Artillery Swallow Tail Standart, Staff for Mounted Artillery and Accesories
Article about: This assemblage took darn near 20 years to complete! Am trying to source new or better condition staff filets. Thought about having solid aluminum filets produced. Your opinions on that is w
Artillery Swallow Tail Standart, Staff for Mounted Artillery and Accesories
This assemblage took darn near 20 years to complete!
Am trying to source new or better condition staff filets. Thought about having solid aluminum filets produced. Your opinions on that is welcome. The current filets are manufactured of what looks like a 1/2 size of copper tubing and was plated. All the plating of the hardware is lost to time. The leather strap is missing too. If anyone could point out a source for that or have details of how that was made please advise!
The staff was a barn find in Austria as the seller advised it was hidden in the barns rafters and discovered there.
The battalion ring is from III/Artillery Regiment 34. When Mark Yerger was alive he graciously provided research on the Battalion Ring:
Art Rgt 34 formed 6/10/1936 in Wehrkreis XII. The I.Abteilung (heavy) was the existing I./Artillerie Regiment 70. II.Abteilung subordinated to 72.Infanterie Division in Oct 1939 and became I./Art Rgt 72 on 2/4/1940. Replaced by le. Art Abt 749 (later became a component of Art Rgt 86 of the 112.Infanterie Division). Art Rgt 34 a component of 34.Infanterie Division, initially in Koblenz.
From Wikipedia:
The 34th Infantry Division was formed between 1935 and 36 during the rapid expansion of the army following the withdrawal from the Treaty of Versailles. The division was setup within Wehrkreis XII and based in Heidelberg. When recruiting originally, the division was mostly made up of men from the area of the Rhineland and Hesse. After mobilisation just before the Invasion of Poland, the division was based in Trier and on both sides of Saarlautern. While being based in the area, the division was assigned to defence group of the Westwall.[1][2]
On 19 September the 105th infantry regiment and 2nd battalion of the artillery regiment were moved to form the new 72nd Infantry Division, with the 105th being replaced by the new formed 253rd infantry regiment. The second artillery battalion was replaced by light artillery group of the 749th artillery regiment. After small skirmishes with the French during the Saar Offensive, they were in the region of Eifel. Following the start of the Western Campaign on 10 May 1940, the division moved through Luxembourg City to the area between Longwy and Dudelingen where they were assigned to flank protection for the northern Maginot Line.[1][2]
During the second phase of the invasion, the division made its way to Aisne where they forced the French across the river back to Reims and the Marne. The division finally made it to the Loire and finally ended up in Allier after the ceasefire. Following the ceasefire the division was moved to the demarcation line on security duties, and by July was part of the occupation force based in Boulogne where they were tasked with coastal defence duties. In December the third battalions of all regiments were relinquished and replaced by fresh troops. In May 1941 the division was transported by rail to Poland and delivered to Brest-litovsk in preparation for the Russian Campaign.[1][2]
On 22 June 1941, Operation Barbarossa was launched and the division easily broke through the defensive line around the town and pushed to Beresina and finally the Dnieper south of Mogilev. From this point, the division crossed the river and by the beginning of September was in Bryansk.[1][2] The division was engaged in almost continuous fighting in Russia over the next three years. After heavy losses in the vicinity of the Cherkassy Pocket at the Hnyly Tikych river south of Zhashkiv and during battles around Uman, the 34th ID had to be replenished in May 1944 by the Schatten Division Neuhammer.
In July 1944 the 34th ID was transferred to Armeeabteilung Zangen in Italy, around Genoa.
The Division fought in the Second Battle of the Alps and capitulated in April 1945.
The structure of the division was as follows;[1][2]
Divisional Staff
24th Signal Battalion
34th Reconnaissance Battalion
80th Infantry Regiment
105th Infantry Regiment (replaced by 253rd Infantry Regiment after mobilisation in 1939)[1]
107th Infantry Regiment
34th Field Replacement Battalion
34th Artillery Regiment (originally 3 battalions, later 4)[1]
34th Anti-Tank Battalion (Panzerjäger)
34th Engineer Battalion
34th Divisional Supply and Support Column
Commanding officers
Generalleutnant Erich Lüdke, 1 April 1936 – 1 October 1937
Generalmajor Max von Viebahn, 1 October 1937 – 1 March 1938
Generalleutnant Friedrich Bremer, 1 March 1938 – 1 April 1939
General der Artillerie Hans Behlendorff, 19 July 1939 – 10 May 1940
Generalleutnant Werner Sanne, 11 May 1940 – 1 November 1940
General der Artillerie Hans Behlendorff, 1 November 1940 – 18 October 1941
Generalleutnant Friedrich Fürst, 18 October 1941 – 5 September 1942
Generalleutnant Theodor Scherer, 5 September 1942 – 2 November 1942
General der Infanterie Friedrich Hochbaum, 2 November 1942 – 31 May 1944
Generalleutnant Theobald Lieb, 31 May 1944 – 1945
Oberst Ferdinand Hippel, 1945
War crimes
Elements of the division have been implicated in the Grugliasco massacre, Piedmont, alongside the 5th Mountain Division, where, on 30 April 1945, 67 civilians were executed.
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients of the 34th Infantry Division
Hans BehlendorffFriedrich Hochbaum (Oak Leaves)Walter Hörnlein1 (Oak Leaves)
1 Oak Leaves with Division Großdeutschland|
They are one of the most superbly detailed, decorative and rare pieces of Militaria from that dark period of history,
and because the swallow tail standarten are smaller than their 4 X 4 brethren, easier to display too.
I have never owned one, but have always admired them, and the way Rich has his displayed (when it isn't locked away)
is superb....
After discussion with Tom Wittman as to possibly handling the sale of this ensemble, he said its too big and out of the category of what I do. I mentioned to him cleaning of the fillets and ferrule and he added if your replating it I don't want to be involved. What is planned is not plating, but cleaning! Also, the decision was much easier to make than seeing a 20% fee deducted for selling this!
The cleaning is done with a solution that removes the decades of gunk which some say may say patina, but in reality the fillets and ferrule are beyond a good patina and look terrible as to how the metal parts could match the condition of the swallow tail standardt.
The solution does have a silvering compound in it and works quite well and for the black gunk, patina, to return, it will but slowly over time. Not into the hardware looking as it does. There is no electro silvering plating involved.
With all of this, I've decided to keep the ensemble and am now on the hunt for the dimensions of the leather strap to have a replacement made.
The whole total effort is focused on bringing the former glory of condition back to this rarely found grouping.
Any help on who understands & could produce the leather strap by original dimensions is welcomed and appreciated!
Image related to the quest to work towards completion of the strap/arm rest for the staff of mounted troops.
Note 1st Russian soldier from the right and the strap his right hand is on. If you enlarge the image the detail is much easier to see but perhaps not concise enough to reproduce the leather strap/arm rest.
I thought I had 1 other image that details the leather strap/arm rest but the image merely details the mounting hardware. I've looked on the internet but cannot find any better detail of what the leather strap arm rest assembly looks like.
If anyone has a good image of the leather strap/arm rest, please post it! Thank you!
Artillery Swallow Tail Standart, Staff for Mounted Artillery and Accesories
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by Aldo
its just an opinion.
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