5-feather U-Boat opinions

[Norm F]

And yet another gilding, which in this case in hand looks more like a flash coating (again whether wartime or post-war is anyone's guess).

[RichardT]

Norm, all I can tell you about them is what was in the seller's description, which is attached.

Richard

[Norm F]

Norm, all I can tell you about them is what was in the seller's description, which is attached.

Richard

Very interesting! This planchet discussion is, of course, a separate spin-off topic from the 5-feather U-boat thread, but in a convoluted way it's a related topic.

The unfinished zinc planchets of the Coastal Artillery, Fleet and Blockade Breaker badges shown in posts 51 and 52 are clearly the Pforzheim design and look like the types usually found marked "L/18" for Mayer (or "L/21" for F&B in the case of the CA and BB badges). Of course, it's well documented that both Mayer and F&B were in the same "Liefergemeinschaft Pforzheimer Innungen" along with Zimmermann. Makes you wonder if Zimmermann stamped the planchets which were then supplied to Mayer and F&B for assembly, finishing and marking.

Cooperative arrangements such as these are a very hot topic right now (like the discussion on Godet's awards going on currently in the EK section). In the case of Pforzheim the local cooperative is well-publicized in period advertisements and the "Liefergemeinschaft Pforzheimer" markings on Mutterkreuz and KVK2 packaging, whereas for other looser cooperatives we have to glean information from physical evidence.

In the case of the 5-feather U-boat we now have circumstantial and physical evidence to theorize that Schwerin also was involved in relationships with suppliers and/or subcontractors, at least for die production by 1943 and quite possibly for badge production later on as bombing pressures interfered with local operations. We see big changes in production and finish from Schwerin's 1st pattern U-Boat clasp to the 2nd pattern Gablonz-style design, and stark differences in quality and finish between their early Auxiliary Cruiser badges with aluminum globes and the later cruder version with the Tombak globe, resembling late-war Lüdenscheid style of production. Possibly Schwerin was forced in later wartime to engage in cooperatives with Gablonz and Lüdenscheid to meet demand. If that occurred with the 5-feather U-Boat badge, that could possibly explain why we see the tooling and some oddly finished examples surviving outside of Berlin?

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

Another example of the post-war hollow version snuck through to the Weitze update unfortunately, mis-priced at 650 Euro. It's a good working theory that these were struck from the Diehle/Schwerin tooling in the 1960's.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

Another example of the post-war hollow version snuck through to the Weitze update unfortunately, mis-priced at 650 Euro. It's a good working theory that these were struck from the Diehle/Schwerin tooling in the 1960's.

A couple of '57-form awards with the same 1960's style hardware.