Gebirgsjager edelweiss pin back badge

[harryamb2]

looks ok to me.

[wood]

Quite likely Pete, my point was that as per the photo, these ones were worn too.

Cheers, Dan

True enough.

[HPL2008]

Now, before you say "that's not a gebirgs edelweiss badge - they never wore those on the cap nor visor - have a closer look at this famous image that appeared in SIGNAL and on postcards ( one of which I have )

I wonder whether the image was taken prior to the introduction of the distinctive Edelweiß badges for mountain troops.

As has been said above, a stemless Edelweiß badge had already been worn by Germany's Imperial-era mountain troops. The mountain troops were disbanded in 1919, and the Weimar-era 100,000-men army was officially not allowed to have any. (However, in reality, all divisions had one light infantry battalion that was trained and equipped for mountain warfare.)

The official re-building of the mountain troops began in 1935 or so, but the Wehrmacht-model Edelweiß cap- and sleeve badges were only introduced in May 1939.

I wouldn't be surprised if unofficial wear of the traditional Edelweiß as a cap badge took place before that.

Then again, perhaps it is simply the badge for the peaked service cap (where it was worn between the cockade and eagle)? But it appears to be too large for that in my opinion.

(Anyway - and forgive me for being an old nit-picker - it is actually not correct to refer to it as a Gebirgsjäger badge. It was worn by all members of the Gebirgstruppen [mountain troops], which also included mountain signals, -artillery and -engineer units. The Gebirgsjäger were mountain infantry specifically.)

I may be wrong Dan but the SA Gruppe Hochland does have the swas , I dont think the SS Gruppe does

The stemless Edelweiß cap badge as worn by the SA's and NSKK's Hochland groups had a Swastika in its center. (Austrian SA- and NSKK units wore a different style Edelweiß with a stem and leaves which didn't feature a Swastika.)

There was no SS-Gruppe Hochland, and the Allgemeine SS formations in Bavaria and Austria did not wear Edelweiß cap badges at all.

(At least not officially, I think I vaguely remember having seen one such photograph somewhere.)

[Woolgar]

Thank you Andreas very informative ...as usual

Nick

[Danmark]

Thank you Andreas very informative ...as usual

Nick

I second that! I'm surprised & pleased this little badge has promoted so much good discussion.
We are all the wiser.