Picture help please

[andya]

Hi
What is the unit on the title please? I cannot make it out. Rear annotation dates it for 1944
many thanks
andy

[chrischa]

Hello Andy.

He's a Leibstandarte unterscharfuhrer.

Adolf Hitler cuff and monogram on the shoulder boards. He's wearing a stug wrap with IAB and EK2.

Cheers,
Chris.

[Mil-Archive]

Agreed!

Source :
https://atthefront.com

[andya]

many thanks
andy

[MarcRikmenspoel]

If the cufftitle wasn't visible, just the fact that he has NCO Tresse around his collar would give away his unit. Only LAH had this feature on Sturmartillerist uniforms.

As an aside, the guy must have been newly transferred to the Stug. branch. He's obviously an experienced soldier, but if his experience was with Stugs, he would have the General Assault Badge. As it is, he really could have the Panzer Assault Badge in Bronze if he was in a Waffen-SS armored unit. There seems to be something of a grey area in whether Waffen-SS soldiers received the Infantry Assault Badge in Bronze (motorized infantry) or the Panzer Assault Badge in Bronze (Panzergrenadiers and recon troops). Technically, the Waffen-SS only had Panzergrenadiers from the summer of 1942.

Just a guess, but this man might have been wounded during, say, 1941, and after recovery was disqualified from infantry service due to disability. That would explain why he was retrained as a Sturmartillerist, even though experienced infantry NCOs were needed at the front.

[chrischa]

If the cufftitle wasn't visible, just the fact that he has NCO Tresse around his collar would give away his unit. Only LAH had this feature on Sturmartillerist uniforms.

I didn't know that! Thanks.

I too thought about the IAB rather than the GAB but assumed due to his apparent age and rank he served early in the war and so was one of the infantrymen who changed role when the division became motorised.

Cheers,
Chris.