Battle Damage to Soldbuch?

[Eric Zentner]

My friends it is impossible to prove battle damage. I wouldnt buy on this representation alone. But I can say this as a country boy and I have alot of items lost to the ravenous rodent other than TR over the years so my vote is not a Rodent. good luck on your quest.

Eric

[Rudolf Karl]

I say rodent or purposeful.
Paper like many other things are very strong until a weak spot is created. If that is rodent and as paper dries
it would fracture at its weakest point by minimal handling.

I know I'm new but I often see things like helmets with 'bullet holes'. If I take my authentic helmet and pop a hole in it
with my authentic p08 or K98 will I get more money? After all the guy probably got hit so hard it blew it straight off before
it got blood damaged.

Hope it works out as battle damage but I'm stickin' with the rat family.

Rudy

[ObKrieger]

Whatever it is, there is not enough evidence to show that it is battle damage. Although that obviously doesn't rule that possibility out, I would not buy it just because it may have a bullet or shrapnel hole in it. I would buy it for what it is, which seems to be a very nice original solbuch in a very nice original set.

[Eric Zentner]

My friends it is impossible to prove battle damage. I wouldnt buy on this representation alone. But I can say this as a country boy and I have alot of items lost to the ravenous rodent other than TR over the years so my vote is not a Rodent. good luck on your quest.

Eric

I guess my point is that it could be possibly man made aswell.

Eric

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Swayne, if you like it go ahead and buy it. It is a nice group.

I only commented on possible rodent damage as you did ask if anyone thought it could be anything else, other than battle damage. Like everything, it comes down to price. If it is being hyped up price wise due to possible battle damage, then perhaps I personally would pass on it. If the price is lower than a book in good condition, then that changes things.

Collecting, sometimes requires a "leap of faith" not everything can be proved 100%. The main thing is being happy with what you buy.

Cheers, Ade.

[Frundsberg]

I belive such damages do not increase but decrease value. It is very easy to fake "battledamage" but I have not seen many damaged Soldbuchs on the market.

[Lt. Martin]

Here is what Rob Johnson said on WAF in this thread in response to Tom:

Originally Posted by GOTZVONB
IMHO, the damage to your docs is either rodent or bug chews, not battle damage. I've owned a few books that had battle damage, and all of them had blood stains on the covers or pages, even from a very tiny piece of shrapnel. It would add to the value of the soldbuch if it was battle damage, as some collectors really like books with shrapnel or bullet holes, but in this case, I think that the book was damaged while in storage

Best regards,

Tom




I disagree.

Look at the creases which extend from the damaged area into the book. Unless the offending rodent impacted the Soldbuch at 1000+ FPS, I'd have to say that this is the tell-tale sign of damage caused by shrapnel.

Have a look at just one of my Soldbücher with almost identical damage, in this case a Soldbuch to a Gefreiter who was killed on the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy on 20.June 1944. Check out the images in posts 29, 30 and 31; Notice how the force of the impact from the bullet caused a tear which extended into the pages of the book and left a very distinct crease/mark:

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...andy+KIA+Story

All of the other battle damaged Soldbücher I own and have examined exhibit the exact same characteristics.

Furthermore, it is incorrect to state that damage such as that on the Soldbuch in question would have been caused by something other than a bullet or shrapnel (i.e. damage caused during combat) simply due to the lack of any blood. Who's to say that the soldier's tunic wasn't hanging on a vehicle, clothesline or tree branch when an artillery round impacted nearby and sent shrapnel flying into it, damaging the Soldbuch which was in one of the pockets? It's common knowledge that AFV crews sometimes stored their helmets and personal gear on the outside of their vehicles which would get peppered by shrapnel from enemy fire during combat. Just because there isn't any blood certainly does not mean that the damage wasn't caused during combat.


Rob

[Lt. Martin]

Once again, here is a link to the WAF discussion about it (link below). I find the discussion very interesting.

Battle Damage to Soldbuch? - Page 2 - Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums

Thanks,
Swayne