Luft cloth badge ID?

[Peter R.]

Bought this on a recent trip. It looks and feels right for the period, but I am no expert on Luft cloth badges. The seller - a militaria dealer - told me it was a Luftwaffe Administrative personnel badge.

Anybody have more info on these things? Where were they worn - sleeve, above breast pocket? Which period of the war? After war?

I can get a few more but of different designs and am tempted, but first I'd like to put it up here for comment & checking re authenticity. It wasn't expensive but I do like it a lot.

Cheers,
Peter

[John T]

Hi Peter, I believe these were worn on the lower sleeve. I think that you have posted the picture upside down as I think your item is a "V"..as for authenticity I do not know if the piece is good or not, as you know everything is reproduced. These items do not have a huge value, maybe 10 or 15 dollars for the common ones and a bit more for the scarce ones so it should not be too hard to get a decent collection of these...I saw a large picture frame of different ones for sale recently.

John

[Peter R.]

Are you sure it's upside down? Whoops... That should show how much help I'm in need of.

I thought, well, Luft Admin branch, maybe it's 'Administratie' in German or something like that, starts with 'A', looks like an A... although I can see how perhaps in Sutterlin it's a V.

What would the 'V' stand for then?

10-15 seems very cheap (although I paid about 7.50US for it, so that price range sounds right in line with what I paid), for original LW badges of any kind.

Are these things a dime a dozen for a particular reason?

[skip]

Hi Peter,

yes, its upside down. Its a "V" and stands for Verwaltung. Basically administration. Its probably OK, don´t think the copies of these are very good at all.

Skip

[Laurence Strong]

Hi. I dont see anything in Sutterlin script that matches, I have posted a pic with sutterlinscript. If you search this site for "Sutterlin Script" you will find a link to a script website. I dont know how to post the link in my post.

[Frank Heukemes]

Dear Laurence,

There is no match as the V is in Gothic lettering, not in Sütterlin one.

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Frank. Ok thanks for that. I am not knowledgeable enough in the different German scripts. I was just going with what the gentleman was saying in the previous post. I assume you are talking about the old German way of writing that has fallen out of favor over the years

[Laurence Strong]

Hey Frank. Which one were you in the pic with Jacques. On the left or the right.. Like one of the other members mentioned, you both could pass for brothers, no pun intended.

[Peter R.]

Well, looks like I managed to post the badge upside down, and then get the script wrong!

Sheez, and I'm a graphic designer. I'd just gotten used to Sutterlin being used a lot in German WW2 stuff; no excuse though. If it IS gothic script however, then it could be a capital 'V', but also be a lower case 'a' shown the right way up, depending on the exact version of gothic font. For instance, to take a popularly known example (for those of us into heavy rock from the 70s/80s, anyway ), the english band 'motörhead' uses a lower case 'a' that looks just like this one in the undoubtedly Gothic font used for their logo. And, by way of a more scholarly correct example, the 1940s German Luftwaffe books I have here (which are set entirely in Gothic) feature exactly the same lower case 'a'.

One thing about these round Luftwaffe cloth badges, is that I haven't seen any photos showing these things being worn.

Does anybody have any photos or known of some books showing these being worn late 30's-45?

Cheers,
Pete

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Pete, My copy of Handbook on German Military Forces, TM-E 30-451 15 March 1945, states it the badge for Admin Sgts & Tech Sgts. I scaned the page and posted it. Hope this helps. I quess it did not come out that good cant read the writing, but that is what it stated for that badge, If youhave more of them, I would be interested in buying 1. Thanks.