Tank Destroyer Award design
The tank destroyer award consisted of three separate pieces. A rectangular piece of gold cloth with Two black solid lines run the length of the strip. one placed in the upper side the other in the lower side. A metal rectange with two round holes near its center creates a back plate. The last section is a metal stamping of the profile of a tank.

The metal tank has two prongs that go through the holes of the back plate and the gold cloth. Once in place the prongs are bent to form the award. The plate provides rigidity to the award.

The picture here shows the front portion of the badge. Very good detail is shown in the stamping of all the components of the tank. There are 8 running wheels and 3 tensioner wheels. The side of the turret has a small window.

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Award Qualifications: The qualifications for earning the Gold Tank Destroyer badge include the following: Num Description 1 A soldier destroys a tank or armored vehicle by hand in Five different occassions. 2 Tank destructions 1 through 4 are rewarded with Silver awards. When the fifth one is achieved the silver awards are replaced by a Gold one. 3 The same process is repeated until the tenth award is received, which would yield a second Gold award. The same process continues for all other awards.

By the Numbers
It is hard to determine the exact number of Tank Destroyer bages that were produced. However, thanks to the record keeping maintained by the Wehrmacht, it is possible to find how many shields were actually issued.

There were over 2,000 Tank Destroyer badges issued during the war. The Tank Destroyer badge was issued along with an award document. Not all documents were identical. variations can be found from unit to unit. A few things that all documents would have in common are the signature of the officer who awarded the shield and the state seal. The award was sewn to the right arm of the tunic. When a second award was earned it was placed right below the previous one. Up to four awards could be worn at one time. In view that there were tank battles of epic proportions during the war, the opportunity to kill fighting vehicles was present. Photos exist of individuals who sported many of these badges.

Collecting Third Reich Badges
Collecting Third Reich memorabilia is a field that has been growing since the days the GI's rummaged around Europe bringing back military souvenirs. German soldiers wore many of their awards on their uniforms when they went to battle. Once the soldier was killed or captured, the American soldiers would take the awards as war trophies. Eventually all these pieces came back to the United States where military history enthusiasts began to collect them.

In trying to determine if you should collect Tank Destroyer badges there are certain factors that should be considered. The adjacent table outlines some of the advantages and disadvantages of collecting the Tank Destroyer badges.

This award is currently being reproduced. It is becoming more difficult to be able to tell the fake ones from the real ones because the quality of the reproductions is improving. The collector must become familiarized with the construction style and materials employed in the manufacturing of this badge. Attention to the details is critical in order to be able to determine the authenticity of the badge.