An update of my Croatian Collection

**martinsuper** · 03-22-2012, 02:14 PM

by Scout

Looks like a German flare gun stuck in his belt BTW.
Any idea of unit etc?

Yeah, 27mm flare gun.
There were 15 German "police rifle battalions" formed in the Independant State of Croatia. Mostly made up of Croatians, Volksdeutsche, people who could speak German, etc...
There were also 10 (or more) Gendarmerie Battalions of which some were motorized.
Honestly that is a lot of units to venture a guess. I will look at the Croatian Armed Forces book again and see what unit was formed in his area about the time he joined up.

Here is a picture of a German Police Officer that is also Croatian. By the tone of the picture appears to be Gendarmerie.

Notice that the straight edged SS "Handschar" style coat of arms is worn on the lower sleeve. Though there seems to be no ryhme or reason to the insignia, "Prinz Eugen" was seen to have been wearing the curved edge style coat of arms, and "Handschar" the straight edged. But there are pictures of the opposite for both.

Here are some motorized Gendarmerie in Croatia.. AND AN ERMA!

Sorry for the quality, an Ebay photo that went FAR too high.

So, to answer your question, I don't know.

**Scout** · 03-22-2012, 02:19 PM

Well, you certainly answered in the most comprehensive way possible

Great, that you managed to find another ERMA.

It seems that many of these slightly older quality arms were relegated to rear guard duty.

I would certainly not have felt undergunned with the ERMA or for example the MPi18/Bergmann (which is one of my favourites).

**SADolch** · 04-02-2012, 01:12 AM

Martin....Very nice collection...I would like to share my only (2) Croatian items.....
DAVE H

**martinsuper** · 04-02-2012, 01:59 PM

The first is a Zvonimir with Oak Leaves second class. The second is a Zvonimir with Swords cased second class. VERY NICE!

**SADolch** · 04-03-2012, 02:11 AM

Martin , sent you a PM, here is the reverse............DAVE H

**martinsuper** · 04-03-2012, 01:12 PM

OK!

The only reason I asked is because in 1957 when the German government authorized the de-nazified medals for wear by Veterans and active duty, the remade all of the Croatian medals as well. The difference was that the remade medals had an all medal back (no enamel). They are worth just a little less that the originals. These however are WW2 originals.

-Martin