Is this a Kriegsmarine buckle?

[Frans H.]

According to the seller this should be a Kriegsmarine buckle. The buckle is dark blue and has the leather tab. The tab is marked with the manufacturer "Schneider Ludenscheid and the date 1940". The buckle itself is marked with JSF.

If the darkblue buckle has no leather tab it is a Heer buckle. And with the leather tab it is a Kriegsmarine buckle. Am I right? But, if this should be a KM buckle the leather tab must have the navy control stamp (eagle above M). Or are there acceptions to it? And did JFS make navy buckles?

I would appreciate it if someone could help me out with this.

Greetings,

Frans

[Kurt Doench]

Frans,

Dark blue buckles are widely attributed to Kriegsmarine or coastal artillery. However, the dark blue paint seems to be a late-war standard paint colour for all arms of service. You will be aware of the dark blue Luftwaffe buckle, and there are even SS buckle with this colour paint. One finds dark blue buttons on M44 Heer jacket buttons. The tab as such is found on army, navy and air force buckles. The navy did away with them in 1942 to save on leather and one can only assume that the other services followed suit at that time too. I have yet to see a post-1942 marked military buckle with a tab. Whether a painted steel buckle buckle is army or navy can unfortunately only be told by acceptance stamps, which are invariably found on the tab. Thus, no tab, no identification.

Now the bad news: Your 1940-dated tab must be a later add-on to the buckle. Take a close look at the stitching. While there may in theory be a remote chance that the manufacturer added an existing marked tab to a buckle produced years later, this is quite far-fetched. Still nothing wrong with either the buckle or the tab to my mind.

Regards,

Karl

[GLM]

Frans,

Something I noticed on this buckle and tab is the buckle marked JFS for Josef Feix Sohne, Gablonz-Reisse and the tab marked to Schneider, Ludenscheid.

As usual, Karl made an excellent call on the tab stitching being replaced. As he stated, it is possible it was done during the war, but chances are very slim. I agree that both pieces look fine; they just didn't come together this way 60+ years ago.

Regards,
Gary

[Frans H.]

Thanks Karl and Gary for the clear information you gave me! It is clear that the leather tab does not belong to this buckle. For almost 100% it is added later.

I think I better leave this one alone for $150.

Again....thanks for the help

Greetings,

Frans

[Kurt Doench]

Hi Frans,

At that price, I'd have left it even if tab and buckle did match. Unless of course the tab had the Kriegsmarine acceptance stamps . Don't worry, you'll find another one.

Regards, Karl

I think I better leave this one alone for $150.

Frans