreciate your support. There are mistakes in The Iron Time. With over 1,000 photos there are bound to be. Let the folks point out those mistakes and they are helping us all, especially me in the correction stage. But one other thing I would like to say. I included everything that I could to help everyone. My book is not full of mistakes, it is full of photographs. If I made one mistake it was putting too many photos into a book when I could have gotten away with much much less. But if 10 or 20 mistakes in photographic research were made then the other 1007 photos stand as a testament to an effort "full of hard work" with complete and honest regard for bringing the reader all that was known up to the point of publication."
"The two badges of Herr v. Schroeter are a portion of his decorations he showed me when I visited his house. I asked him about them, but concentrated on the Iron Cross and KC in particular as this was the subject of my book. I felt however it was important to include all the decorations as he took the time to lay them out for me and explain them. I admit now that I do not know much about badges so I simply listened as he described one as the copy he kept at home and one he wore to sea (as I remember the exchange, it is on tape right now somewhere as I copied my notes from recordings) But he said that these were his original badges and that he was captured by the French. He was warned by another person just before going into French captivity that the French would go through his things and take anything they wanted. He handed off his awards to a fellow he knew that was a civilian in a town they were passing through. This guy held on to v. Schroeter's decorations until after he was released from POW camp (two years or so) Horst reclaimed his decorations and these are the ones he showed me and I photographed. I asked him if he was sure, he said yes, so I included them.
And this leads me to another point, of which I appreciate your support. There are mistakes in The Iron Time. With over 1,000 photos there are bound to be. Let the folks point out those mistakes and they are helping us all, especially me in the correction stage. But one other thing I would like to say. I included everything that I could to help everyone. My book is not full of mistakes, it is full of photographs. If I made one mistake it was putting too many photos into a book when I could have gotten away with much much less. But if 10 or 20 mistakes in photographic research were made then the other 1007 photos stand as a testament to an effort "full of hard work" with complete and honest regard for bringing the reader all that was known up to the point of publication."
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