Navy NCO wearing LW observer badge

[Gran Sasso]

Another rare combination, found at yesterdays fleamarkets (the foto with the badge is dated 1939, the other one 1937):

[km-spain]

Nice pictures Patrick, not rare but always very interesting, if you are going to sell them please let me know

[KM-NZ]

nice photos !

[PaulR]

That is a really cool photo. Was there not a prewar effort to have planes onboard some KM ships, for observation sorties?

[KM-NZ]

Many big KM ships like battleships had Luftwaffe personal aboard manning recon planes. They wore Luftwaffe tunics and were part of the ships crew, even though under different controls.
IMO this not the case as the person wears a KM tunic.

[Tim B.]

These are kind of interesting and I don't remember seeing too many examples over the years. So who were these guys, seaplane drivers?

Note that he is wearing a recon clasp and in a KM uniform.

Tim

Here's another one for sale from Thomas Huss:

[PaulR]

That last photo... it seems as if his observer's badge is cloth, on a black backing... doesn't it?

[Tim B.]

Good eye Paul! I hadn't really noticed it but I think you're correct, it does look like a cloth badge.

What is interesting, is that Tom has it listed as the guy being a u-boat commander. You can see he's appears to be on a u-boat in the PIC.

Could it be another case of someone that qualified for the Luft badge but was never affiliated with the Luftwaffe? We saw this with some senior SS members as well with pilot badges.

Still, also having the recon clasp makes me wonder if he started out serving elsewhere and then perhaps was later adopted into the U-boat service.

Interesting to say the least.
Tim

[PaulR]

I have never seen black backed LW cloth insignia available before. Have you?

[Gene]

The clasp and observer badge are bullion versions

[Tim B.]

Hi Paul,

Honestly, I never collected, nor really studied these cloth badges. For me, I cannot say 100% what the backing color is based on these site photos.

You might want to contact Thomas Huss and ask him what he knows or can see in the actual photos. Considering that we see very little evidence of cases like this, it might be why we don't see these badges with differing colors of backcloth. I honestly don't know the story of this guy.

Tim