BW wear of US Army marksmanship badges

[Guardian 5]

Gents - Anyone know where on the moleskin and flecktarn uniform the BW wears U.S. marksmanship badges?

An old Bundeswehr vet told me on the lower left sleeve, but I've never been able to verify this with any other source, nor have I seen pictures of the badges being worn in this manner.

Can anyone help?

Thanks - G5

[Gordon Craig]

G5,

Interesting question that I can not answer. I wonder why they would move it to the sleeve when it is normally worn on the right breast pocket. Possibly an alternative spot if some other cloth badge was worn on the right breast pocket on the Flecktarn. Here is a picture of this badge/award worn on the tunic.

Regards,

Gordon

[Guardian 5]

Gordon - For those in the combat arms, that space is normally reserved for the Einzelkaempfer, Heeresbergfuehrer, and French Commando badges. The left pocket is saved for the sports badge.

In this picture, the color guard on the left wears his U.S. badge under his sports badge. The color guard on the right, wears his U.S. badge on the left.

In any event, I know BW soldiers wore embroidered versions of the U.S. marksmanship badge on their moleskin and flecktarn battle dress, I just don't know where. I have hundreds of pictures of BW soldiers in battle dress and not one them shows the positioning of the U.S. marksmanship badges. I haven't seen a picture of a BW sniper badge either, another of the mysterious "sleeve" badges.

Ah the joys of collecting BW stuff......

TJ

[Klaus1989]

I think, but not certain, BW sniper badge is on left sleeve below unit patch. A German soldier was selling his old field jacket on ebay one time and he had it there. Unfortunately I was not collecting BW then.

Klaus

[Gordon Craig]

TJ,

Thanks for the interesting picture but your comments confuse me. I agree with the badges to be worn on the right hand breast pocket of the dress tunic hence the comment in my earlier post. First lets say that in the picture you posted left and right are as viewed by me. In that case, the U.S. marksmans badge appears to be worn on the left side of the tunic by one of the colour guard and on the right side by the other member of the colour guard. Seems to be that there was some leeway in where this badge was worn or perhaps I am not seeing things clearly in your photograph.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Guardian 5]

Gordon - I think I succeeded in confusing myself, which is very easy to do I might add.

It appears as though on dress uniforms there was some leeway in wearing U.S. marksmanship badges. But with regards to battle dress/fatigue uniforms, we have so far only the anecdotal information supplied to us by the BW veterans Klaus and I encountered.

Attached find a scan of the aforementioned Sniper Badge, which also seems to exist but what we currently have scant knowledge of.

TJ

[Guardian 5]

No mention of the Sniper badge or foreign awards are made in the 1999 edition of Der Reibert.

[Gordon Craig]

TJ,

Both types of "Scharfschütze" badges are shown on page 163 of Von der Affenjacke zum Tropentarnanzug" by Walter Kunstwadl. If I understand what is in the book, and my German is limited, these badges were an ininiative of the BW reserve and are possibly only worn by members of the reserve. According to the book there is also a special badge wih an "S" in the oak leaves but it isn't pictured.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

TJ,

Here is a picture showing the approved positions for wearing badges on a BW Heer and Lyft uniform.

Regards,

Gordon

[Guardian 5]

Gordon comes through again!

As luck would have it, I picked up this fully badged Flecktarn shirt yesterday at the local surplus store. On the right pocket was a U.S. marksmanship badge!

What a way to start off the New Year. A question that has vexed me for years tied up just like that with solid documentation to back it up. Yes!

Thanks - TJ

[Gordon Craig]

TJ,

Congrates on the shirt. Looks great. If you come across another one like that in your surplus store I would appreciate it if you would pick one up for me. I just agreed to buy the tunic with the U.S. Marksman's badge that I pictured earlier in this thread. Be nice to have both.

Regards,

Gordon

PS-Just took another look at the shirt. With Luft Security Troops badges it will go well with the Luft Flecktarn cap we were discussing in the other thread.

[Guardian 5]

Gordon - Attached find a couple more shots of the Bundesluftwaffe shirt with the U.S. marksmanship badges. This view shows the Leistungsabzeichen in gold. There was no name tape on the shirt, but I had an extra in the "spares" box. Note also the custom application of velcro on the pockets; a lot easier than snapping and unsnapping the buttons.

TJ

[Guardian 5]

Here we see the old style rank insignia (Stabsfeldwebel). It's interesting that all the badges are printed on flecktarn except for the rank insignia.

[Guardian 5]

Finally, a close-up shot of the badges. Sicherungspersonal, top & Fuehrungsdienstpersonal, bottom.

TJ

[Gordon Craig]

TJ,

The shirt is a great find with all of that insignia applied originally. I am not surprised about the rank slip-ons being on brown material rather than camo. I've it used on shirts more often than the camo. Now I have to hunt for a shirt like that since I know they must exist. There is a store downtown that has a large pile of these uniforms on the floor but I have never sroted through the shirts. The store is closed until Monday but I know where I will be when they open!

Cheers,

Gordon