SS Fallschirmjager Cuff Titles

[Hauptmann]

Can anyone tell me what cuff title (if any) was worn by SS-Fallschirmjagers? I have several original photos of SS Fallschirmjagers, but cannot make out what is on the Cuff Title. I was under the impression that they perhaps wore (or continued to wear) the Cuff Title of their previous unit of assignment. That information may not be accurate. In one of my photos it appears that the Officer's cuff title is actually blank. Most are too fuzy to make out. Any information would be helpful. Thank you in advance!

"A salute to a General is customary, Herr Oberst.
Even to one of SS"
-The Eagle has Landed

[EdgarM]

I have seen photos of suspect 'SS Fallschirmjager' cuff titles over the years. However, from several sources, they were never issued these cuff titles during the war.
I have seen posed portrait photos of SSFJs showing varied unit cuff titles, but I believe these were taken while still with that original unit. When I have seen photos of SSFJs without their jump smocks, there is usually no cuff title being worn.
Of course I could be wrong, but not likely...

Edgar

[Willi Z.]

Prosper can better answer this......but, I am sure he will say that they (SS FJ cufftitles) did not exist in any official capacity. There is a portrait photo in the cufftitle book of a SS FJ wearing a cufftitle with the only part being visible is "Fallschirmjäger". The concensus is that this could be a matter of someone wanting one to wear for a photo, in an unofficial manner. The SS FJ cufftitles commonly encountered on the collector's market are all fake. Real Luftwaffe FJ cufftitles are exceptionally rare by themselves....... and the SS FJ ones are encountered more frequently. That in itself tells all.....

Willi

[Prosper Keating]

Willi is quite right in anticipating my answer but I'll happily expand since it might save someone some money. There was never any such thing as an SS-Fallschirmjäger cuff title. There is the recently discovered wedding photograph of an SS man and his bride in which which he wears a cuff title on which can be seen the word 'Fallschirmjäger'. The photo lacks the necessary clarity to see whether the cuff title material itself is of the standard SS RZM type. I doubt it.

However, since the SS man in question is wearing every badge he possesses, including his SS lapel pin, from which he has hung his EKII without a ribbon, we can conclude that he may have been larking about. The photograph is certainly not a formal portrait in the German style of the period, which lends credence to the conjecture that they posed it for laughs, or just for their personal album.

Siegfried Milius, former SS-Sturmbahnführer and last CO of SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600, told me himself that the unit never had a cuff title. He said that individual members might have had them made up but that had they been caught wearing them under any circumstances - SS cuff titles were in the gift of Adolf Hitler or Heinrich Himmler and, as such, as tantamount to honour awards and were certainly considered a privilege - they would have been in trouble. This is not like LW paratroopers who sported their FJ-R1 and FJ-R3 cuff titles on special occasions until quite late in the war: they had had the right to wear these cuff titles when they were still in use so blind eyes were turned. But an SS man wearing a fantasy cuff title? That would have been like wearing an Iron Cross or a jump badge that he hadn't earned.

It also has to be borne in mind that, initially, when formed in November 1943, the SS Para Battalion included a large number of B-Soldaten, Bewährungs-Soldaten, in its ranks. These were SS men stripped of their full status for, usually, very minor disciplinary infractions or for making, from the Nazi viewpoint, politically incorrect statements. Their ranks, runic collar patches and any cuff titles they might have worn were stripped from them. They wore blank collar patches. After the unit's heroic conduct in Yugoslavia, particularly at the Battle of Drvar, Himmler restored their former full status and ranks to these B-Soldaten.

While the SS Para Bn was not a penal unit, as such, it was certainly not a candidate for award of a cuff title although if the war had continued for longer, the battalion might have been accorded this honour after the extraordinary bravery shown by all ranks in the rearguard actions on the Oder and in the battles to the north-west of Berlin. In a single morning in Schwedt, for instance, 2 Coy under Lt Scheu destroyed seventeen Soviet tanks with small arms. They lost a lot of men in the process. When the battalion surrendered to US forces, there were just 180 of them left. In its eighteen month history, SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 500/600, which, with about 1000 members, was larger than a Luftwaffe FJ Bn, had been effectively wiped out several times.

Other members of the SS Para Battalion who simply transferred in wore the cuff titles and other unit insignia, such as shoulder strap monograms, of their previous or parent units. Look at the photograph below of Walter Hummel on a home leave after his jump course. He is wearing his Deutschland cuff title. Note the cloth jump badge: the LW Parachute Training Schools started issuing cloth jump badges in 1943 as a morale-enhancing intermediate measure because newly trained paratroopers sometimes waited months for their metal badges and certificates to reach them at their units.

In a studio photo taken in Neu-Strelitz in November 1944, Hummel is still wearing the 'D' monograms on his shoulder straps. Siegfried Milius wore his Totenkopf collar patch as Bn CO. In the mugshot on his jump licence, Hummel wears his SS-VT '1' collar patch. He also wears the Winter War Medal ribbon with his EKII ribbon so he was wearing this patch at least two years after it was abolished. There is another photo taken on the morning after the Battle of Drvar, in the cemetary, showing SS-Fallschirmjäger sitting and lying about. An NCO in the foreground wears the '1' collar patch of SS-Regiment Deutschland from SS-VT days. This was in May 1944!

Anyway, I hope this is clear enough. If the former CO of the SS Para Bn and other veterans I have spoken with said that there were no SS-Fallschirmjäger cuff titles, then that is good enough for me. Even if they hadn't, we still have the photographic evidence showing members at the time wearing various cuff titles bar the SS-Fallschirmjäger title. Trust me, as a former paratrooper myself, when I say that if these men had been awarded a cuff title of their own, then we would have plenty of photos of them wearing it! It would have been a source of extreme pride for them.

Prosper Keating

[Hauptmann]

Thanks for confirming my original belief that SS-FJ probably wore Cuff Titles from their former units. I never even remotely considered the SS-FJ titles as being actual items. I just assumed they were 'fantasy.' I think you guys hit the nail on the head when you stated "they would have been proud to wear their titles" and surely there would be many more photos surfacing by now. But, that doesn't seem to be the case.

While I have been collecting for 23+ years, it is always great to get other opinions. I first started seriously collecting while serving as an officer in the 82nd Airborne Division (platoon Leader, Company XO, and later as a Company CO). During my time with the 82nd I even earned both Honduran and German Paratrooper wings/badges. It was during my jump training with the German Paras that I first became really intrigued with their predecessors, the WWII Fallschirmjagers. Sure, while working on my graduate degree in military history I read about them, but at that time it was more "operational" and less "personal soldier." A bad jump injury that compacted 3 disks in my lower back (crashing through tall Carolina pinetrees on Sicily Drop Zone at Bragg will do it everytime ) took me off jump status. My desire to continue collecting never faded.

As a newbie to this association and forum, thanks for having me. I always welcome opinions and comments. With regards to this hobby, you can and should never stop learning. Thanks again!

[Matt M]

Erich

When were you in the 82nd
I was there 86-89, Infantry Officer 3/504

Matt

[EdgarM]

Prosper, yes , that was a bit more informative. Thanks for te details and that great photo.

Your photos regarding SSFJs always remind me of the album our veteran friend had of his time with SSFJ Btl.500/600. That was almost 25 years ago and I wish I had the capacity to copy photos then that I do now.

I renewed contact with his son, Manfred, recently, and he assures me that I'll have another chance to go over his father's photos and odds and ends when I take my family to Europe next summer. If I get a chance to make copies, I will certainly share them with you.

Thanks again,
Edgar

[Kyle Harrington]

Falschirmjager Certificates

Prosper,

Have you receiced the jump certificate I sent you on the 11th January?
Cheers Kyle

[Gary Wood]

"There was never any such thing as an SS-Fallschirmjäger cuff title. There is the recently discovered wedding photograph of an SS man and his bride in which which he wears a cuff title on which can be seen the word 'Fallschirmjäger'. The photo lacks the necessary clarity to see whether the cuff title material itself is of the standard SS RZM type. I doubt it. "

I also doubt there was an issue or even a semi official cuff title for this unit, a one off yes as there is a photo, but the actually wording we will never know, the band looks like RZM material but maybe not be as prosper has said the photo is just not good enough to tell, also the wording of the cuff title is not the standard type of lettering you would expect at this late stage seems to be gothic script, again the photo is not good enough to tell if it is machine of hand done, I would say the latter.

here is a blow up of the cuff title mentioned above,
cheers,
Gary

[Gary Wood]

where as before this picture was published the repro SS-FJ band was made in the Latin form,
and of course since that photo was published there have been a spate of reproductions in gothic script! both with and without the runes,
cheers,
gary

[Hauptmann]

Matt,
Seems we were there during some of the same time. I was with the 82nd from 1985 to 1990. I served with 1/508 (unit desgination changed in October 1987 to 3/505). And I was also with the 307th Med Battlion. So, you guessed it, I was a Medical Puke Officer, Medical Weenie Officer, Medical Officer Poague, Support Officer Weenie, etc..... BUT, I was a Medical type weenie with 203 jumps, including the Jump into Panama during Operation Just Cause. Any thing is better than being a Leg.

[Phil_C]

Gary, would you be able to post a picture of the whole photo? as I would be interested in seeing the it, also who owns it? is it still with the vet?

Regards
Phil

[Gary Wood]

phil,
do you have the cuffbands book by Gordon williamson?, the picture is reproduced there, I think I only have a scan of the cuff band,
cheers,
Gary

[Phil_C]

No Gary I don't have Gordons book on cufftitles, is it worth getting?

Regards
Phil

[Phil_C]

Cheers Gary,

I will have to look at getting a copy,

Regards
Phil