Kaiserliche-Marine Display

[drmessimer]

During the 1980's when I was working on books dealing with the mass escape of American officers from the POW camp in Villingen, and starting to gather material on U-boat operations and losses, I interviewed several families whose relatives had been involved in those events. In addition to giving me valuable documents, some gave me mementoes from their family collections. Below is the display I made with some of the things they gave me.

At the top is a U-Boat badge made by C.E. Junker in Berlin and stamped Walter Schot, Fec. that Gerda Brachman gave me in 1983. An older brother had been aboard the U-10 when it disappeared in the Baltic or the Gulf of Finnland in May or June 1916. After the war she and another brother visited the C.E. Junker factory on Alte Jakobstr. in Berlin where they bought this U-Boat badge. For many years it was part of a small memorial to her lost brother.

To the left of the U-Boat badge is an EK1 and to the right is an EK2. I don't remember who gave those to me, but I received them on separate occasions when interviewing people associated with the Villingen escape.

Directly below the U-boat badge is an officer's belt buckel that belonged to Oblt. z. S. Paul Eyring, 2nd officer on the U-Deutschland and the U-155.

On each side of the belt buckle are enlisted man's uniform buttons. I don't know to whom they belonged. Directly below the buckle is a sleeve patch for an Obermaschinistenmaat, which I think is roughly equivalent to a USN 1st class PO. To the left of the sleeve patch is a shoulder board which I think is for an officer aspirant (Anwärter). I can't recall what I was told about that device. And on the far right is the shoulder board for a deck officer rated as Obermaschinist, which I think is roughly equivalent to a USN warrant officer. The owner was U-Obermaschinist d. Res Rosenbaum who was lost on U-74 on 27 May 1916.

Among the items not included in the display is this Personalausweis issued to Klaus Hübner who was in a minesweeper in the North Sea.


Though not an original, I have liked this Kaiserliche-Marine officer's cap since the day it was given to me in 1975. It's an exact replica that Werner Herrmann, then a senior police official in Berlin, gave me simply because of my interest in the Kaiserliche-Marine.

I would appreciate any comments or corrections you can add. Dwight

[rogge16]

Very very nice display Dwight. And some history to go along with it too. Well done!

Luke

[KSH]

Very interesting items, I am also quite intrigued by the Kaiserliche Marine. That little display of yours is fine indeed.

This badge below (the Marineverwundetenabzeichen) would look really good among your already acquired items, but it would of course be quite difficult to find one that relates to the context of the other items:




A must for every Kaiserliche Marine collection IMO in general. But your assembly is truly wonderful and connected through history.


Hochachtungsvoll,

Kenneth

[drmessimer]

Kenneth: Thanks for the email. Is it for sale? I'm interested. Dwight

[KSH]

Kenneth: Thanks for the email. Is it for sale? I'm interested. Dwight

Hi Dwight,

No, I never sell anything from my own collection I am afraid - I just added the photo for illustration only. These Imperial Navy Wound Badges (in Black at least) are not impossible to find if you really look for them - but it is a minefield if you do not know what you are looking for, as there are fakes in plenty out there. In addition to that there were produced replacement badges in the inter-war years and WW2. The badge showed by me here is unquestionably an original issue piece, actually identical in every way to my "standard" issued WW1 wound badge, except for the design of course. They are both made of iron and smells the same also actually. Unfortunately when dealing with the other types of these naval wound badges, no-one really knows when they were made. The kind I show here is the only kind we can be absolutely certain were original issue pieces, because they are manufacture-wise identical to their well-attested "standard" counterparts.

Here are some more photos to use for reference if you are looking for a guaranteed issue piece:




Hochachtungsvoll,

Kenneth

[drmessimer]

Kenneth: That's a beautiful piece and I thank you for posting the excellent views. My guess is that most of the naval wound badges were issued to the infanrtymen in the Marinekorps Flandern. Dwight

[KSH]

Kenneth: That's a beautiful piece and I thank you for posting the excellent views. My guess is that most of the naval wound badges were issued to the infanrtymen in the Marinekorps Flandern. Dwight

Thank you, and I really hope that you find one of your own as it would fit perfectly into the wonderful stuff you already have, Dwight - which by the way is MUCH more than I have myself! Just be careful when picking one - I can promise you that fakes of this badge reside in many "advanced collections" today - also there are the replacement badges manufactured later (but before the end of WW2), which I happily would admit to my collection as such, but there is no substitute for the real issue pieces IMO. The later ones would just be a bonus for me.

As far as I know the infantrymen belonging to Marinekorps Flandern were issued with the "standard" WW1 wound badge - the award stipulations (based on the sources I have) clearly stated that the naval wound badges could only be awarded for injuries sustained through "Seegefechten" - "sea battles".


Hochachtungsvoll,

Kenneth

[drmessimer]

Keneth: Thanks for that information. That would make the naval version of the wound badge fairly rare. That is certainly a nice piece you have. I'm envious. I know what you mean about the abundance of fakes on the market. But like you, I don't have a problem with post-war products if they were made by the original company using the original dies. That is what the U-Boat badge in my display is. Dwight