U-boat War Badge with Diamonds today!

[Sepp45]

Hello

When I first started collecting i bought a large collection and in it was two badges of importance. One was the wearer's copy of the PO badge in diamonds, and the other was an Aux Cruiser in diamonds, both came from Sweden, I only have a black and white picture that i took of it but you can see that it was 900 Silver and mint condition. I only wish that i had it now, at the time many years ago there was no books on these badges and nobody believed that either badge was good, sad about that!!

Regards

Anthony

This one comes from the Wolfe-Hardin collection.

[Norm F]

This one comes from the Wolfe-Hardin collection.

Yes, same type as Anthony's old badge and same comment as before:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...72#post5596072

Best regards,
---Norm

[Kondor]

After many hours, I could get much better quality photos of this piece attributed to U-boat ace Merten.

I heard the Kaptain Merten's awards were sold by his son, but why would the badge sell without the case? He always kept it in a case and then a larger wooden box with all of the families medals? I shot these with a 35mm and I'm not that much better with a digital, but this is what he presented to me to look at on a visit to his house. I tried to enhance it to the best of my ability.
He told me that his awards would be going to the U-Boat Museum, but what happens after you are gone........................sad

[Sepp45]

I heard the Kaptain Merten's awards were sold by his son, but why would the badge sell without the case? He always kept it in a case and then a larger wooden box with all of the families medals? I shot these with a 35mm and I'm not that much better with a digital, but this is what he presented to me to look at on a visit to his house. I tried to enhance it to the best of my ability.
He told me that his awards would be going to the U-Boat Museum, but what happens after you are gone........................sad

Greeeat photos! Thanks Kondor! And really sad about what happened...

Regards,
Sepp.

[Sepp45]

Korvettenkapitan Gunther Prien

I didn't see it at first, but then there it was: a Uboot badge w/diamonds on the left side of the grouping.

Despite the fact Prien died in 1941, I'm guessing that's his original diamond badge. I doubt he would carry it on patrols out in the sea.

What are your thoughts?

[Norm F]

Despite the fact Prien died in 1941, I'm guessing that's his original diamond badge. I doubt he would carry it on patrols out in the sea.

What are your thoughts?

Hi Sepp,

I'm concerned about the company it keeps. If you look at the badge on the lower right, the one without diamonds, it appears to be a horizontal pin Tombak. This shouldn't exist although there are horizontal pin fakes...

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

I just noticed something else interesting about the two types of diamond U-Boats. When you look at the four accepted attributed badges presented in this thread so far, it seems that the small swastika variety was received by Schultze and Merton and the large swastika variety was received by Emmermann and Lassen.

Based on the dates of award, this would appear to suggest that the small swastika version was the earlier one with a transition to the large swastika version sometime in 1943. Interestingly Karl Dönitz took over from Karl Raeder as Commander in Chief of the KM on January 30, 1943 which appears to correlate with the transition from the Type 1 to the Type 2 (on this limited sampling).

[Norm F]

Now when you look at the so-called "Prien" award, it's a bit different again. It's most like the "late"version but the swastika is mounted a tiny bit lower down. So the question becomes when was Prien's badge officially awarded? To be the larger version, if the timing theory of the two types is correct, it would have to have been awarded two years after his death.

Best regards,
---Norm

[amiklic1]

Norm, we should establish a medal for your contributions to the community.
As usual, you're doing a great job in clearing all the facts, which are really valuable to anyone interested.

Thanks!

[Sepp45]

A very impressive analysis Norm... thanks a lot I have no doubt in my mind about Prien receiving the award, but I have my doubts whatever that's the one or not in the grouping.

I need photographic evidence.. so I better start searching

Regards,
Sepp.

[Sepp45]

For what it's worth, here's a photo of the same awards pictured on a very old Australian Maritime Magazine.

I'm still on the look for more pictures.

[Sepp45]

I also found an incredible photo of the Special Uboot badge awarded to Großadmiral Karl Dönitz. This picture was posted by Christopher Ailsby on his militaria blog, so credits to him.

Source: http://ailsby.blogspot.com.ar/2012/0...1939-1945.html

[Norm F]

An article posted by a Russian magazine/book about III Reich badges. Inside, a description of the U-boat award with diamonds.

Hi Sepp,

That Russian article bears close scrutiny. Firstly, the proportions of the page image are compressed vertically, so I've corrected the image here. (corrected images attached)

I don't know how to read the Russian text, but that badge isn't correct as I'll show in the next posting.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

When you compare the reverse from the Russian article to the Carl Emmermann Type 2 badge with diamonds you can see obvious differences in outlines and hardware.

The clincher is in the maker mark. When you compare the marks in known Schwerin products like the summer uniform breast eagle and regular issue U-Boat badge and the marks in the attributed Type 1 and Type 2 diamond U-Boat badges, they all match nicely. But the maker mark in the Russian article is clearly wrong, most noticeably when you see the alignment of the "N" in BERLIN underneath the "E" in SCHWERIN.

Maybe someone can help with a translation of the Russian text to see what claims are made about that badge but it's clearly a fake.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Ludwig]

Lassen's diamond badge, that belonged to collector Bill Stump

A friend of mine has visited Lassen two or three times during the last ten years, and Lassen still had his badge. He is dead now, I think, but in that case, he died long after Bill Stump, so how could Stump have Lassen´s badge? Did Lassen have two badges or is it just the photo, that comes from Stump´s collection???