I know this sounds crazy.....

[Joe Slavick]

I think I have gone off my rocker...or had too many beers today...but...please bear with me on this one.

Check out this photo. I have gone through the profiles and outlines of all the KM war badges. Can't get even a close match. Even the coastal artillery badge outline does not match.

What does match is the Panzer badge---Am I completely crazy or is there any possibility what-so-ever that this Leutnant MA could have somehow earned the tank battle badge?

Opinions?

Joe

[Joe Slavick]

Here is the close-up...

[Greg]

Joe,

I don't have any idea how he could have earned it, other than he must have once been in the Panzertruppe and transferred to the KM. But IMO that is clearly a PAB. In fact, to me it is a "Design Type II" PAB; maybe a Hymmen or Deumer.

Best,
Greg

[Joe Slavick]

Greg:

Thanks a ton for the speedy response and the opinion.

The photo is extremely sharp and clear. If I wasn't such a computer-idiot, I could figure out how to scan the badge portion of the photo in high resolution.

It would be AWESOME if this was a Panzer badge!! I already have two photos of KM men wearing the Infantry Assault Badge, so this would be a really, really nice addition!

Thanks again.

Joe

[Eric JB]

Hi Joe,

You are showing us something special today here on WAF.

Interesting career change that man made !

yours friendly

Eric-Jan

I do remember another nice one shown here before on WAF, guy in black panzer uniform wearing the Uboat badge.

[Joe Slavick]

Eric-Jan:

This is pretty cool! Hopefully it is a Panzer badge and we have yet another strange example of cross-service changes.

I broke the code on my computer and scanned this thing in 2400 DPI as a TIFF and a JPEG. I really do think this is a Tank Battle Badge now.

Here are the additional scans.

Any and all opinions on the badge are welcome!

Joe

[Joe Slavick]

Two more...

[Woolgar]

Fascinating

He has a Schinkelform EK1 too by the looks of it!

Nick

[VonPeter]

Its nice to see strange combinations.

Like this one posted some time ago by a member, a pilot with a flak badge.

[Greg]

Joe,

I still think there's no question - it's a PAB, and I also think from the scans that it's a Hymmen PAB. Which makes it even better - Hymmen PABs are rare in photos of Panzermänner, much less KM!

Best,
Greg

[TrondK]

Thats a great photo, both of them.
Maybe the KM officer had health issues and had to transfer because of that.

[Brian R]

A very interesting photo, indeed. From the looks of the urkunde he is holding and the cases in the officer's hands on the left, he has just been awarded that EK1. It would be cool if he earned his EK2 as a panzermann and his EK1 as a sailor. I'd love to have a document group from this guy!!

[Stepdale]

I have a KM photo album showing several KM officers wearing IABs. I always wondered how they could have earned them, since I doubt that many in one unit would have transferred from the Heer to KM, but who knows. I've got a busy weekend, but if I get a chance next week I'll try to scan some of the photos and post them.
Dale

[byterock]

I might have an answer for this.

The officer involved was a FO (forward observer) assigned to a tank unit and qualified for it while serving with it.

Only place I think this could of happened was early in the war in the Baltic or perhaps the Black Sea

[kapitein]

FO; That makes sense!

The weirdest combo I have seen is a WSS sgt wearing a U-boat badge!
But it makes sense as he was a Kriegsberichter and managed to go on a 3 month U-boat patrol for propaganda purposes for whaterver reason and was indeed awarded one by the U-boat commander!
Later pictures show this guy wearing this badge proudly on the eastern front!
kapitein