U Boat badge for review

[Brian C.]

Is this a good one? It looks OK to me but has a different pin than I thought it would.

Thanks,

Brian


f441 by briancre, on Flickr

[Norm F]

Hi Brian,

Just as you say, different setup from usual. These "unmarked F&BL" badges were just being discussed in this thread:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ghlight=L%2F56

This is yet another hardware variation to add to the puzzle. This narrow block hinge with wrap-around pin is seen on other Luedenscheid makers like Deumer and S&L. Now we've seen one setup on marked L/56 badges and three different setups on the unmarked variants (four if you count the reversed catch as a separate variant). As stated in that thread, at least some are likely late wartime construction but post-war assembly in Ludenscheid from leftovers cannot be ruled out.

Another distinct possibility is late war or post-war repair of a period badge using leftover period hardware, given that the finish is absent from around the hinge and on the back of the eagle's head.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Mike Kenny]

The darkening around the hinge area and the presence of a larger rectangular footprint around the current hinge suggest to me that the hinge (and therefore possibly main pin) is a replacement. When is anybody's guess but imo not factory and definitely post gilt finishing.

Regards
Mike

[Norm F]

The darkening around the hinge area and the presence of a larger rectangular footprint around the current hinge suggest to me that the hinge (and therefore possibly main pin) is a replacement. When is anybody's guess but imo not factory and definitely post gilt finishing.

Regards
Mike

Hi Mike,

I agree, a replacement post-gilding.

Oddly, however, when you compare that residual footprint to the usual setup on these unmarked "F&BL" badges it doesn't quite match. The corners are pointed on the footprint in contrast to the rounded corners of the usual sheet metal hinge. Hard to know what kind of hinge was there originally, although pointed corners makes you wonder about the post-war Souval hinges like in the comparison attached here.

I'm also showing a comparison to an S&L wound badge with the same hinge and pin, although you can see that pointed tip was snipped of on the U-Boat.

Makes you wonder if at some time there was a sharp-cornered hinge on the badge and then someone replaced that with a leftover Lüdenscheid hinge and pin.

Although we often see messed-with examples of war badges, for some reason there are several messed up examples of this particular type of badge?

Best regards,
---Norm