Strange unit

[Antonio Scapini]

Hi guys, here I showed a group of 3 silver shot glasses with a strange inscription on them.
http://wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/s...78#post7793678

Could someone please help me in find out what this means?

Thanks for your time.

[Gerdan]

I read the abbreviation

"Heeres Abnahme Inspektion West "

Gerdan

[Antonio Scapini]

I read "Inspitz." is that correct for "inspection"?

[Archi]

Hello Antonio !

Gerdan is correct, it's a military unit.
I think the shortcut is for :
"Heeres-Abnahme-Inspizient West"

There were similar units, with designation Ost, Süd, Südost and Mitte.
West was located in Hannover.

On the task, I can only guess, but since there were also related types of units, specialised for:
Infanteriegerät, Artillerie-, Pionier-, Nachrichten-, Kraftfahr-Gerät, etc ...
I would assume, this unit has similar tasks, but for less specialized production.
And the task was perhaps to oversee, the production process in close contact with
the companies, to avoid major mistakes at the short end of the production chain.
(I could imagine things like quality of steel, etc. ...)

Below is the "Dienststellenbesetzung" of that unit, dated Jan, 3rd, 1939:
(maybe certain men on that list drank from that cup )

As you can see from that list, some officers are attached immediately to companies
like Krupp, Hanomag, Rheinmetall-Borsig etc., for other companies I have no idea
what they produced (Wolf, Polte, Krupp-Gruson, ...), but surely someone will know.

On the date, I would vote for anniversary (and after a long delay , I finally
understood the joke with the "pre D-Day rehearsals" (which is good) !)

Best regards,

Archi

[Antonio Scapini]

Really many thanks Archi for the great infos you wrote.
Thanks for the time you spent helping me.

[Johnny R]

These were common for little gifts from a unit to a commander etc, and were used to celebrate a retirement or other events etc. Many of these have been made post war but I believe these are period examples. During the war they often were made from shell casings.