SS Hauptsturmführer Rank Tab

[Friedrich-Berthold]

While I am not fond of the Angolia book ca. 1983 or 1989 on SS insignia, it has many images of more or less real badges, and the one insight I derive from a survey of these illustrations is the staggering variety of Sternchen, as well as their variation on a single tab.

I am sure that the ex soldiers in our readership will explain why this fact operates.......!

[Woolgar]

Thank you FB !

I (and I am sure my friend too) am enlightened by your explaination

Nick

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thank you FB !

I (and I am sure my friend too) am enlightened by your explaination

Nick

You are welcome.

I have spent more than three decades with soldiers, many of them German and Austrian. In many cases, their Sternchen do not match, i.e. when they are promoted, they add a Sternchen, and these are either made of alu or Neusilber, not so much of zinc, I think, but surely the alu and the shiny type. They frequently do not match. I look at such things.
And their cuff titles, which are common in the Bw and worn on both sleeves, are often put on by hand in a fairly primitive way.
That is, some have their uniforms done up by tailors and especially by the old Kleiderkasse d. Bw (now gone...) which had nice women in it, seamstresses, who did all this wonderful work.

[Hsturmfhgeorg]

Hi Nick, these are all fakes piping (one artificially aged by faker) from fake tabs, to compare with your original piping.
Cheers
Georg

[Woolgar]

Thank you Georg !

Very helpful photos

Nick

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Might I repeat a fact, and I will leave the jousting at shadows to others.

The only way to judge SS regalia is to look at it closely in person.

All this running in tight circles with digital images and one-ups-man-ship is a waste of time.

All the material I have enclosed is original.

[Michael Ryan]

Hi, Having served 30 years in the Supply Branch of the RAF, I feel I must agree with F-B with regard to the incorrect wear of uniform insignia etc. by serving officers and troops. It is surprisingly common to see what insignia people wear and how they attach it despight specific instructions in the various dress regulations etc. A couple or examples that spring to mind in my own collection and both from the original officers concirned may illustrate the point. A Group Captain (Bird Colonel/Oberst) Number One uniform with his sleave rings attached by hand and inside out. A single wing flying brevet again from a Group Captain of realy cheap repro quality on a royal blue rather than black field. So, well stated F-B you are spot on with the idiosyncracies of so called uniformaty!! Especially in war.
Regards and best wishes MR

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Well said and thank you.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The other piece in Germany was the deliberate flaunting of regulations with different kinds of more or less underground customs and habits, which, later, got included into the regulations despite being forbidden in an earlier epoch.
This phenomenon existed in the past, and also took place in the epoch. The thing I notice about German soldier even today is an insistence on wearing a ratty, dirty piece of head gear versus some stonemint, clean and decorative thing out of the box. The latter is to show that one is other than a recruit. I am often amazed at how filthy are such things placed on a man's head, or a woman's head, but the Bw does not have many women compared to other NATO armies.
And, in the case of the SS in the pre war epoch of massive growth and constant change to regulations, was that everyone seemed quite confused as to what was permitted and what was not.
I do not concern myself with war time insignia, but the onset of shortages and the short comings of the SS supply and quarter master system made its roles in this regard problematic.
Mollo describes this process well, especially in vol. VI, but also this experience is well interpreted in any serious account of economy and war in Germany, of which there are many fine works.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

all of which is to say that I as a collector of SS regalia find the two zinc and one aluminum pips or Sternchen wholly to be in the range of normal.