Cap tallies from Winkler opinions please

[John R.]

I think the number of metal vs. cotton depended in part on the size of the vessel and how long it took to be built.

So for Blucher a much longer building timeline and probably the supply officer ordered the tallies early on with a result of more metal tallies. For ships like destroyers, even though they were commissioned later, the entire building process was shorter and that resulted in more cotton tallies--I am mainly talking about ships built closer to the beginning of the war of course. So it is not when they were commissioned, but when they were launched or maybe even earlier in the process.

John

[JustinG]

I think so too John Robinson.
That is why as I get further and further along, I believe that there might have been a prototype for the Bismarck and the Tirpitz. Even a template/initial tally might have been produced.
Never know. There are many strange things.
A year ago, I would have never believed that the Kreuzer Lützow had a mützenband and now I have a nice metallfaden version in my collection. The Lützow was launched in July of 1939, 5.5 months after the Bismarck.



Best Regards,
JustinG

[JustinG]

Justin,

the metal thread wasn't really phased out completely but the use of Cotton tallies had increased.
Schmitt was indeed the last ship commissioned (24th of Sept 1939) with a named tally before the introduction of "Kriegsmarine" for everyone. However, Schmitt is only 4 days superior to Kreuzer Bluecher (20th of September 1939) and with her it is exactly the other way around in regard of Cotton/Metal thread tallies: I know exactly one cotton example and numerous in metal.

Still, by the example of Bluecher: the tallies which came for sale in canteens were made with metal thread. I have seen only one example of a Cellon Bluecher and I wasn't convinced of being original.

Rgds

Dani

Great information. I hadn't made that connection before regarding the Blücher and Schmitt being the opposite with regards to construction. Wonder if the location of launch in proximity to the construction/manufacturing played any difference. Blücher being laid down by Deutsche Werke in Kiel and the Zerstörer Anton Schmitt being constructed by DeSchiMAG in Bremen?
I own a metallfaden version of the Blücher and John Robinson's cotton thread Blücher is the only one I have seen in a cotton form. Probably all in all, I have only seen about 10 or so of these tallies in other collections besides John and myself. Great information. Thanks. You are a wealth of knowledge my friend.


Regards,
JustinG

[John R.]

Your Kreuzer Lützow is a great tally Justin. Dani and I have known about it over the years, but it is in neither of our collections.

Timing or something else always got in the way.

John