wwii axis reenactment forum

A few which might be of interest.

A wartime photo of Scharnhorst and a crew member which was sent home - the photo was gluded to the top right of the photo but sadly the fame was too far gone to be saved - the cap tally having been mounted along the bottom of the fame.
I had the items framed in the same style as they had been back in 1941.
The photograph had become detached and is now held in place without glue - the residue of the glue was removed from the main photo itself.



The sailor having just been awared his EK2 , a Matrosen- Oberegfreiter , signal man he already has his "High Seas Fleet Badge" , he has also earned a marksmanship lanyard.


The second items came from German dealer Detlev Niemann.






A fine ink sketch of the Panzerschieff Admiral Scheer with a mint unissued cap tally .
The sketch has been signed by the then Captain of Scheer ( later Generaladmiral) Wilhelm Marshall.
The tally had been glued to the top of the backing for the print- the frame having parted company at some stage in the past.

To preserve the tally I had it reframed as shown.





Admiral Hipper again from Detlev Niemann ( Hamburg).



The Kriegsmarine Command Centre at Cuxhaven.



The cap tallies shown below are from other capital ships, the entire light cruiser force being represented.
Those missing - Schleswig-Holstien ( from which the first shots of WW2 were fired) , Prinz Eugen , Graf Spee , Gneisenau and Blucher.

U-Boat related tallies are extremely rare and hard to obtain.

With the outbreak of war named cap tallies disappeared from view to be replaced by the standard nondescript Kriegsmarine tally , in their own right these are amongest the few remaining tangible links to these proud ships and their crews.

Thanks for sharing with us.
Are the ship names hard to obtain ? , might just do a KM impression myself some time

Prinz Eugen , Nurnburg , Graf Spee are hard to obtain - anything U-boat is hugely expensive.

What sort of price range ? , and how can one tell the difference between origional and repro ? ( I this I mean , quality aged repros)

The group of tallies shown approx 600 Euros.
A straightforward Kgm tally apoprox £40.
Price - a rare named ship could run you £100 plus . (very easily).
U-Boat related - you could be looking at several hundred pounds for one tally.

Reproductions tend to be too bright and too "yellow" , the materials , the pattern on the reverse side and some of the scripted letters tend to raise suspicions.
Those named for Graf Zeppelin , Tirpitz , Bismarck etc which you see on eBay are all bogus.

That is interesting James do you have any photographs of the tallies ?
why are they called tallies as well ?

I know you have quite an extensive range in your collection and the research you have done could write several books.

so would be interesting to view your extensive collection .

As shown M , what I have researched is mostly on the Allied side and very much of local intrerest.
Cap tally - a means of identification is my best guess.

Kreuzer Leipzig , she ened her days sunk in a deep trench off Denmark , unwanted , loaded with gas shells and redundant ammunition.

Some period postcards showing Admiral Scheer.

Some photos from a light cruiser, not sure which one, the photos came to me from the same source but no clue as to the id of the officers or the ship.
150mm in triple turrets.





They appear to Kapitan zur See.

Rare pics, beautiful to see!

Thank you for sharing with us!

Regards,

Gary.

As can be seen the difference between Lutzow (Formerly "Deutschland") launched in 1931 , Scheer and Graf Spee are quite marked.
In wartime service Lutzow had her stern blown off by a British Submarine having been hit in 1945 the RAF hitting her with two tall boys really didn't do much for her and in 45 fell into Soviet hands, she was scuttled by them in the Baltic in 1947.

Scheer.
The bi plane is a He-60 produced in 1932 , by the start of the war it had been replaced by the Ar-196 and had been relegated to training and supporting roles in coastal regions.
It does look like the 9 aircraft have been "cut and pasted" into the frame.
Photo probably dates between 1937-39.

Some more views of Scheer.

Excellent Js