Originally Posted By: JoeW
They are "NCO" swords........I was using the term candidate in a tongue-in-check manner. Perhaps the "NCO" Degen is the real "candidate" sword.


In the German Army, senior grade NCO's carried a (plain jane) government version of the officer's sword as a badge of rank. Lower ranks could not. And in the officer candidate schools, as they rose higher in rank had other privileges which is probably beyond the scope of this discussion. My point being that I think this photo is more indicative of:

"There is a fourth possibility that is a variation of two. The sword in the first photo is a non-awarded SS Fuhrerdegen, of the design called called "Candidate" sword, that were provided for those officers desiring to carry a sidearm but not having the "connections" to be awarded an Ehrendegen. I provide this description based on the appearance in SS replacement price lists of a listing for an "SS-Degen", as well as the appearance of procured SS-Degens appearing on RSHA inventory cards. These were illustrated in T.W.'s book on SS blades for which I contributed the SS-Police sword chapter." FP

SS_Oberjunker_degens_WM1 copy.jpg (52.67 KB, 290 downloads)