The wolfs head is probably early made Reichwehr, marked as all German shovels are in same location. Why is this assumed not a German shovel??
The wolfs head is probably early made Reichwehr, marked as all German shovels are in same location. Why is this assumed not a German shovel??
I don't know what it is, but Reichswehr ceased to exist in 1935 (when it became Wehrmacht) so a 1940 dated Reichswehr is impossible.....?by fbeaty
I don't know exactly when these stamps were replaced by the newer type of WaA stamp, but my guess would be 36/37
Maybe someone knows more about it... J-P ??
Anyway, this is not a wolfshead stamped spade, so we still don't know......
Tom
I posted 2 type shovels...One wolf head, and one with WaA marks for comparison. I assume that the wolf head is Reichswehr or early Wehrmacht...the second shovel is War proofed for Wehrmacht...but could also be an earlier shovel, just proofed for Wehrmacht in 1940, unless they made this kind around the 1940's?
fbeaty nice shovels I had one as you show with the droop wing waa dated and stamped on the blade 1935 it also had some unit stamps I wish I still had it. When it comes to these ET nothing seems to be the norm. I think the welded folded ears type are the most plentiful and easiest to identify. timothy
So, what's the end verdict here? Am I safe to buy a wolfshead shovel?
That's a good question there really is no verdict on these as you well can see there are mixed opinions on them I personally believe someday possibly the origin of them will be known most agree they were used by the Wermacht during WW2 as too many of them have turned up in German items I had seen one from the Russian front on another forum that was dug in German positions but some stated Russian what ever the origin I personally believe they were WW2 used but hopefully we will find out. timothy
Maybe it's just me, but I'm leaning towards them being German, most likely coming from a factory that was in German before the war but ended up in Poland after. I mean, they were obviously used by the Wehrmacht or we wouldn't have specimens coming from Norway and Russia. So, I guess the big question is: are they Polish shovels im Dienst der Wehrmacht or actually German?
This shovel has come up for sale here in Russia (disregard the carrier as it's clearly repro):
My friend is looking to buy it. Timothy, I saw your post on WAF saying that the more pointed handles and less pronounced wolfshead are the post war ones. What do you think of this?
I'm kind of under the impression that it's a German shovel...
I would think that one is just like ones coming out of German capture piles in Norway and other places I don't think we know for sure who made them but I would bet coming out of Russia it has a high probable rate of being German used for sure IMO timothy
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