Interesting U-boat find

[BubbaZ]

Hi Guys!
Here is my brother recent find made with metal detector. Again in KM naval base barracks in Świnoujście (Swinemunde). All these badges were found in one place with what was left from the uniform. Three small badges were with the remnants of the cap probably.
Sorry for the bad images.
From what I can see, the U-boat badge is zinc Meybauer, U-boat clasp is zinc 2nd pattern Schwerin but I am not familiar with the tinnies.
Do you have any clue what these three tinnies stand for? U-boat or base insignias? I am quite sure from how it was found that all three tinnies together with U-boat badge and the clasp were worn by one soldier.
Any help will be much appreciated!
Cheers,
Hubert

[BubbaZ]

clasp and tinies

[BubbaZ]

U-boat badge.
Again, sorry for bad images, my brother is much better in operating metal detector than the camera

[Norm F]

Very cool find Hubert (and Hubert's brother)!

I hope someone can provide some insight on the small crests.

Best regards,
---Norm

[petopoint]

nice diggings

Not too shabby, an excellent find with the metal detector. The clasp isn't bad looking and the Boat badge is neither after spending some 70 plus years in the mud. Congrats.

[pantherv]

.....

The first two look like City Crests and the black cat was always a popular lucky emblem.

Whether there connected in this way I couldn't say.

Any chance of a reverse picture Hubert.

Nice find BTW

[BubbaZ]

Thanks Guys!
I'll ask brother to send reverse pictures.
Can the specyfic u-boat be identified by these three crests and the fact they were found in Swinemunde? Provided the sailor's service was limited to one ship?
Cheers,
Hubert

[Blued]

Remarkable condition for ground dug zinc pieces

[BubbaZ]

I did an internet search - the first city crest (one with the ship) may be from La Rochelle and the other from the city of Brest, both in the banks of France?
Cheers,
Hubert

[Trance_Eyes]

Hi guys,

As a few Uboot Flottille where moved from Germany to France later in the war this is totally plausable.

Best

JustinC

[Mike TM]

Nice find

Mike

[AndyC]

Nice find Hubert



Andy

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Hubert,

Great find, always great to see "textbook" badges pop up out of the ground, lets us know we are on the right track with what we consider wartime badges versus some of the postwar, questionable stuff that we see from time to time.

Good luck with the little pendants, never seen anything like them before.

Tom

[JAndrew]

Hubert,
Those are very interesting items. The two city crests look like they are made by the same company. Perhaps they were sold as souvenirs to the crews.

Looking at which flotillas were at which bases and what boat and/or flotilla used the black cat sign the only one that I could find that would account for all 3 emblems was U-24 which was a type IIB boat. It was assigned to Flotilla 3 (La Rochelle) and Flotilla 1 (Brest) and had the black cat with arched back as an emblem. It was later assigned to Flotillas 21 and 30. The latter was in the Black Sea and that is were it seems it ended its career as the Germans lost their bases when it was scuttled 25 Aug. 44 at Konstanza.

I cannot account for the boat ever being in Swinemunde but since the crew was intact perhaps they were all re assigned to various bases/boats and that is how a crew member could have wound up in Swinemunde with these awards and shields.

Again, this is my best guess based on matching ship emblem, flotilla assignments and flotilla locations. I hope this is helpful in some way.

By the way, this "canoe" seemed to be a very successful boat having had 19 war patrols with 7 ships sunk and one damaged. Not bad for a little type II. With this record I would certainly think a crewman would have earned the awards found.

Regards,
JAndrew

[BubbaZ]

Hi JAndrew,
Thanks a lot for your help and for the information! Indeed the city crests (and even the cat, but its slightly smaller) seem to be produced by the same maker. I also lean to think that city crests are just souvenirs from visited cities/naval bases - similiar to our fridge magnets I just wonder if these were made for the crews or could be just purchased by anybody in regular souvenir stores in French cities?

U-24 was also my first thought but it belonged to these flotillas in times when they were located in other bases than La Rochelle and Brest. So as far as I know U-24 never operated from these bases.
More likely is that the sailor belonged to U-24 crew and also visited Brest and La Rochelle but on the other U-boat and at the end of war ended up in Swinemunde, where an U-boat trainning center was located, or was evacuating through Swinemunde deeper ito Germany, left his uniform in the barrack which was thrown under the barrack by Russian soldiers when cleanning the rooms (awards had no value for Russian soldiers in that times).
Just my thoughts
Cheers,
Hubert