UBB.threads Forums Uniform & Accessories SS & SA Uniform Forum Dutch Produced W-SS Cufftitle "SS-Kriegsberichter"

Evening All!


A few years ago, I ran into an old " friend" that I had not seen in a few years (over 10 now, how time flies!!) before that, not since the 80's when it was parted with when I sold the bulk of my first collection to pay for University tuition...


A little back history on this cuff title...I was given this by the late Canadian war photographer Ken Bell, who was friends with my father and who attended the same Legion events with him from time to time. Ken was given this cuff title by a Canadian infantryman who thought that it would be 'right up his alley' as it were, a momento of a fellow war documentarist, albeit on the opposite side. The infantryman was believed to have obtained it from a Dutch SS P.O.W. in Canadian hands in either May or June of 1945.


My father has at least one of the cameras that Ken used while in the field and I am sure that it has captured some historical images to be certain.

It's funny in militaria circles how things get around, and it walked into a militaria shop in Quebec City with its new owner sometime after that, where it was retained in the shop owner's personal collection until it was recently reacquired again by yours truly.


With regards to this cuff title, it is made in the atypical Dutch fashion: hand embroidered in alu/silver bullion thread on a textured base cloth, Its edges are trimmed with a 3mm wide silver soutache type braid, attached with a single row of machine stitching on both the top and bottom of the cuff title. On the reverse, the embroidery is backed by what appears to be a type of impregnated canvas covered with a waxed or moisture proofed paper.


The cuff title appears to have been attached by silver or grey threads to the tunic, and exhibits the general wear and tear associated with field use. My collecting interests have narrowed since I first acquired this cuff title (I now collect SA and NSDAP) but I thought that the members here and elsewhere would appreciate seeing a fairly scare (if not rare...an often overused word to be certain) cuff title worn by a member of the propaganda cum war correspondence arm of the Dutch W-SS. I cannot imagine that there are many like this that survived the war: certainly this is the only one of this type that is available for viewing online.


In fact, one of the reasons I am posting pictures of this cuff title in detail for the very first time is that it has been used in online and book references (wholly unattributed, but such is life in the Wild West of the online world!) and I thought that perhaps better justice could be done to it by way of closeup photography with better lighting.

I am just getting back into the collecting world after a long absence due to academic upgrading...I haven't decided what I will do with this or other similar items, but here it is in all its black and silver glory!!

Btw, the cufftitle belonged to either SS-KB Slapak or Mielke as the mixed lot of personal items attested to when the cufftitle was originally obtained...unfortunately, that info is now lost to time...I did possess Mielke's SS driver's licence ( also obtained from Ken) so perhaps the scales of probability can be tipped in that direction, but we may never know!

More pics...love the hand embroidery here!

Doug:

Great item with a neat history.

Thanks for showing.

John

I agree that is really neat to see.... Thank u for the history lesson!!!