Gebirgsjäger Troops without Edelweiss Cap & Arm Badges ?

[AlecH]

Last Saturday, bought at the Flea-market a book "Alpenkorps im Angriff " printed 1940. Deals with, after the annexation of Austria in 1938 the building up of Generalkommando XVIII - 2nd Gebirgsjäger Division with German & Austrian Gebirgsjäger troops until the fall of Poland in late 1939. The book has 134 pictures mainly of artillery, pioneer, nachrichten, all gebirgsjäger troops, however looking at the photos none have any edelweiss badges in their caps or cloth badges stitched on the right sleeve, not one picture. My question is when were they then issued to the mountain troops ?

[lebus12]

On May 2ND 1939 the Oberkommando des Heeres, (High Command of the Army), authorized wear of a distinctive Edelweiss tradition badge for Mountain Troop personnel and the design of the badge was based on a pattern worn by German Alpine troops in WWI. The badge came in three forms with a cloth version for wear on the upper right sleeve of the service uniform, a stemless metal version for wear on the visor cap and a stemmed metal version for wear on the mountain cap.
(from the collector guide...)

[Gunny Hartmann]

Just a guess but maybe the troops in the photos were in training, i don't think they got the edelweiss until they had completed their training.

[AlecH]

A bit unsure which collector's guide Lebus12 is referring to. It does appear to give serious information out, and surprisingly would it seem that such a simple directive took so long to fully implement. There are pictures of the division in action in the Poland campaign around the Lemberg area late September without any edelweiss's on the uniforms.

In this particular case Gunny's suggestion doesn't hold up - they would be fully fledged soldiers if fighting around Lemberg, but he may well be right - perhaps they didn't receive the edelweiss insignia until basic training was over, I don't know - must look at my Gebirgsjäger photo-albums

[HPL2008]

Just one observation: The first photograph is certainly still an image from the early post-Anschluss days. Notice the men are still wearing their Austrian Army uniforms with Wehrmacht breast eagles attached.