S&L Destroyer Badge

[Tom Yanacek]

Hi Guys,

Found this well-worn but still nice-looking Steinhauer & Lück Destroyer Badge at a show this weekend. It's only the second one I've owned in 35 years of collecting. My other one has a much nicer finish, but I like the look of this one too.

Best regards,
Tom

[Tom Yanacek]

Unfortunately, the top hook is gone on this example. I can never seem to find one with the top hook intact. I think the long, sheet metal top hooks used on these were very prone to breakage. I have seen some S&L Destroyers with a shorter, round wire top hook which was probably much more sturdy. I wonder if the earliest production pieces used the long, sheet metal top hooks and then, due to breakage problems in-wear, the subsequent production runs used the shorter, round wire top hooks to correct the defect?

[mrg]

Very nice Tom and great condition

[Hans Kondor]

Nice one Tom,congrats!

[Christopher G.]

Very nice S&L...

Regards,
Chris G.

[Militaria-Berlin]

Very difficult to find and I´ve always wondered why S&L made so few of these. Schwerins are downright common with MAyers and GWLs a little less so but these 4 marked S&ls just never sem to turn up.

MB

[Tom Yanacek]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments.

Here are the two side-by-side. Someday I hope to get one with the top hook intact.

Best regards,
Tom

[Tom Yanacek]

reverse:

[Husme]

very good acquisition.

[John R.]

Nice find. It could be that the long top hook was intentionally broken off by the recipient. I do not think it would just break off at all, but being so long, maybe they did not like it. Not sure.

Jody's from SOS still has the long top hook.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ight=destroyer

No matter, you now have two very nice examples. John

[Jody]

S&L Destroyer

Hi Tom,
You have a great badge there. I was able to get my S&L example this year at the SOS from my good friend Alex aka Z19. As a matter of fact John Robinson was with me when I bought it.

S&L made a great destoyer's badge (but I still prefer Schwerin).

Regards,
Jody

BTW, here is my example:

[Tom Yanacek]

Hi Jody,

Thank you for posting your S&L Destroyer. That one is superb! Do you think your top hook was cut back a bit? It looks like the end is somewhat rough and usually this type of top hook was longer to where it almost touches the deck of the destroyer.

Best regards,
Tom

[Tom Yanacek]

There is a round wire top hook variant in the following thread, plus there are a couple shown with the long, flat top hooks:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...%26l+destroyer

[Jody]

S&L Destroyer

There is a round wire top hook variant in the following thread, plus there are a couple shown with the long, flat top hooks:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...%26l+destroyer

Hi Tom,
That is an interesting point about my top hook. My hook has been cut back and it has finish on the end. We discussed this on the GCA forum.

If you see the badges with the long flat top hook you will find a diagonal line that crosses the hook about midway down (look at post #20 in the thread that posted). In one example I compared mine too you can see that the line almost lines up were my hook is clipped (in other examples the line is found farther down).

I feel my example was clipped at the line (it appears to be factory done). Maybe they were all supposed to be clipped there but many came out with the extra long hook-unclipped. As you know S&L also produced this same badge with a rounded top hook. Maybe the flat long hook wasn't working out and was to easy to snap off, so they went with round wire.

This is just a theory, but I am sticking with it for now.

Regards,
Jody