Police NCO Sleeve Eagles

[W.Unland]

Hello,

To replace my defunct earlier thread, I am contributing this discussion of enlisted police sleeve eagles. To many this will be repetative, and for that I apologize, but as eagles are my primary interest I like to keep things as up to date as I can. All of the eagles shown are from my collection, and are to the best of my knowledge original to the period.

To begin with, sleeve eagles were specified for wear on the left sleeve of all police uniforms with the consolidated uniform regulations of 1936. These initial regulations specified that the sleeve eagles for NCO's were to be produced in branch colors, with city/district names embroidered above the eagle for all branches except the Wasserschutzpolizei. These "named" pre-war eagles were always embroidered on an oval background, with the eagle sitting low on the oval. NOT in the middle.

Exactly how these insignia were produced is not known. Some examples, such as those shown here are exact copies of each other, while some other patterns are very close but each example is ever so slightly different. I believe that pantographic reproduction was done using a series of connected embroidery machines. A machine operator would trace a standard pattern, or peviously produced eagle, using a pantograph which would copy the traced design to however many machines that were connected in series. In this way all eagles made by the same operator, at the same time will be exact copies of each other, whereas a different operator's output would be a bit different. Clearly some eagles were made one off by hand ,machine operators.

In 1941, after the war was in full swing, the names were ordered removed from the sleeve eagles for security reasons. After that time eagles were produced without names but still on oval background material. Later, when war materials became more scarce, the eagles were embroidered on smaller "cut out" backgrounds to conserve cloth.

This photo shows three Gendarmerie eagles of the same pattern and manufacturer, but produced during the three periods mentioned. The design stays the same but the backing material changes from high quality wool to ersatz wool with scrap inclusions, and finally "cut out" form.

[W.Unland]

Very early eagles have some strange design characteristics while later eagles seem to be fairly standardized. It seems that when the regulations were formulated no specific designs were supplied and makers were left to interpret the standards as best they could. This resulted in some rather bizarre looking eagles. This photo shows one of the earliest designs. The lack of details in the head, "coke bottle" shape, and use of two different styles of leaves in the wreath are unique to this early design.

Early eagles also tend to have parallel "ribbons" at the bottom of the wreath as opposed to the "X" seen on later versions.

[W.Unland]

The Scutzpolizei, or "protective police" was the largest police branch and wore green as their branch color. The SchPo were the civil police in large cities, and also made up the barracksed riot police and armored police units.

Here is an example of the early pre-war "named" Schutzpolizei sleeve eagle. Note that it is the same pattern and manufacturer as the three Gendarmerie eagles shown above:

[W.Unland]

Here is a later oval form eagle worn without name, dating it post 1941. Note that this eagle has been embroidered in the center of the oval, so it is not a "blank" that was produced to have the name added later. Also note the obvious traces of "zig zag" stitching with which this eagle was at one time attached to a tunic.:

[W.Unland]

Lastly, here is a later war "cut" SchuPo eagle:

[W.Unland]

A summer tunic in "mottled" cotton was authorized for wear by all branches of the police and special eagles were also prepared for use on these tunics. Here is an example of a SchPo eagle embroidered on this "mottled" green/orange cotton.

[W.Unland]

A controversial SchuPo eagle is shown here. In 1936, just prior to the Olympics, a white summer tunic was authorized for use by senior Schutzpolizei NCO's at their own expense. After only six months this regulation was recinded. To date NO period photos of a 1936 white NCO tunic in wear have emerged. This eagle is the type that would have been worn on such a tunic. This particular example is the only such eagle that I am aware of. I believe it is original, and it incorporates some characteristics of early eagles, including ill defined wreath leaves.

[W.Unland]

The civil Gendarmerie were the rural and mountain police as well as the early motorized traffic police. They wore orange as their branch color. Many Gendarmerie formations were absorbed into the military with the start of the war and these personnel formed the core of the Feldgendarmerie, which might explain why that branch of the military eventually wore orange sleeve eagles on their military uniforms. Of course Feldgendarmerie eagles can be distinguished from civil Gendarmerie eagles as the former were embroidered on field gray rather than the "police green" backing cloth shown here. Feldgendarmerie eagles would of course not be named and are most often of the "cut out" variety.

Here is the pre-war "named" Gendarmerie eagle. This particular maker embroidered the city name straight across as opposed to others who followed the curve of the backing oval.

[W.Unland]

A "blank" oval form Gendarmerie eagle which I believe is of war time manufacture because the wool backing seems to be re-cycled ersatz material which seems to include particles of other materials even possibly cellulose.

[W.Unland]

And the mid-late war "cut out" Gendarmerie eagle:

[W.Unland]

Here is an example of a Gendarmerie eagle embroidered on summer weight "mottled" cotton. This particular pattern and name is the most commonly encountered Gendarmerie summer eagle, and I assume that a fairly large supply of these was recovered unused by a souvenir hunter at the end of the war.

[W.Unland]

The Schutzpolizei d. Gemeinden were small town civil police hired and outfitted by city governments. Their branch color was carmine-red, almost a deep burgundy color. They were a relatively small group and were eventually absorbed into the SchuPo in 1942, so their insignia is rather rare and hsrd to come by, particularly pre-war "named" eagles.

Here is one such eagle:

[W.Unland]

When names were ordered removed in 1941 GemPo eagles were produced sans name as shown here. Evidence of rather sloopy sraight machine stitching can be seen where this eagle was once attached to a tunic. I assume a summer GemPo eagle on "mottled" cotton existed, but I have never seen one nor heard of one in a collection. If anyone has such a bird I would encourage them to share it here.

[W.Unland]

The FeuerSchutzPolizei was a rather odd branch of the police. They were both armed civil police officers and fire fighters. They had both fire fighting and police authority in areas where there were no SchuPo or other civil police authorities such as in occupied territories. They wore police green uniforms, not the traditional blue uniforms of the fire department. Their branch color was a bright carmine-pink, the same color used by the Feuerwehr/fire department.

Here is a "named" Feuerschutzpolizei eagle. The clear outline of "zig zag" stitching which once held this insignia to a tunic, can clearly be seen:

[W.Unland]

Shown here is a mid war "cut out" FSP eagle: