Der Lapplandschild

In february 1945 a telegram was sent from Böhmes 20. Gebirgs-Armee, to Berlin, requesting the creation of an award to be given to the personell who had served six months or more in his army which had been fighting in Lappland since 1942. The establishment of the award was reported from the OKH ( German High Command ) shortly before the war ended.

The earliest known entry of the award in a Soldbuch was dated to the 20.April 1945, and the fieldmade certificates are known by examples from 1st July to 18th September 1945.

Certificate dated to 28.7.1945. The shield shown together with it is a 1957 version.

On 8th May, 1945, the Gebirgs-Armee went into British captivity and units were collected in a myriad of camps in Northern Norway, and through the summer many units moved to filtration camps further south awaiting shipment back to Germany.

Since the British commander, General Thorne, allowed the prisoners to wear their awards the Germans soon decided to move ahead and started producing and issuing the Lapplandschild.

The award had been designed as a round bottomed shield with an eagle sitting on top of a bar laying horizontally, having "LAPPLAND" in capital letters underneath. On the face of the shield there would be a map over the Northern Norwegian coast and the Finnish/Norwegian Lappland, and there was no swastika in the design.

Photo found online showing a Lapplandshield being worn.

The production of the shields happened locally in the camps of different units, and with what tools, materials and artistic skills that were available. This resulted in a wide variety of designs.

Larger series of the awards were either stamped on thin metal or cast, but it was also relatively common to cut, carve and engrave the decoration from whatever metal the soldier could get his hands on.

In 1957 the award was reissued with a variant stamped on thin metal and attached on a cloth backing.

How the 1957 variant of the Lapplandshield looks, together with a miniature of it. The mini is original, but I suspect the large shield to be a repro, as they are commonly faked.

Having searched and metal detected in a few of the old Gebirgs-Armee camps me and my friends have found some evidence of the award production that went on here so many years ago.

In one such camp I found four different variations, two stamped and two individually "trench-art" versions. In the same camp I also found the negative of a fieldmade shield stamping press which produced one of the variants. Pics and videos below.

A handmade shield I found this summer.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/4fef0f_f09ef5c16a29461ca78772e36e814c04/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Another handmade version. This one is missing the bar with the word "Lappland", and it had narrowly escaped the flames and heat when the trashpit had been set fire to.

Identical Lapplandshields stamped on different types of metal, brass and aluminum. Found in two different camps.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/4fef0f_8e2fe9adb1af488f90a5acd03cce0378/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The first Lapplandshield I found. It had been tossed into a large dumping pit.

It cleaned up nicely.

A few years later I found an identical shield in another camp. It was stamped on a brass plate.

The plate had one complete shield and several weak and incomplete stampings.

several lapplandshields on one plate.

In the same garbage pit I had found my first Lapplandshield, this lot popped out of the rubbish together with the handmade piece missing the "Lappland". Two weak imprints of the Lapplandshield on thin brass and the negative from the production press, made in the lid of a messkit.

Through my continous research on the Lapplandshield I came across a shield which must have been struck on the negative I found, and I would love to obtain one. So if you are the owner of a shield like the one below, and looking to sell, let me know.

I would like to buy this type of shield!

In a camp neighbouring the one I was searching, my friend Jimmy, dug up two Lapplandshields cast in aluminum, one still had the "flash" from the pouring attached. A very interesting note on these shields was the makers mark on the back of them.

Cast in aluminum, and both had cracked in the middle.

Lapplandshield cast in aluminum.

In the bottom left corner the makers mark is visible.

Makers mark in the left corner.

Searching after these decorations on the internet will get you a lot of results, but beware that there are many fakes. Here are three examples of shields I found online and which supposedly have provenance.

And please, send me a mail if you have an example for sale, or in any case, as it is always very interesting to see originals.

Thanks for reading :) Have a great week :)