The Japanese Minesweeper badge (!)

[Martin W]

Wow,what a fantastic grouping.

Hempel's name is on my THOR crewlist for the second cruise the documents are signed by Gumprich on the same date as the ones i have,6 Jan 1943.

Probably the most complete grouping i have seen for any HK crewman.

Looks like he transferred to the M/S Burgenland the day after the Thor was destroyed in Yokohama on 30.11.42.

Cheers,Martin.

[Jelle M.]

Agree that's an excellent grouping.
Very complete. I wonder what the asking price is.

[Norm F]

It seems like every sailor stationed there at that time has an obligate group photo on picturesque Lake Ashi in Hakone, and Hempel was no exception. It's still a tourist draw today.

[Norm F]

The grouping also includes this photo showing the crew members of Thor in front of the Hakone hotel.

I know Martin has the same photo showing the same white scratches from the negative, so copies of this photo must have been distributed among the crew members.

[Martin W]

Yes Norm.

I think the photo's were taken by Kriegsberichter Heinz Tischer who was assigned to the Thor.
I have a lot of his documents and photo's.

Cheers,Martin.

[Benedict]

The mine sweeper conversion must be one of the most fascination articles ever. Normally most would dismiss such a badge but with this documentation and Norman/Martins scrutiny it's authenticity is proved and acceptable.

[Martin W]

What fascinates me about this grouping is that it gives an explaination of what happened to this one individual crewman after the Thor was destroyed in Yokohama.
Many went on and joined their Commander Gunther Gumprich on the ill-fated second cruise of the HK Michel that was also in Japan at the time,i think in Kobe.Her Commander Von Ruckteschell fell ill and was hospitalized in Tokyo and Gumprich took command in early 1943.
Other crewmen made it back to Germany by joining the crews of Blockade Breakers,including Kriegsbericher Heinz Tischer.
He made it back on the Blockade Breaker "Pietro Orsolo",for which he received the BB award.
Here is a page from his Soldbuch that shows his awards.
Interesting stuff,for me anyway.

Cheers,Martin.

[Norm F]

Interesting stuff,for me anyway.

Cheers,Martin.

For me too, it is indeed fascinating history.

I guess when Hempel was in the Internierungslager Ashinoyu at the end of the war he would have been together with Werner Chall whose badge is seen here: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...99#post7881199

Best regards,
---Norm

[Martin W]

Great that he scratched his name on the reverse of the badge.

With access to crewlists on some ships it's great to be able to put a name and a ship to a given HK award recipient.

As you know i have one of the less common tombak variants of the Japanese award.

Gosh,i love to be able to put a name as to it's recipient ?

Cheers,Martin.

[Norm F]

Although the grouping that was offered seems mostly complete, I do notice from the photos that it's missing one EK1 and one EK2 from the original grouping of a year ago. Now there are two EK1s and one EK2 (first photo) whereas previously there were three EK1s and two EK2s (second photo). Not too bad I guess considering most large groupings are broken up completely, and there's a lot of demand from collectors who can't afford large groupings...

Best regards,
---Norm

[Martin W]

It's still very nice that this grouping is mainly complete.

Some dealers really do not care.They will cater to collectors who collect awards,those that collect documents or photo's,and they will split groupings.

I am not mentioning names but i have seen it time and time again.

I purchased a named HK award some years ago from a German dealer.Months later he offered the award document that went with the award..Needless to say i picked up the doc..Happy family now.

Regards,Martin.

[Rene Chavez]

Wonderful historical group I'm glad it was not split up and sold separately.

Rene Chavez
www.foreignvolunteerlegion.com

[chrisje110]

The problem with grouping is that you can never prove that the awards belonged with the documents. Pieces get switched over in 70+years by dealers/collectors.

To actually believe in untouched groupings takes a lot of faith.

[Norm F]

The problem with grouping is that you can never prove that the awards belonged with the documents. Pieces get switched over in 70+years by dealers/collectors.

To actually believe in untouched groupings takes a lot of faith.

Although that's true in many cases, this particular grouping has integrity with a wide range of paperwork from Japan and awards with features unique to the Japanese arena, and hasn't yet been passed from dealer to dealer.

A discussion about the fate of groupings in general is outside the scope of this thread, but with regards to this particular grouping it was intact a year ago and only missing a couple of duplicate times today (nothing added or swapped that we can see). So almost as good as it gets.

Best regards,
---Norm

[chrisje110]

I agree that with these Japanese pieces this might be a very untouched group.

I see it is sold already, quality sells fast