Bundeswehr veterans and the 57' awards.

[oradour]

Gents, another 57' piece arrived in the post today !...a nice frosted, with silver highlights Infantry assault badge, a Steinhauer & Luck manufactured badge, looking at the pin/fastener setup, solid hinge block, thin pin, it is early, mid production from the early 1960's.....there must be some other members with 57er awards in their collections, come on, dont be shy ! please show....
Prost ! Steve.

[oradour]

Gents, I obtained a 57' Verwundetenabzeichen in black to keep my Infanterie Sturmabzeichen company...... Brass stamped, and well used, although I think more worn through being thrown into a draw than being worn ! Prost ! Steve.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Steve, nice early Wound badge. Your cynical comment made me smile!

Cheers, Ade.

[talltom]

anyone know about stickpins as ive been offered a few 1957 wound badge stickpins, retired pilots stickpin and an ek1 stickpin

tom

[M18922]

Gentlemen, thought i add this rather nice photo showing a 60's/70's Luftwaffe tunic displaying a variety of 1957 awards.

here is my 1963-70 shoulder boards.



oh and oradour i think that tunic has one of my shoulder boards on it

[oradour]

here is my 1963-70 shoulder boards. oh and oradour i think that tunic has one of my shoulder boards on it

Patrick, similiar...but look carefully and you will just make out the pre-1963 pointed ends on the shoulder straps and the single silver pip, making the tunics rank to be Leutnant. These early boards were still being worn in the Luftwaffe (and the rest of the Bundeswehr) well past 1963 ! until either the wearer left the service or upgraded his tunic upon promotion....for future reference I show current (post 1963) shoulder boards and Army NCO pre 1963 ones.
Prost ! Steve.

[oradour]

anyone know about stickpins as ive been offered a few 1957 wound badge stickpins, retired pilots stickpin and an ek1 stickpin tom

Tom, I have no stickpins in my collection, but they are collectable in their own right...as for prices, I have no idea, sorry. However, look under "57er" on E-Bay Germany (Advanced search) there you will find lots of these 1957 pins, check out prices there. Dealers ask quite a lot for them, see here..... Wharton Militaria
Prost ! Steve.

[oradour]

Gentlemen, my latest....a set of 57er KVK II Class (War Merits Cross/medal), with swords, w/o swords and medal, all IMO early to mid production (early/mid 1960's), the quality is very good, well on par with their WW2 brothers. I would say these are by Steinhauer und Luck.....their trait for removing the swords from there KVK's is quite evident, see photos. By this I mean, it is known the dies for the KVK with swords were used, and then altered into a with out swords version by simply removing (crudely by hand !) the swords, this method of conversion was also used on the 1st class version. Perhaps Adrian can confirm is was further used on the Knights Cross KVK's. This was done to cut down on production costs......enjoy.
Prost ! Steve.

[oradour]

Heres the shots of the conversion, from "with swords" to "without !.....actually it is not as crude "in hand", as it appears in the photographs !
Prost ! Steve.

[oradour]

Gentlemen, my latest, a super looking 1957 version of the Blockade runners "Kriegsabzeichen" a nice early mid production piece around the mid 60's....obtained via another forum's member, who was breaking his collection, a big thanks to David ! I have on hold from the same collector a Mine sweeper and High seas badge, I will post in a couple of weeks...I find the Kreigsmarine War badges to be the most beautiful of the TR period war badges...so I am happy to add these to my growing collection of 57er's. The blockade runners badge was instituted April 1941, designed by Otto Placzek, awarded to ship members who participated in attempted or actual breaking the Allied sea blockade...enjoy, please, if any other members have 1957 authorised awards please post....