Battle Damaged Belt Buckles

Some years ago I was bitten by the Beltbuckle bug and began hunting for german belt buckles. The small aluminum and steel squares are great collectibles as you find varied and interesting designs, lots of different makers, and they don`t take up much space.

Now and again buckles with battle damages popped up and after a while I had a small collection of unique-, less than pristine belt buckles, which would have stories to tell if they could speak.

This SS officer buckle with a shrapnel hole was my first belt buckle, and one of the first relics I ever bought back in 1996. It was found on Mga, outside Leningrad (St.Petersburg).

Heer buckle hit by shrapnel. Found in the Kurland Kessel.

HitlerJugend buckle with several bullet holes and possibly deformed by detonation. I think this one came out of Germany somewhere.

I guess this one was ripped apart by a detonation. From Kurland.

I would like to know what happened to this SS buckle that came out of Karelia. Looks like it was close to an explosion.

This RAD buckle was destroyed in an explosion in Russia.

It look like this Red Cross buckle also was destroyed by detonation. Found in Germany.

Ripped apart by shrapnel or detonation, and with a root growing through it. Found in Latvia.

SS buckle with a bullet hole. I don`t know where this was found.

Four flattened belt buckles. One can only speculate how they ended up in this condition. Top left was found in Karelia, the next was dug up in Kurland and the two bottom ones from Russia.

Flattened Finnish buckle from Karelia.