Seekampfabzeichen der Luftwaffe
- Richard van Kempen
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Seekampfabzeichen der Luftwaffe
can anyone show me a picture of this badge??
What was it awarded for??
i don't know anything of this award .....AND I WANNA KNOW
regards
Richard van Kempen
What was it awarded for??
i don't know anything of this award .....AND I WANNA KNOW
regards
Richard van Kempen
- Richard van Kempen
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First of all, there is no proof that this badge was ever awarded. It was one of several Luftwaffe war badges instituted in November 1944 on Göring's orders but there is no proof that it was ever more than a design on paper or, at most, a die-cutter's or engraver's prototype. There are pictures of badges made after the war, based on the wartime design, in most reference books from Kleitmann onwards.
It falls into the category of badges like the LW Tank Badge, numbered LW Ground Combat Badges, the LW Close Combat Clasp and our old friend, the Army Balloon Observer Badge. There are Soldbuch entries and provisional, field-made award documents that suggest that the LW 25 Ground Combat Badge and the Army Balloon Observer Badge in Bronze were awarded but the ones I have seen looked dodgy to me. The badges are very unlikely to have existed.
For various reasons, I have known many former Fallschirmjäger and quite a few members of the Hermann Göring Division. Not a single one of them remembered anyone ever received Luftwaffe CCCs, numbered Ground Combat Badges or LW Tank Battle Badges, numbered or otherwise. One would imagine that had these badges been awarded, men of these units would have been the first to qualify!
The Army Balloon Observer Badge is another example. It would have been a highly prestigious award from the viewpoint of those involved in such dangerous activities. Easily as prestigious as a Para Badge. If it had been awarded in any class, Bronze, Silver or Gold, the ceremony would have been photographed and reported in the military press. It was always a sore point with men who served in these units that they never got a badge even though it was belatedly instituted. It simply didn't exist before May 1945.
As for the LW Sea Battle Badge, sometimes described as the Air-Sea Rescue Badge, any example you see will be a postwar fabrication. Instituted in November 1944, it would not have been available before, say, February 1945. At a time when U-Boat and other KM crews were being formed into ground fighting units because of a lack of fuel for KM vessels and less need for a sea capability as Germany was squeezed between the Western and Eastern Fronts, how would the Luftwaffe have managed to send airmen to sea? Why would they have sent men to sea?
Hope all this helps...
PK
It falls into the category of badges like the LW Tank Badge, numbered LW Ground Combat Badges, the LW Close Combat Clasp and our old friend, the Army Balloon Observer Badge. There are Soldbuch entries and provisional, field-made award documents that suggest that the LW 25 Ground Combat Badge and the Army Balloon Observer Badge in Bronze were awarded but the ones I have seen looked dodgy to me. The badges are very unlikely to have existed.
For various reasons, I have known many former Fallschirmjäger and quite a few members of the Hermann Göring Division. Not a single one of them remembered anyone ever received Luftwaffe CCCs, numbered Ground Combat Badges or LW Tank Battle Badges, numbered or otherwise. One would imagine that had these badges been awarded, men of these units would have been the first to qualify!
The Army Balloon Observer Badge is another example. It would have been a highly prestigious award from the viewpoint of those involved in such dangerous activities. Easily as prestigious as a Para Badge. If it had been awarded in any class, Bronze, Silver or Gold, the ceremony would have been photographed and reported in the military press. It was always a sore point with men who served in these units that they never got a badge even though it was belatedly instituted. It simply didn't exist before May 1945.
As for the LW Sea Battle Badge, sometimes described as the Air-Sea Rescue Badge, any example you see will be a postwar fabrication. Instituted in November 1944, it would not have been available before, say, February 1945. At a time when U-Boat and other KM crews were being formed into ground fighting units because of a lack of fuel for KM vessels and less need for a sea capability as Germany was squeezed between the Western and Eastern Fronts, how would the Luftwaffe have managed to send airmen to sea? Why would they have sent men to sea?
Hope all this helps...
PK
Last edited by Paddy Keating on 17 Jul 2002, 20:20, edited 1 time in total.
- Richard van Kempen
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Richard,
I agree that it is highly unlikely this badge was ever awarded. Some unscrupulous individuals may offer you a photo of the badge in wear. What they will probably show you is a doctored photo of a Luftwaffe enlisted man at the helm of a air-sea rescue boat. An undoctored vesion of this photo (i.e. no badge) appears in John Angolia's book on military awards of the Third Reich.
I agree that it is highly unlikely this badge was ever awarded. Some unscrupulous individuals may offer you a photo of the badge in wear. What they will probably show you is a doctored photo of a Luftwaffe enlisted man at the helm of a air-sea rescue boat. An undoctored vesion of this photo (i.e. no badge) appears in John Angolia's book on military awards of the Third Reich.
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Here is an article I wrote about this badge.
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/war_bad ... battle.htm
Ken, funny you should mention that doctored picture. I remember when that was shown over at Wehrmacht Awards. I had recently finished the above article, and Angolias book was one of my resources I used when compiling the information, so the real picture was still fresh in my mind.
All I could do was laugh, and immediatly shoot down that bogus picture. Least he could have done was use an unpublished picture!
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/war_bad ... battle.htm
Ken, funny you should mention that doctored picture. I remember when that was shown over at Wehrmacht Awards. I had recently finished the above article, and Angolias book was one of my resources I used when compiling the information, so the real picture was still fresh in my mind.
All I could do was laugh, and immediatly shoot down that bogus picture. Least he could have done was use an unpublished picture!
Last edited by M. Schroeder on 17 Jul 2002, 21:32, edited 2 times in total.
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Marcus,
Sorry I don't have the capability to scan the page. For those that do have the book, however, it is on page 218 of the first edition of "For Fuhrher and Fatherland Military Awards of the Third Reich" by Ltc. John R. Angolia. Again the photo in the book shows the Luftwafe crewman without a badge. I have seen the doctored photo at militaria shows and the badge has been added to the left pocket.
Sorry I don't have the capability to scan the page. For those that do have the book, however, it is on page 218 of the first edition of "For Fuhrher and Fatherland Military Awards of the Third Reich" by Ltc. John R. Angolia. Again the photo in the book shows the Luftwafe crewman without a badge. I have seen the doctored photo at militaria shows and the badge has been added to the left pocket.
- Richard van Kempen
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