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1957er Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfmittel

Article about: Here are the latest additions to my familiy of 1957er Kriegsmarine war badges, the three highest classes of the Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfmittel [War badge of the Kleinkampfmittel]. The t

  1. #1

    Default 1957er Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfmittel

    Here are the latest additions to my familiy of 1957er Kriegsmarine war badges, the three highest classes of the Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfmittel [War badge of the Kleinkampfmittel]. The term Kleinkampfmittel does not translate very well; it could be roughly translated as "small-size means of combat". In this particular context, it is a collective designation for the various unconventional means of offensive naval warfare below the size of regular vessels, such as midget submarines, manned torpedoes, demolition boats and frogmen. These were grouped together in late 1943/early 1944 in a new branch of the German Navy, the Kleinkampf-Verbände (or K-Verbände for short).

    The special war badge for personnel of these units was instituted on 30 November 1944.

    The 1st to 4th grade were circular cloth badges; the 5th to 7th grade were pinback clasps. The 5th grade (bronze) was awarded after the fourth combat mission on sea or land, the 6th grade (silver) after the seventh and the 7th and highest grade (gold) after the 10th one.

    It is not known whether the three highest grades were actually presented during the war, which is unsurprising, given the highly dangerous and often near-suicidal nature of this kind of warfare and the resultant high losses suffered by the men who waged it.

    An argument could be made that these are not actually 1957er awards: The original wartime design of these badges did not include a Swastika and thus remained unchanged for the post-war ones, which is why they were not included in the official design illustrations for the 1957er awards of 1 February 1958. The clasps were, however, included in the official manufacturing regulations of 28 February 1958 (so I decided to use the term anyway).

    Here they are now. The clasps are early versions with solid hingeblocks:


    1957er Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfmittel

    1957er Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfmittel

    1957er Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfmittel


    As always, all comments are welcome.

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  3. #2

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    Nice group Andreas! Thanks for sharing!

  4. #3

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    Splendid badges. Do you know if those are supposed to be dolphins as depicted in other submarine service awards? I don't think they look like actual dolphins on any of the awards. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and collection with us here Andreas. You contribute so much to the forum.

    Jay

  5. #4

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    Thanks, Jay. It's a sawfish [Sägefisch in German], not a dolphin.

    (Incidentally, that's the same animal that features on the Bundeswehr's present-day Kampfschwimmer badge as well.)

  6. #5

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    Very nice Andreas, as you say the original wartime design was the same and as you say they were never actually issued or even produced though the lower grade cloth badges were. I think an English interpretation rather than translation of Kleinkampfmittel might be "Small Attack Craft"

    As Andreas says the clasps were to represent grades 5-7 of a series that included the embroidered circular "combat Badge grades 1-4" showing the fish inside a rope circlet closed with a reef knot. Grades 2 - 4 had 1,2,3 swords behind the fish The clasps 5-7 being the higher grades. They were preceeded by the Proficiency Badge which bore only the fish.

    @ Jay. No it is not a Dolphin but a Sawfish (Saegefisch in German).

    I think these are missing from my collection which needs to be corrected.

    Thanks for showing

    Regards

    Mark
    Last edited by Watchdog; 08-05-2018 at 08:21 PM. Reason: typo
    "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

  7. #6
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    Nicely presented.

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