Not a great deal of success I'm afraid Gary.
1944, #668 issued to Hermann Tanzer of Innsbruck. He achieved a Meistersch�tze badge in each of the years 1941-'44, also gaining the 3 year Gaumeister in '43 & the 4 year spange in '44.
Neither of the other two Meistersch�tze were issued. The highest numbers in the awarded groups were in the number range of 2400, there was only one badge issued with a number in the 2700's & two issued in the 2900's but none at all in the 25, 26, or 2800's.......
With regard to the 3 year Gaumeisterzeichen. 1944 was only the second year it was issued, with only 323 given that year. The higest number seems to have been #798. So I think it's safe to be that this too is an unissued/replacement badge.
It's interesting to see so far that a majority of 1944 badges (not just those posted here but others I've checked as well) are unissued. This could be down to passing troops finding them wherever they were kept & taking them back to the US, or boxes of them were found postwar & dispersed onto the market at that stage.
Cheers
Don
