Marschkompaß!

[andundiek]

Hello there,

I´ve got a question about the Marschkompaß, Is there anything known about the amount of diffrent firmas who made the bakelite kompasses?
I´ve got a CLK marked one with a blue lid and A a CJY marked one without A on the lid CXN marked one with A and an early black painted brass one marked on the lid R. Fuess Berlin-Steglitz 17854.

What´s the meaning of the "A" on the lid?

Thanks and feel free to post your´s!

Eric

[andundiek]

open

Here they are open,

[andundiek]

------gosh-------

I'm the only one who likes the Marschkompaß

Come on there must be someone around who knows where that A stands for!!!

All the best out of a sunny South/west Holland .....at least now it is.........

[Johannes Schoen]

I also would like to know, but have no idea. Do You have or know the Heeresdienstvorschrift 362 "Marschkompass"? There might be the answer.

Johannes

The oicture is from an auction (ebay?). Someone sells copies from time to time

[andundiek]

Hello

Hello Johannes,

So i´m not the only one!

Thanks for the tip about the Heeresdienstvorschrift, I´ll ask around if there´s someone around who owns a copie ore the original....

Thanks for your reply and perhaps we will know some day.....

By the way, the small badge shown underneath your name isn´t German is it?
Some Dutch connection?

All the best, Eric

[Brian C.]

Detlev had two compasses on his latest update. One was an "Afid", and the other was marked "Pfadfinder." I'm not sure if they are bakelite ones tho.

[Brian C.]

Maybe the "A" on the lid is actually an arrow for low light conditions? Both point in the same direction as the smaller arrows on the top of the case. Do they glow in the dark at all?

[Johannes Schoen]

Hello Eric,

Sorry, no, the badge has no connection to Holland. It's the lion of Grossherzogtum Hessen and it is from a veterans society's badge (Kriegerkameradschaft Hassia), pre 1914.

Johannes

[andundiek]

Hello

Hello Brian and Johannes,

Brian, I´ve looked if the A´s are painted in illuminating paint but their not... just plain white paint.....I guess you would see a slight yellow colour left if it would have been? And you´ll have to open the lid to see the direction your going.....

Thanks for your thoughts!

Johannes, Your badge looks a lot like this Dutch ww2 beretbadge! so that´s why I thought there was some Dutch influence!

All the best,Eric

[Infanteer]

I also have a compass marked with the letter A, but the maker mark is not on top like the one's shown. There is a small circle with "boa" on the bottom, can I assume that is the maker mark or were these compasses still produced after the war?

[andundiek]

hello

Hell "Infanteer"

I think you can be sure your compass is of ww2 date although I don´t think the 3 lettercode BOA is the makermark of the complete compass, I think it´s the code for the bakelite producer.

I´ve got a soft spot for German Wehrmacht bakelite and found the same BOA mark inside the lid of my bakelite flare cartridge cannister(see picture)

Underneath my CLK marked compass is a small sign with the code JNE in a small circle with a sign that looks like an umbrella(these are found on most bakelite items i´ve got and can be found with diffrent 3 letter codes)

Thanks for your reply, Eric

[andundiek]

bakelite mark

Here the mark underneath the CLK marked compass

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi, the makers code "boa" is for "Venditor, Kunststoff-Verkaufs GmbH, Troisdorf" according to this website:

http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/codes_full_alpha_a-b.html

Cheers, Ade.

[Infanteer]

Thanks guys! I am sort of relieved that everyone agrees that my compass is of wartime manufacture, I have been a little unsure because of the lack of a maker's mark on the top. Too bad that no one knows what the letter "A" signifies.
Eric, does the "umbrella" symbol turn up on post war bakelite items, or can it be used as a way to determine if an item was made pre 1945? All of my dated bakelite stuff has this symbol but so does one of my undated butterdishes which has the fine threads that are considered post war.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Eric, does the "umbrella" symbol turn up on post war bakelite items, or can it be used as a way to determine if an item was made pre 1945? All of my dated bakelite stuff has this symbol but so does one of my undated butterdishes which has the fine threads that are considered post war.

Hi, funny you mention this as I have one of these too. I recall reading a thread about these plastic mgf makers marks somewhere on this or the GD forum in the past month or so. Now I cannot find the thread
Here is the mark on my fine thread fat dish. I picked this up a few weeks ago for £2 to use for living history events.
Cheers, Ade.