Dear Colleague David, that's a wonderful image, and I have seen it before, but I cannot recall where. One other point to keep in mind with all of this is the following: until the Roehm Putsch in the early summer of 1934, the Verfuegungstruppe and the LAH within it were subordinate entities within the totality of the SA. In the wake of the Putsch, wherein the armed SS formations were central to the liquidation of the SA leadership, &c. as a kind of junior ally of the Reichswehr, Himmler was able to embark on the rapid build up of the SS in its varied roles, especially the internal security/paramilitary dimension with a kind of support from the army. The Wegner book on the Waffen SS describes this, as does the classic work of Hans Juergen Mueller (Hitler und das Heer...) So does the work of Robert Koehl as well as all the interesting stuff on SS finances. Thus, the real take off of the Verfuegungstruppe is from the 2d half of 1934 into 1935. Further, at the time, the secret re-armament begun under the last of the Weimar cabinets emerged into the open in the course of 1935 in the Saturday surprises (reintroduction of conscription, the unveiling of the Lw...) All of this germane background is to say that, I think much of what we see in such images as this dates from about late-1934 and in the course of 1935, in fact. Look in Klietmann and Hausser for two more or less good sources on just this sort of thing. There are also all the Munin Verlag illustrated histories of the various SSVT units, as well. I do not own all of these, of course.
Thank you, colleague David H. for a very nice image. The chap in the picture seems pleased with his graue Montur. I wonder what happened to him, and to his cap? Those of you who are cuff title experts can perhaps decipher the style of Stickerei, which seems somewhat garish in this image. Thanks again. I am sure that colleague Chapman has the relevant document from his encylopaedia of SS Verordnungs- und Befehlsblaetter.
The more labor intensive and expensive way to do this is via the picture archives in the Bundesarchiv as well as via the documents themselves, in their number. That is, to find the files of SS-specific images that are captioned. Colleague Chapman has enclosed pleasing, tantalizing bits of the documents in which changes in regalia are mentioned. May there are traces there?
