Foreign Volunteers or Oversized Caps?

[dragnet]

To begin with i thought this unit had been issued oversized side caps but could this unit be foreign volunteers? Sorry for the blurred pics folks.

[Edward]

Could be. Could also be a unit made up of Volksdeutsch drafted into the Heer wearing some type of weird locally made in-country variation schiffschen. Some of the caps look almost like something worn by the pre-1941 Yugoslavian Army Then it could be just a case of soldiers receiving caps either too large, or too small carmmed on top of there heads giving them the odd shapes you see in the photo. The two guys seated on either ends are a good illustration. One cap looks far too small. The other looks like his schiffschen popped up in the middle.

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

the soldiers are old men, could it be a local police Schutzmannschaft or a police battalion of the ORPO ?

See You

Vince

[dragnet]

Couple of more shots.....

[Mil-Archive]

For sure not a Police Battalion.

[Edward]

The Uffz. seated on the far left in the bottom photo enlargement # 3 can clearly see a branch soutache on a regular issue OR's schiffschen. On close examination they are also wearing what appears to be standard issue Heer buckles. Some of them are also wearing ribbon bars for what is likely WWI service. They could also be Austrian Landwehr reservists.

[chrischa]

Reichswehr recently transitioned into Third Reich heer?

Early side caps not trained into shape.

[Admiraal]

Probably a Landesschützen unit with foreign captured items (Czech caps?).

[kerryboo]

I think they are wearing re-cycled Slovak side caps,
Kerry.

[chrischa]

Some points to note:

The officer wears the Sam Browne belt. This was against regulations after 1939 in the Wehrmacht.

No WW2 medals being worn or civilian Third Reich medals being worn. Not sure what the item is above the left breast pocket on some?

Early tunics being worn.

Older NCO's with peace time experience but no combat experience. Certainly pre war.

[Ian Hulley]

Not sure what the item is above the left breast pocket on some ?

They are ribbon bars.

Ian