Ghosts of WWII

I recently had the opportunity to purchase a Glycine Dienstuhr Heer German issued Wehrmacht watch. The "DH" watches were contracted by the Germans during the war to meet the needs of the military for jobs requiring a watch. Many companies provided watches to the German military including names we all know like Glycine, Zenith, Longines, and about 20 more. All of the DH issued watches have the same general characteristics similar to mine below.

The average german soldier couldn't afford a wrist watch in those days, and if his job required one the military would issue one. These were considered state property and the serial number would be recorded in the soldier's pay book and expected to be returned when requested. The soldier had to pay for it if lost or stolen and you couldn't own one outside of military service.

Post war, some soldiers would remove the DH number from the back to conceal their military origins since civilian versions without these numbers had been made. Also, the fact the serial was tied with the records of their pay book and I'm sure elsewhere made it an easy way to tie particular soldiers to specific places.

My Glycine had its numbers removed post-war. If you look carefully you can see the ghosted image of 2 of the numbers. Whoever was issued this watch didn't want anyone to tie it back to him later, or to track his movements during the war. I haven't included any photos of this yet as it'll require me to use my macro lens and I haven't gotten that far yet.

I wore the watch for the photo to capture the patina and for the purposes of sharing it with you folks but I doubt it will be anything more than a curiosity in my collection. It has a creepy factor which can't be overcome.

The movement is an AS1130 and case diameter is 34mm.

Dial patina and radium burns

The Krauts.... sorry zee Germans were pretty careful about following up on equipment they issued.

Well after the war a friends father had to explain what happened to the Tiger tank he had failed to return. He had been a tank commander in the SS

While "returning" from Russia he had hit a mine and had a track blown off, while his crew was trying to refit the track the Soviets caught up with them so they had to blow up their tank and run. My freinds dad still wear some Russian schrapnel in his skull from that day.

They seemed to accept his story, he still gets his monthly pension cheque from the SS.

nice old world we live in.......

As crazy as it seams, Waffen-SS disability pensions are still paid even today, including to known war criminals. There can't be too many Waffen SS soldiers left in 2014 but they're still paid disability, so Fritz is entirely correct.

Bizarre isn't it?

Why is that bizarre? Unless executed for their crimes, the society has to feed them, if they cannot feed themselves. That's the way of any civilized society

Yeah, but I still find it a bit disturbing that Canada Post will handle an envelope with Waffen-SS on the top righthand corner.

Its not right somehow.

It's my opinion that the Waffen-SS don't count in a civilized society. I know of one Waffen SS officer in the US still receiving benefits here.