ID tag SS Norge Rgt. 23

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Doggie, these are scans from the out of print book 'DEUTSCHE ERKENNUNGSMARKEN DES ZWEITEN WELTKRIEGES', by Jean Hoidal.

Cheers, Ade.

[Wartime Militaria]

Yep Ade, thanks I posted in my previous reply cover of that. Is it good source of information? What is your opinion on the tag?

[Adrian Stevenson]

I cannot comment on the tag. And sadly I don't own the book, so I am of no use here.

Cheers, Ade.

[Matt L]

It's simply a book written by a guy named Jean Höidal- presumably a collector since he has no formal titles or credentials. There are lots of discs in his book that I always had doubts about and that's one of them. He never references the discs he displays so there's no proof this one is real- it could just be his personal opinion, or he might have just gotten the photo from someone who says it's real. Either way, there's nothing supporting it- certainly not in the face of the issues we've already mentioned that suggest it's not real.

The book is decent- it has some quite useful textual information about the history and abbreviations on Erkennungsmarken, and the photos are helpful teaching a basic understanding of the subject and providing examples to compare (if one is looking at the exact same unit), however the limited space a paper book allows, and the less-than-optimal nature of small, black-and-white photos means there aren't enough pictures or good enough pictures for more. To gain true experience and the eye for evaluating discs that comes with it, one simply must look at thousands of examples, and a book simply cannot provide that. So while it is a decent basic reference, it's really only useful to a novice- save for the time data (what happened when), and abbreviations list, both of which I still check from time to time.

Are you going to supply the requested clear photo Doggie? Those numbers are very similar to a type I've seen, but I cannot compare them properly without a clear photo.

[Matt L]

? No?

[Glenn66]

Bad Doggie! No biscuit for you!

[Wartime Militaria]

Hello guys i was on the nice weekend with my girlfriend so i had limited acces to the internet. Meantime i traded it back to my friend. Many thanks for replies. I got now plenty of HG IDs various batalions, all perfectly matching to known examples

[Matt L]

Cool- some HG discs are common, others not so much- and they're faked quite a lot, so it's nice you have some that are matching known originals. But what about this supposed Norge disc- will you take the clear close-up photo of the Stammrollennummer so I can compare it to the sample I think it looks like?

[Matt L]

Sorry, I misread what you'd written Doggie- I guess if you traded it back to your friend, it's less-easy to take more photos. Too bad- it'd have been useful to finally answer the question of its authenticity. Well I've asked a Norweigan collector friend to see if any of his local contacs has a disc or SS-Soldbuch that is from this unit so we might possibly get some more information.

I had thought the '2' in the Stammrollennummer looked dangerously close to this one on a definite fake disc:



I myself just found another image I collected that is a disc with the marking 'SS-Pz. Gren. Rgt. 23 Norge' but it's dubious as well- the usual mostly sans-serif capitals in a strange arrangement that is awfully reminiscent of other fakes- I can't match the font exactly, however it's tough to see and I can't see anything in particular that makes me feel good about it. The text is at least right, however given how many fakes there are, it's suspicious from the outset.

I'm actually surprised how many fakes of this unit there are- but then apparently real Norwegian unit discs are quite sought after by Norwegian collectors and they're worth quite a bit. Luckily most of them know good from bad so don't get taken in. It's clearly a tough type to deal with.

[Kaprolat]

Hi!

I do not know who is the owner of this badge but the number 217 is belonging to a member of the Stab I./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt 23 "Norge" name Hans KASZNELL, probably is this number 211 also within the same Stab I./23.