German WWII Sniper Patch

[Muncher 1953]

Absolut, I'm no expert on paper items but during my research I encountered a few front made leaflets, award documents or division-newspapers.
It seems that there was a tradition using an artistically able solider from the division doing these kinds of hand drawn celebration papers next to the official documents.

I think this may be a common thing across all nation’s armies. When my father left the US Army’s 74th Armored Field Artillery Battalion in Landshut, southern Germany in the summer of ‘53, someone in the unit created a ‘certificate of achievement’ in color ink pen complete with humorous cartoons, and all the guys in his unit signed signed it.
Seems easy to envision something similar either being faked outright or misrepresented as an official document by unethical & greedy people.

 

[mrfarb]

In my experience many of these ridiculous documents come from Eastern Europe.

 

[Thorne]

That eagle holding the rifle made me nearly loose my coffee.

 

[mdarnell19]

these Americans really love faking, the problem is that they make up such fancy papers instead of staying plain as the Germans did ...

Edit: still couldn't stop laughing on that oversize Eagle with the scoped rifle in his claws covering half of that page. Did someone really thought this would be a good idea?

No actually all this crap comes out of Europe. It’s just stupid Americans who buy it.

 

[mauser99]

How does BanjoMike have those attached to the flag? Are they sewn on?

this is somewhat common I have seen similar things often.. flags with loads of patches sewn on in a collage. too bad we cant see the rest Im sure its quite impressive.

As I mentioned before and tried to make this point these patches wouldnt have been treated any different than any other like the Jager and Gebirgsjager types.. Made in wool , bevo , EM & officers pattern and Bullion. The design was implemented, and the patch was made. Usually many times more patches were made then ever issued.. This is not uncommon.
The guy who made that flag probably got into a warehouse or similar full of patches and just went nuts and took bags full... Im sure he had no clue what the patch even meant.

 

[banjomike]

Herculies; When I sent the pictures of the flag I also sent a copy of the letter that was sent to his parents. If you would please post all of the flag and a second flag that was part of his collection. This will explain the whole story. Thank you. Banjomike

 

[banjomike]

this is somewhat common I have seen similar things often.. flags with loads of patches sewn on in a collage. too bad we cant see the rest Im sure its quite impressive.

As I mentioned before and tried to make this point these patches wouldnt have been treated any different than any other like the Jager and Gebirgsjager types.. Made in wool , bevo , EM & officers pattern and Bullion. The design was implemented, and the patch was made. Usually many times more patches were made then ever issued.. This is not uncommon.
The guy who made that flag probably got into a warehouse or similar full of patches and just went nuts and took bags full... Im sure he had no clue what the patch even meant.

He did have no idea what he had found. He was a collector of items and all were left to a very close friend of mine. All were scheduled to be given to two grandchildren. They both married Jewish women and with that I was given these items.

 

[Absolut]

Sorry, didn’t want to start a discussion on who did these fakes, I‘ve seen very wild fantasy ones in US online auctions (even with spelling mistakes, etc.). Just wanted to point out, this one is extremely fancy and anyone familiar with German documents should immediately have alarm bells ringing when seeing such stuff. Glad though we discussed this, so all made aware now.

 

[mrfarb]

I want to add something to this thread. If you are in the minefield known as collecting sniper stuff, don’t be the guy buying paperwork that is supposedly “unit made” or “one of a kind”. It’s like rolling through the minefield on your side with arms outstretched holding a samurai sword.

 

[Muncher 1953]

I want to add something to this thread. If you are in the minefield known as collecting sniper stuff, don’t be the guy buying paperwork that is supposedly “unit made” or “one of a kind”. It’s like rolling through the minefield on your side with arms outstretched holding a samurai sword.

 

[mauser99]

wow ! love that flag... Makes alot of sense how they were found..

 

[banjomike]

Thank you Hercules for posting. Banjomike

 

[Philip]

Very interesting flag patch assembly. There is insignia on there from every service in the Wehrmacht. Army, navy, luftwaffe and W-SS. It ranges from Reichswehr or very early third Reich era through the very last ditch end of war period printed insignia. It also includes some private purchase variations along with the mostly issue items. There is also a fair number of para military non Wehrmacht insignia and civilian worker insignia. For me, what this amalgamation of insignia would have been doing at one place or even 3 or places is hard to explain or understand. The sniper are obviously the holy grails but there are other items on there that would give them a pretty close second in terms of value and rarity.

 

[rohling81]

Here is something that I came across today, out of a local German newspaper dated 30. September 1944.



The Sniper Badge
In recognition of the high level of commitment of the individual shooter with a rifle as a sniper and to appreciate the successes achieved here, the leader of the army and the Waffen-SS introduced the sniper badge. The badge is an oval with an eagle's head and oak leaves and is worn on the right forearm. OKW. Press Hoffmann.

 

[Absolut]

I got gifted today this badge. It once was glued to a poster, hence on the backside two former glue places. A bit overexposed using professional picture equipment, but any chances this could be real? It is interesting in that it appears to have been sewn through some kind of additional layer from the inside? Thanks!

 

[rohling81]

Here's the original embroidery pattern to the variant above and in the first post.
According to the current owner and highly respected collector, the pattern was fabricated by Franz Glomm, Berlin.

 

[Hercules]

I got gifted today this badge. It once was glued to a poster, hence on the backside two former glue places. A bit overexposed using professional picture equipment, but any chances this could be real? It is interesting in that it appears to have been sewn through some kind of additional layer from the inside? Thanks!

I did not see this until now, but looks like others considered real, minus the glue.