Sarajevo. Help! Trying to ID collar tabs!!!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 09-30-2009, 08:23 PM

Hi, OK here is a brief history of the unit.

The Einsatzstaffel der Deutschen Mannschaft was made up of ethnic Germans living in the former Yugoslavia. There were around 200,000 people of German background in the region. In June 1941 the Deutsche Mannschaft was set up recruiting men aged 18 to 45 as a "self defence force" similar in lines to the German Allgemeine SS. By July '41 the armed wing , the Einsatzstaffel der Deutschen Mannschaft had been raised from men aged 18 to 28. There were approx 3000 members in one active and three standby battalions. They fought against Tito's Partizans etc. By April 1943 they had been disbanded and the majority of the men transfered to the Waffen SS. Capture by the Partizans would have been a death sentence.

The belt buckle is super rare. Here is pic of an extant one. Sadly not mine.

Mountain boots are typical for the unit given the terrain they operated in. They later joined various Waffen SS Mountain units, but mainly the "Prinz Eugen" Division. The cuff title could be for that, seen on the solo photo, but it is impossible to judge from the pic. But he might wear the Odal rune collar tab of the division which would confirm it as being that. That would be my bet.

No connection with "Einsatzgruppen": that is a very different organisation.

Cheers, Ade.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 09-30-2009 08:23 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 09-30-2009, 08:45 PM

Here is a link to a rare helmet from the unit which I own:

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/steel...0-helmet-1601/

Cheers, Ade.

**Alan M** · 09-30-2009, 09:34 PM

Ade , that is a cracking looking helmet , i`m not surprised it`s your favourite ,

cheers Al

**ss sniper** · 10-01-2009, 09:59 AM

Striker, thanks for the offer to translate.
If we come across any more documents etc, i'll let ya know.

OKW · 10-01-2009, 05:27 PM

Ade, you should be on mastermind

I've just read a book by Mark Mazower, Hitlers Empire, which sheds somelight on these and other goings on. well worth a read if you have the time, your sixty seconds start now.
Just looked at your helmet link, very nice. When you say you brought it locally is that from a veteran source? or had it already been around?

**Adrian Stevenson** · 10-01-2009, 11:01 PM

The helmet was bought locally by a part time dealer direct from the Vet but he failed to take any details. I got it at a fraction of it's true worth about 10 years ago now.

Cheers, Ade.

**Striker** · 10-02-2009, 02:59 PM

Being Croatian myself, its pretty neat to see something like this after so many years. Not a lot of people out there are aware of the small Croat based units hence the reason there isn't many of these helmets in existence.

I was talking to my father a few days ago and he grew up in Slavonija, a small province in North-Eastern Croatia where a lot of Ustashe/Partisan conflicts went on. Anyways, he clearly remembers his grandmother using the left-behind helmets from retreating german-croatian forces to feed her chickens out of

He said that she had a few of them and that the entire village where his family is still today probably has a lot of treasures that can still be retrieved. Makes you wonder if there are any more helmets with Cro markings still on them......