UBB.threads Forums Uniform & Accessories SS & SA Uniform Forum Combat liberated but not well-worn

In the course of interviewing 992 101st Abn vets and over 300 2nd Armored Div vets, I have acquired a few examples of W-SS abzeichen which were never sewn-on to a tunic or cap.

The American GI was a world-class souvenir scrounger and these items were found in a careful search of the pockets, paybooks, wallets and breadbags of SS casualties.
Since they are not 'well-worn', I have not posted them on that thread.
I'll start with a bevo em sleeve eagle found SW of Carentan on 13 June, 1944. This was found by Jim Martin of G/506th PIR near 'Bloody Gully, after the aborted attck by the 37th SS Pz Gr Rgt of the 17th SS Pz Gr Div.
The same day, Jim found another just like it, but battle damaged and bloodstained, as it had been on the person of a Grenadier who was torn-up by an artillery shell.

Found in the possessions of a fallen 17th SS guy on 12 June south of Carentan, by John Urbank, G/501 PIR. The flatwire officer eagles are ultra rare-I've only had two in 37 years of collecting W-SS stuff and the other was removed from a tunic.

Here's the reverse side of the unused flatwire sleeve eagle.

Officer quality flatwire skulls are almost as rare-this one came from the same guy as the sleeve eagle.

A fine example of an EM cap adler, picked-up by Captain Bult of 2nd AD MP Co. during the drive of 'Hell on Wheels' across France in mid 1944.

Here's the narrow type EM cap skull I alluded to in another post-these are usually seen on late war overseas caps, although I've also seen one on a M43 cap. Lt Hettrick of the 377th Parachute Artillery found this on a deceased SS artillery observer, who had been gut-shot the day before. The wounded guy had crawled down into the root cellar of a Belgian house outside Bastogne and opened his tunic, then died.
Hettick found him the next day and chased away a group of hogs, who had eaten the dead man's guts out, from ribcage to crotch. He found this unused totenkopf in the dead man's Soldbuch.
Hettrick kept the Soldbuch as well, but loaned it to a collector in FL after the war. This collector had a fire in his house trailer and lost his entire collection, including this
F.O.'s Soldbuch.

Reverse of Hettrick's skull

Beautiful insignias with interesting history
M. Bando!

Thanks for sharing!

Felix

Nice stuff, as usual. and more important good history lesson to know that not all of the unused insignia was 'taken from a shelf in a warehouse' after the fighting was over.

M43 trap w/'Pirate Skull'-
Removed from a cap in the field, but barely worn-c/o Wilson Boback, 501st PIR

A feldgrau Bevo M43 Trap, also in 'new' condition, liberated in Krimml, Austria in 1945, by Sgt Tom Enright of F/501 PIR.
As you know, these also existed with a more-menacing skull, having a double row of teeth.

Thanks for showing the Great Insignia....

but even more Importantly, the stories behind them...

Makes it up close & personal....

Ready to see more!!!!!! Txs, Dave/dblmed

This late-war bullion officer sleeve eagle was never sewn on to a uniform. The damage was inflicted post-war by moths.
A member of Service Co. 506th PIR removed this from an insignia bin behind Herman Fegelein's Fischorn Castle at Bruck, Austria in May, 1945.

Fascinating ,what is an insignia bin? Rob

Rob-
Behind the Fischorn Castle (which is still standing today, although the back yard is off- limits to tourists), there was a series of out buildings, connected in two rows of 3 or four storage areas on each row. Each storage area was like a small garage.
Bill Knight who liberated the sleeve eagle, told me that one of the garages was full of motorcycles. Another was full of Liquor and one was full of small storage trays, each filled with German cloth insignia. He grabbed two mint SS officer sleeve eagles (I had both but traded off the more moth-damaged one) from one bin and disregarded the rest, because it was considered to be 'small potatoes' type loot at the time. Bill thought most of the stuff in there was dumped on the ground and burned. Also, he was in the castle with a CIC officer, opening stored trunks and they found some rolled-up Rennaissance type oil paintings and other treasures in there. I have a beautiful ornage-handled 2nd model Luftwaffe dagger with hangers and knot, that came out of that castle-
It presumably belonged to an officer on Goring's staff.
There was some dispute over whether Goring or Fegelein 'owned' that castle. But the SS Horse farm was quite nearby and SS troops had burned thousands of documents in the basement furnace of the Fischorn Castle in the several weeks before US troops arrived in the area. The documents were brought in trucks manned by SS personnel and it is thought they contained statistics of Holocaust victims and records of how much monetary and jewel-type valuables had been stolen from the murdered victims. This may be why there is not more written evidence of these activities. Himmler's secretary personally oversaw the destruction of this paperwork.
After Field Marshall Goring was apprehended by the 36th Inf Div nearby, Frau Goring was allowed to live in the castle, at the same time US troops occupied it. Her beautiful young Polish 'lady in waiting' was also living there. After some disgruntled witnesses complained about Frau Goring's privileged lifestyle, she was eventually moved out of there to a more ordinary detention center.
I also purchased a chained M36 SS dagger from Bill Knight, but he obtained that from a surrendering SS officer at Bad Gastein a couple of days later.

Thankyou for the detailed account , this and the other SS cloth thread have been extremely interesting ,to have items that you actually have the history for from such famous places and battles is truly amazing .Rob

Former police and chemical warfare nco sleeve patches liberated by Don Green, 94th Infantry Division at Lampaden, Germany, 1945.

Don Green 94th US Inf Div, of Patton's 3rd Army, took this skull tab from a member of the Nord Mountain Division at Lampaden, Germany near Trier in early March, 1945.
Members of one regiment of SS Nord came from the Totenkopfverbande originally and were still wearing TK collar tabs in 1945.
Although this specimen is tunic-removed, it is still in relatively clean and pristine condition.
You see a lot of examples of these for sale, but seldom with veteran provenance as to where and by whom they were obtained.

This 101st Airborne vet accepted the surrender of a small group of Waffen SS troopers in May, 1945 at Lofer, Austria. One of them was wearing this dot pattern HBT jacket over dot pattern smooth cotton trousers. The suit was in mint condition, having been recently-issued.
The Airborne GI pointed his M-1 rifle at this prisoner and said "Take that suit off, I want it!"
He brought it home to Canton, OH and each Halloween after the war, he would wear it while on his front porch, handing-out candy to the trick or treaters.

Thanks! Super Great Information and Display of Photos of the 'Souvenirs!'

For a WW2 Vet, getting to wear the SS Dot Camo on Halloween was literally quite a TREAT - and gave him an opportunity to remember 'another time, in another place.'

Show us more ..... this is Outstanding. Txs, Dave/dblmed

Great stuff Mark. Thanks for sharing the views and the real stories. Rollie

Hi Rollie-glad you are enjoying my contributions.

Here's a tunic-removed eagle from Harv Jewett of the 506th-still in rather pristine condition.

Mark,

Great pictures of very special insignia!
Thank you for sharing!

Chief

Mark,

Great as always, you are truly the mentor for so many of us with the extensive documentation you did with your collecting.

Kurt Barickman