My Bundeswehr and 57er awards collection

[oradour]

Nope, I'm interested too! Can you measure the size of your Narvik Schild to see if it's a de-nazified version or an actual '57er?

Good call Adrian...I know for sure that 57er shields are much smaller than their TR counterparts.
Prost ! Steve.

[Adrian]

In hand it looks silver coloured, the pics came out differently.



Thanks Adrian.

Width: +- 375 mm
Lenght: +- 650 mm

I used a normal ruler, can't find my professional measuring tool at the moment.

Regards

It fits within the average size of pre 1945 awards which seem to measure approx +/- 370 wide. Can you post a shot of the top edge to see if we can see any trace it has been cut down?

Good call Adrian...I know for sure that 57er shields are much smaller than their TR counterparts.
Prost ! Steve.

I remember you telling me about this Steve!

[oradour]

I have just measured my Krim...55mm high, 43mm wide, the TR version is I believe 61mm high and 52mm wide...the 57er Lappland shield (St u L produced them) is 68mm high and 40mm wide.....I have either lost something in translation or my metric maths is bad ! (I am a feet and inches man) but are your measurements correct ? ...do you mean 6.5cm (65mm) and 3.7cm (37mm) if these are your shields measurements, it is a 57er IMO. 650mm works out at over two feet !
Prost ! Steve.

[Nick Hessens]

Your absolutely correct Steve. Huge mistake by me!

Ok, here are some more pics. It's the best I could do with this camera.

[Adrian]

It looks like a normal manufacturing seam, not what you would expect to see if the eagle had been snipped or ground off?

[Nick Hessens]

It looks like a normal manufacturing seam, not what you would expect to see if the eagle had been snipped or ground off?

The shields I have seen had a rim on all sides, this one is open at the top? Plus this shield shows more similarities to the wartime pieces than any of the examples posted on WAF, that are considered to be very early.

TR on the left, mine in the middle and an 'early' 57er on the right:



But if the measurements fit the profile, than it is of course a 57er. Certainetly an interesting piece IMO.

[Adrian]

The shields I have seen had a rim on all sides, this one is open at the top?

That is true! And the size fits with a TR made piece.

Like you say, an interesting piece. I hope a few more members who have these shields in their collections see this and can comment.

[Nick Hessens]

BW Kampfmesser M1968. The blade is stamped with OFW (Otto Förster, Witzhelden) and the year 69.

Comments are welcome.

[oradour]

Ingrid...nice original BW piece ! there are commercial versions around...but they are not dated on the blade as yours is..so easy to spot ! I have no knives as they are difficult to buy here in the U.K. We now have have knife laws as well as draconian gun laws !
Prost ! Steve.

[Nick Hessens]

Thanks Steve. Yes, I saw Reibert's thread about them. It helped me a lot for determining the originality of this piece while I was at the militaria fair last Saturday.

How is that RK coming?