Luft Ground Assault - maker?

[James Clark]

Any thoughts on who made this Luftwaffe Ground Assault Badge?

Can't work out what metal the badge is made of but I don't think it's zinc. The eagle is made from a different kind of metal though, and the pin looks like brass.

[James Clark]

Reverse. The eagle is held on by a single rivet (see following picture).

[James Clark]

Detail of rivet and hinge block.

All comments welcome, thanks for your help.

James

[Frank Heukemes]

Dear James,

Interesting! The base material is definitely Feinzink, while the eagle application is some white Buntmetall. This hinge/pin/catch is normally attributed to Juncker made badges.

Cheers, Frank

[ERIC S.]

Wow! That's a new one to me! Juncker GCB's? I have not seen one attributed to Juncker, but I agree with Frank - that's the Hinge / Pin / Catch on an oblong plate style found on zinc Juncker made pieces. So I too would guess Juncker - a very interesting piece indeed!
ERIC

[Rich G]

Is this syle of hinge and catch not also found on Zimmermann(?) badges? I remember a thread where 2 different PAB or IAB's had the same catch/hinge combo.

Rich

[Mark S.]

I second that.

Whats more, I think to many times we jump the gun on labeling certain badges Juncker just because of the barrel hinge (used by many makers) and the oblong plate on the catch.

Did Juncker use this set up? Yes, but it doesnt automatically make every unmarked badge with this hardware a Juncker. Especially since Juncker was such a prolific maker and wasnt shy about IDing their badges to begin with.

I think we might be doing a disservice to ourselves pointing the Juncker finger at every badge that has an oblong plate on the catch and a barrel hinge.

[James Clark]

Thanks for these comments, I'm glad this has proved useful.

Many (if not most) of my badges/pin backed medals are unmarked and I didn't used to think that there was much chance of attributing makers. But the knowledge on this forum was beginning to change that.

However, I think overall I still tend to agree with Mark. The charactersitics of some makers of some badges are well enough identified or documented to allow a degree of certainty in some cases. But I'm also quite comfortable with the fact that some badges may not ever be identifiable to a particular maker.

And since badges aren't my main field, and I'd had this one for years (i.e. bought when I knew even less than I know now!) I was just happy that it wasn't blown out of the water!

All the best,

James

[ERIC S.]

you're right

I forgot all about the Zimmerman badges. Yes, they do too have the same hinge / catch combination. I think we tend to " jump the gun " on pieces that retain these hinges and catches because
we see more Luftwaffe pieces like this marked Juncker vs. Zimmermann. I don't believe Zimmermann was an attributed maker of any Luftwaffe Qualification or War badge. None that I'm aware of anyway. Also, Juncker we all know was a prolific maker of badges of the Luftwaffe flavor. So personally, if it
was a Luftwaffe badge in question, which it is, and it had this particular setup of pin / hinge / catch and was unmarked, which it is, and I had to make an educated guess,which I am,I still tend to lean toward Juncker being the manufacturer, although I've never
seen a marked or unmarked example
of a GCB being attributed to Juncker before. Still an interesting piece!
ERIC

[Claus T]

Hi.
Here is a Luftwaffe badges that I have got from a German veteran.
He recived it at Arnhem september 1944!

[Claus T]

and the back.

[Claus T]

and some detail.
I think it is from the same manufacture as yours, James?

[Yuri D.]

Is that Tombak???

Yuri

[Claus T]

Hello Yuri.
I am not so good on types of matal.
But I think it looks like Tombak?

[James Clark]

Hello Claus,

Your badge looks the same as mine in every detail.

Yuri - I'm no good at identifying what the base metal is either!

James