KM career insignia

[amiklic1]

I am collecting Kriegsmarine cloth career insignia, and I've collected quite a nice collection till now.

All in all, it's been from eBay, various dealers, colleques collectors etc.

I am mostly led by the small book "A collector's guide to Kriegsmarine" by Christopher Ailsby, which is nice but not fully detailed.

What I am finding strange is lack of details online about the following careers, for which I also cannot find insignia:

1. Telephone operator
2. Radar operator
3. Administrative with letter "V"
4. Material administration (letter "M")
5. Telephone mechanic
6. Anti-aircraft

Were they really that rare, or?


Here is my collection right now, with torpedo mechanic being on my colani jacket (if anyone has something I still miss, I'd appreciate help in acquiring those):

[JustinG]

A nice set. Still a relatively inexpensive sub-category to collect that won't break the bank.
I have been collecting these as well, just in the metal versions. This is a nice set. Good work.
The Administrative "M" AND "V" Has a pre date of 1935 as you probably already know, so they are on the rarer side. I have only seen a couple. John Robinson has a nice metal example. They are rare, don't know how much a cloth only one would go for if it was put on a auction site. My thoughts are around 100-150USD.
With out a doubt, the Administrative insignia pre 1935 is scarce compared to the three class/unit designation Diver badges.


Congratulations and regards,
JustinG

[amiklic1]

I also have some metal insignia, which are much nicer but more scarce and more expensive.

I plan, though, to collect all KM insignia.

Here is my small metal KM insignia display:

[amiklic1]

So, noone knows more about this insignia:

1. Telephone operator
2. Radar operator
3. Administrative with letter "V"
4. Material administration (letter "M")
5. Telephone mechanic
6. Anti-aircraft

I see that even in the books, sometimes, they just put a draft of the insignia or the photo from some other source, not photo of actual patch.

I killed myself for months trying to find at least one of them, but with no success.
I really do not understand rarity of that kind

Here is the insignia I am talking about (I do not have the photo of Anti aircraft):

[JustinG]

I can help you. PM Sent.

Regards,
JustinG

[amiklic1]

Thanks!!!

I checked that already, as well as tenths of other dealer's sites, but no sign of insignia from post #4 anywhere... :-(

Other than that, I'm doing good, and will complete my cloth insignia collection fast. Than I'm attacking at metal ones ;-)

[amiklic1]

Also, I am looking at this web page for reference:
http://www.wwiidaybyday.com/uniformen/marineranks.htm

and it's not in compliance with the book mentioned.

Here is the comparation list (english list from the book, translation added for those which are on the reference web page):

01. Boatswain / Bootsmanns
02. Engine room personnel / Maschinen
03. Signal personnel /Signal
04. Navigating helmsman / Steuermanns
05. Helmsman/Cocxswain
06. Telephone operator
07. Radar operator
08. Radio operator / Funk
09. Teletypist / Fernschreib
10. Carpenter / Zimmermanns
11. Coastatl artillery / Marineartillerie
12. Administrative / Verwaltungs
13. Administrative "V"
14. Material administration "M"
15. Motor transport / Kraftfahr
16. Medical / Sanitäts
17. Blocking weapons mechanic / Sperrwaffen-Mechanikersmaat
18. Torpedo mechanic /Torpedo-Mechanikersmaat
19. Telephone mechanic
20. Clerical / Schreiber
21. Musician / Musik
22. Aircraft warning service / Flugmelde
23. Anti-aircraft
24. Ordnance/artificer for Seamen / Feuerwerker
25. Artillery mechanic / Mechaniker

with nr. 17. and nr. 18 being mentioned as "Mechanic" on the web page.

I am trying to figure out all the careers, but it seems that almost noone has seen any of those.


Anyhow, here is the evidence of existance of telephone mechanic career (from Dave Suter's thread here: http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...2721&page=14):

[amiklic1]

And here is the Oberwaffenwart insignia, from Kondor's photo in the thread http://70.87.163.50/forums/showthrea...=574572&page=2

That career is described in the reference web page with KM ranks, but not inside the Ailsby's book

[germanpolice]

I got 2 Ms



and a V

[amiklic1]

Great!
Thanks for participating.

That "V" is not a career but the specialty insignia for Surveying Service which was abolished by the order MV40, No2, dated December 23, 1939 after constitution of surveying career.

Anyway, that one is rare, too.

I am still only in the career insignia area, with just few specialty patches in my collection that came in a lots with other stuff, but I haven't even started to collect specialty patches seriously as that's another world for itself ;-)
(but I intend to collect them all)

[KM-NZ]

I like ! these are addictive... then you go to specialty and metal insignia etc ... it doesnt end

[Woolgar]

Impressive collections ! I hope mine to be as good as that one day

Nick

[Wallace]

I really love those career insignia,and you have aqiured a nice collection of them.But some of them are really hard to find.

[tmca05]

Here are a couple banners I picked up over the years with Kriegsmarine trade insignia.
The one on black was picked up by a Canadian solider who was based at Brest, France just at the end of the war. He said there were some very cute young French girls, sewing these banners up from leftover German stock and selling them to the allied troops. He just had to buy one from them, because he said they were so "damn cute!"
The second one I found on Craig Gottlieb's site, and I knew it had to have come from those same young girls. Craig gave me a good deal on it, so even though he’s was not as cute as those young French girls, I still bought it from him.

[amiklic1]

WOW , some very nice items an awards you have there.
Congratulations! and thanks for posting...