THE GERMAN THIRD REICH HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE

(Flotten-Kriegsabzeichen)

The award criteria was open to crew members of both battleships and cruisers who had served aboard a ship for 12 weeks at sea. This period of sea service could be reduced if the recipient was wounded in action, or their mission/exploits were an outstanding naval achievement for which they may also have won a decoration such as the Iron cross 2nd class.

To date we have seen the following makers marks to the badges with the best quality awards being manufactured by the Firm of Schwerin Berlin.

THREE GERMAN NAVAL OFFICER TALKING TO A ARMY OFFICER, NOTICE THE HIGH SEAS FLEET BADGE AND THE U BOAT BADGE BEING WORN BY THE CENTRAL NAVY OFFICER

LIST OF MAKERS "Fec Adolf Bock" with below that "Ausf Schwerin Berlin" and these badges have a Broad Bladed pin "R.S.& S"= Richard Simm & Sohne and these badges have a Needle Pin "RS" = Rodolf Souvaland these badges have a Needle Pin "Fo"= for Friedrich Orth and these badges have a Needle pin with both cast in hinge and hook and also separately applied hinge and hook L/18 for B.H. Mayer Pforzheim "L/21" for Foerster & Barth, Vienna Unmarked but with a Horizontal pin believed made by Bacqueville Paris Several unmarked types have also been observed.

A PAIR OF HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE BY THE MAKER SCHWERIN BERLIN, SHOWING THE FRONT

A PAIR OF HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE BY SCHWERIN SHOWING THE BACKs AND EARLY AND LATE PIN FIXINGS

A 1ST PATTERN HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE BY FO WITH THE SOLDERD ON HINGE AND HOOK

A 2nd PATTERN HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE BY FO WITH THE CAST IN HINGE AND HOOK

A HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE BELIEVED TO BE MADE BY BACQUEVILLE PARIS

TWO HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE BY THE MAKER R.S.& S

TWO HIGH SEAS FLEET WAR BADGE BY R.S.& S SHOWING THE TWO TYPES OF PINS ON THE REVERSE

When the badge was awarded it was usually given out in a paper packet with the full title to the lid, but occasionally it was given in a blue square box with its 9mm miniature to the right.This type of case could also be bought through private retail outlets.

The award was also accompanied by a citation with the ships name typed in. Mostly these are printed documents but later this gave way to typed out documents.

Reproductions

Both the badges and the paper packets have been reproduced. On the paper packets avoid any with just the logo RS&S in a box. On the badges, there are several good quality reproductions on the market, The first one is that of the firm of Schwerin. The main giveaway to these is the lack of "port holes" to the main deck as most of these reproductions only have three with the two on the right being missing in the casting. Of note is that original Schwerins also have a die weakness that make them only appear to have 4 port holes instead of 5, on close examination ithe "5" PORT HOLE CAN BE SEEN ON THE ORIGINALS AS SHOWN ON THE ORIGINAL BELOW

Notice the "5" Port hole is there all be it very weak

Finally several copies with the makers logo of RS&S have been seen (probably to go with the fake paper packets) and these can also be told apart by the fact that they have used the same die that they cast the Schwerin copies with and they also have the same flaw, the missing windows.

HIGH SEAS FLEET AWARD FOR SALE