Gold Wound Badge - If this could talk

[Waffenreich]

Received this unmarked Tombak Hauptmünzamt Wien yesterday and just wanted to share it with you. I suspect it got hit by something like a .45 cal round as that's about the size of the dent that then pulled/deformed the badge. It must have been either blown off, or pulled off the tunic as the lower badge loop is still in place and the pin can't be opened. I wonder how the wearer made out??

[HAF]

fantastic piece of history Bob

[kevin john]

This is better than a mint one John.

[ROBB]

That is sadly very cool. Rob

[Thomas Durante]

Very interesting piece Bob, thanks for showing.

Poor guy already had enough wounds to get the Gold Wound badge, then takes another hit like this! War is hell for sure!

Tom

[Waffenreich]

Appreciate the feedback gents

Tom, I was thinking the same thing. You never know though - maybe the shot(s) that did this weren't fatal.

vr

Bob

[Yubari]

This one was looks as a squeezed by a car or something like this. If this was hit by a bullet it would look completely different. Interesting example for sure!

[kevin john]

If he was wearing it in a battle it would be like a bullseye to shoot at,John.

[Waffenreich]

This one was looks as a squeezed by a car or something like this.

I guess the car must have run him over then because it still has the lower badge loop at the catch.

If this was hit by a bullet it would look completely different.

Really - are you a ballistics expert? The "look" depends on what type of bullet struck it, how far away the shot originated, the amount of resistance posed by where the badge was positioned on the body (in front of the ribs or abdominal area), and trajectory of the bullet and angle it hit the badge at. Yes, if it was struck straight on by something like a .303 Enfield bullet it would look different. In my opinion, the kinetic energy of the small diameter bullet striking the badge at an angle caused the heat necessary to localize the deformation to the impact area and literally "pull" it out of shape. You can put a bullet head in the dent along the edge and practically determine the trajectory at impact.

Dan (zook) and I tried a .38 cal in it and I tried a few calibers at home and a .45 ACP is the winner. It fits in the dent at the side perfectly.

And yes, I agree - it's an interesting example. Thanks again for the comments.

[Yubari]

I am metal detectorist myself. I have dug all over the Europe and Russia. Of course I am not an expert on ballistic but at least I saw many shoted items on battlefields or German escape routes.
There is no finish loss related to bullet or shrapnel damage, therefore damage was rather slow - squeezed by some other object. If we speak about this example in non ground condition -nothing extraordinary as well as German items are still often hidden in old houses and during reconstruction they are uncovered and from time to time damaged too. What ever story you always have, focus on items, not the story.

[Waffenreich]

I am metal detectorist myself. I have dug all over the Europe and Russia. Of course I am not an expert on ballistic but at least I saw many shoted items on battlefields or German escape routes.

Appreciate the reply Yubi. WRT the points I mentioned, I think there are a lot of factors that influenced why this badge looks the way it does. One I left out is the base metal itself and how thick/solid it is.

I'm sure you have found some incredible material through your detecting in Europe and the FSU. You are very fortunate to be able to do that. Here we are pretty much restricted to colonial-era and Civil War era items. There is still so much Civil War material in the ground that you wonder what the soldiers were doing with their kit?

Regards!

Bob

[TWS]

Very intriguing badge Bob. Another "if this thing could talk" item. Really cool.

[kefru177]

I am metal detectorist myself. I have dug all over the Europe and Russia. Of course I am not an expert on ballistic but at least I saw many shoted items on battlefields or German escape routes.
There is no finish loss related to bullet or shrapnel damage, therefore damage was rather slow - squeezed by some other object. If we speak about this example in non ground condition -nothing extraordinary as well as German items are still often hidden in old houses and during reconstruction they are uncovered and from time to time damaged too. What ever story you always have, focus on items, not the story.

I agree, if this was hit by a bullet (unless it had used up nearly all its energy by the time it hit the badge) then we would see a lot of missing material, you only need to watch youtubers shooting all sorts of materials to get a very basic understanding of ballistics and the effect on metals. I agree that this was squeezed by something slowly.

This item was also not dug up, the finish is too perfect.

[hatleyj]

Bullets do weird things. I was not there when this badge was damaged so any guess to what happened is just a guess. The guy could have had multiple jackets on at the time of the impact if it were hit with a bullet or it could have even been a ricochet off of something else and been a secondary impact. I am inclined to think it was some type of impact from what I do not know I was not there.

[Waffenreich]

I agree, if this was hit by a bullet (unless it had used up nearly all its energy by the time it hit the badge) then we would see a lot of missing material, you only need to watch youtubers shooting all sorts of materials to get a very basic understanding of ballistics and the effect on metals. I agree that this was squeezed by something slowly.

This item was also not dug up, the finish is too perfect.

Who said anything about it being dug-up?? I have a more than "basic understanding of ballistics" and cannot imagine anything else that could have caused that kind of deformation without showing evidence of contact on other areas of the badge, or totally destroying the badge. That was a sudden, high impact strike at a very oblique angle. As I said, for what it's worth a .45 ACP slug fits perfectly in that dent at the edge. I guess we'll never know. It's just an interesting conversation piece.

Thanks to all for your comments.

vr

Bob