Reproduction Bandenkampfabzeichen

[SARGE]

Gents,

 

I thought I would share this reproduction Anti-Partisan Badge (Bandenkampfabzeichen).  This is a highly detailed die stamped pin back brass badge but the maker is unknown.  It consists of a slightly rotated sword with swastika piercing a nest of snakes with a skull and crossed bones at the bottom of the oval badge which is surrounded by oak leaves.  The back has a coke bottle shaped flat pin with a squared C shaped catch.  There are no markings on the badge. 

 

This badge was instituted on 30 January 1944 but first awarded on 30 January 1945.  It came in three classes of bronze, silver, and gold for 20, 50, & 150 days in combat.  All branches of the Wehrmacht could receive this badge in the late stages of the war.  

 

The more reproductions a collector sees the better judgement as to originality one can make.

 

 

[Custermen]

I had a friend in LA who sent me a set of preproduction Nazi pins that were nicely packaged with a sketch showing how they were worn.  He always finds deals at military and modeling shows.  He got them really cheap--probably less than $3.  I traded or sold all of them.  However, I kept the repro of this badge. 

 

My Italian FaceBook contacts have found lots of these badges; some dug and some probably found in barns, etc.  I think they Germans decided they didn't want to be captured by the Italian partisans wearing this pin. 

Some of the booklets published in Italy that have illustrations include:

Italian Front 1944-1945, Battlefield Relics Volume 1--- Badge is on the cover

& Volume 2

 

I will try to post scans of a few pages and my reproduction.  

[Custermen]

1 hour ago, Custermen said:

Some of the booklets published in Italy that have illustrations include:

Italian Front 1944-1945, Battlefield Relics Volume 1--- Badge is on the cover

& Volume 2

Here are my two booklets.  One has photo captions in both Italian and English but the other one doesn't.  

I haven't located my repro badge.

 

Notice that some of the badges have a void in the coil of the top snake(s).  I'm no expert on this badge and am not good at spotting fakes---that is why I gave up on collecting them.  

 

 

 

[SARGE]

Thanks for the reply and photos of these badges.  The ones that you show all appear to be cast rather than stamped and three of them have the same "coke bottle" pin as mine.  I see a couple of them have two voids where mine has three. The sword is slightly rotated on all of them.  Of course the reason mine has such crisp details is because it is die stamped from a steel master die.  

 

Very interesting.