1957er Flotten-Kriegsabzeichen

[HPL2008]

Just in the mail, here is my latest acquisition, a 1957er Flotten-Kriegsabzeichen [Fleet War Badge].

Instituted in 1941, the Flotten-Kriegsabzeichen was awarded to crews of battleships and cruisers, as well as to crews of other Kriegsmarine vessels operating together with the high seas fleet during combat missions who were not entitled to another war badge.

To qualify for the badge, an accumulated service time of 12 weeks spent on wartime fleet operations was required. (The badge could be awarded without fulfilling this time requirement if an operation was particularly succesful, to sailors who had particularly distinguished themselves or were wounded in action, if a ship was lost to enemy action and to participants of the two sea battles off Iceland and Jan Mayen.)

Here's the badge now. It's an early piece of nice quality and I like it a lot.


Obverse and reverse views:






A closer look at the battleship. Looks quite dramatic, the way it's coming straight at the viewer, doesn't it:




Additional reverse view showing the hardware with the solid hingeblock:




As always, all comments are welcome.

[harryamb2]

very nice badge HPL.

[CBH]

These early 1957er's are quite lovely and should only become more collectable .

I had a 57pattern EKII in the early 80's but I had no idea what it was . In the days before the internet collecting was more difficult .

Thank you HPL for sharing your lovely badges .

[spunkmaja]

Very nice indeed. These 1957 awards get more and more attention from WW2 collectors which reflects on the prices.

As it is now the prices are reasonable, but they will go up for sure!

/Jonas

[Nick Hessens]

Yet another great badge, nice one Andreas!

Regards,
Nick