Submarine commanders badge

[Tretov]

How likely is it that this badge is genuine? And can someone please sort out the different types of the submarine badges, ie. which is which and who had what... For example, this one; golden with red star. Submarine commanders or flotilla commanders? Did flotilla commanders even wear a such?

[Dolf]

Patrik,

On this same section of the Forum, the subject has been mentioned before on another Thread, here:

http://www.soviet-awards.com/forum/showt...php?t=3185

See Post #10 (my pic of similar Badges) and Post #15 (a reply from K3 that may answer your question above). There are also a few Posts by Andreas, with pics showing fakes and original samples of these Badges, hope it helps.

All I know is that either for Ships or for Subs, there are a few Variations: Gold, Silver, Flatback, Concave.

Check also some pics on the General Talk section, "How to display Soviet Awards" Thread. Post #111 for example.

Anyway, I'm posting a new pic here, showing my Ships/Subs Badges, among them some as the one you posted.

Best,

Dolf

[Dante688i]

Tretov,

From my experiance, I believe it to be 100% genuine. I can't begin to count the number of times I've seen these submarine command - uniform devices. I have several of them myself and nothing yet has caused me to doubt their authenticity.

As I don't have a large badge collection, my research has been minimal. The information I've come across indicates that the silver submarine device w/ red star was worn by individual boat commanders. The golden device w/ red star was for a squadron / group level commander.

Other opinions?

Hope this helps some! :)
- Sean

P.S. I should point out that while I'm sure some are faked, I don't think we can easily dismiss any specific badge without better information.

[Tretov]

Thanks for the replies!

What makes me curious / suspect it is fake, is that I asked a seller in Tallinn about the authenticity of the submarine commander badges he had (golden with star) ... he said, rather unexpected, that it was a reproduction and that most of the ones sold are repros/fakes, due to the limited number of officers who held these positions. I have not studied the Soviet naval command hierarcy so I can't say. I just get the impression that some of the sub badges sold at 9.95 at eBay might be just junk.

The one in my pic is up for bid at another auction site with a current price of 12 USD.

[Dolf]

Patrik,

Mine were bought in Russia in the early 80's, by the father of the person who sold them to me, so I guess they should be ok.
But I've noticed that recently there are quite a few for sale on e... I can't say nothing about these ones, maybe your friend in Tallinn is right.

Dolf

[Dante688i]

You bring up a good point! It's hard to get a feel for collections like these badges without better / more information.

While I have no doubt that many of the pieces on E! are junk, let's hope that some of the genuine pieces are in the hands of our experianced collectors for further research.

Tretov - post any updates if you discover something new or interesting!

[j h beers]

Have any of you seen a soviet era government-produced reference book that shows their sub badge with a gold finish? I've owned several "official" books (rather than collector guides) and they consistently show a silver or grey colored badge - usually with descriptions that seem to indicate that the sub badge was for commanders only (unlike the movie version of Hunt for Red October, where almost every crew member seemed to wear one).

Jim

[dannybou]

I only saw the badges in collector books.

[Tretov]

Have any of you seen ...

Jim

Nope, haven't seen. Would be interesting though!

[Alfred]

Have any of you seen a soviet era government-produced reference book that shows their sub badge with a gold finish? I've owned several "official" books (rather than collector guides) and they consistently show a silver or grey colored badge - usually with descriptions that seem to indicate that the sub badge was for commanders only (unlike the movie version of Hunt for Red October, where almost every crew member seemed to wear one).

Jim

Jim,

no I haven´t seen any soviet era book, that shows the sub badge with gold finish. There is an east german produced military lexicon (1987) about soviet forces and military history on the market, but only the silver badge is shown.
Will keep an eye on it.

regards
Andreas