Unknown Shoulder Boards & Hat Strap

[Mike Kenny]

Hi,

These turned up with a small KM grouping (a Soldbuch with the first few pages missing, a matching dogtag, an EK2 & some KM buttons).

The shoulder boards have a ?cotton? dark olive (brownish green) centre, silver wire outer with ?cotton? dark olive chevrons on an orange ?cotton? backing. The hat strap is gold with some interwoven black.

Any idea whether they are Third Reich or later (Bundeswehr) production? What branch of what service do they represent? Any help appreciated

Regards
Mike K

[Mike Kenny]

reverse;

[Mike Kenny]

slip-on open;

[Brad Haner]

I believe the shoulderboards are RAD-Unterfeldmeister.

[Terry K.]

Hi Mike K,
If the chin cord is silver(tarnished gold color) and black, it is most likely Bahnschutzpolizei officer, if it is gold and dark blue, it is most likely Reichbahn mid level officers.

[Mike Kenny]

Hi guys,

Many thanks for your response. I could have tried researching these myself for months and probably not even come close to figuring out what they were! Terry, re the chin cord, the gold is definitely gold but the black MAY be an extremely dark blue - I wouldn't guarantee it though - so Reichbahn it may be then.

As they obviously don't belong with the KM items, I have no use for either the shoulder boards of the chin strap. I could put them on the e-stand but I would have no idea what to ask. If anyone can put them to good use and wants to make me an offer, please PM me.

Thanks again
Mike K

[lbsr]

Gendarmerie shoulderboards

Shoulderboards are Gendarmerie-shoulderboards (if collor of cords is middlebrown 1936-3.9.1942, after this date the cord collor was darkbrown.
http://www.volny.cz/lbsr/dr/pol/sparte.html

[Radcollector]

Hi Mike,

I recieved your IM,I also belive these shoulder boards are for a RAD unterfeldmeister in the war correspondents branch of the RAD.the RAD specs for unterfeldmeister boards are" 110mm long x 32mm wide;velvet underlay in branch color(yellow for war corespondants);two 7mm double laid brown artificial silk cord in the center,and a matte aluminum 7mm border with black cheverons indented 3 mm from the underlay edge."this info is from Agnolias "Labor organizations of the Reich"the underlay looks an orangish/yelow to me. Does anyone else have an opinion/comment on these boards-anyone else familiar with police boards?

Yancy

[lbsr]

There are 2 great differences:
zitronengelb -orangerot Waffen- (Sparte-)Farbe.
Color of inverted "V" is BLACK for RAD before 41, (DARK)BROWN for Gendarmerie.
For differencies see http://www.tenzor.cz/lbsr/dr/uf/sch_pol-wchtm.html
(this page loads slow - there is many pics)

[Radcollector]

Hello,

I see the picture you are refering to on the site-if these are gendarmerie boards from 1936-42 why doest the aluminum boarder go around the entire board like the one pictured??I also noticed the underlay looks more orange than yellow,it could also be the camera/scanner that Mike used-Ive had blood red armbands come out looking orange in pictures-I dont know about this one now,anyone else have any ideas/thoughts/comments??


Yancy

[Mike Kenny]

Hi,

Just to confirm/clarify, the underside of the boards are orange - the scans make the colour look very washed out - in real life the colour is much stronger. I don't think it is faded red though.

Regards
Mike K

[lbsr]

On mentioned site are Wachtmeister shoulderboards of highest Wchtm.-rank shoulderstraps-form.(i.e. when "shoulderstrap closed" at bottom is shown, the "non-closed" form existed too - when "non-closed" is shown, "closed" form didn't exist)

In 1941 were shoulderboards of German police changed to follow Heer ranks (i.e. silver cold with inverted "V" added to bottom of shoulderboards for certain ranks of German police.

For more see http://www.volny.cz/lbsr/dr/pol/dg_36-45.html

As far as colors - You must remember 3 things:
1) normally color calibration of displays (screens) is used only in graphic studios - there can be little differencies in color shades on screens of different manufacturers.
2) most of webmasters use so-called "nondithering" colors in their websites (me too).
3) "Discolorization" is normal effect when using camera with flash.

Another note to German police shoulderboard underlaying:
material of underlay was "Tuch" (wool) before and in first stages of war. Then German police used woven fabric as on photo above.

Another note to using yellow color on German uniforms:
There were 2 different yellow colors - goldenyellow (for example LW- Flieger and lemon yellow - for example Nachrichtentruppe of Heer). Zitronengelb (lemon yellow) is exactly "lemon" color - in no case (no screen, no camera-flash) it could look as orange...

[Ernst-H]

lbsr ,...the link you supplied doesn't work.


A link to my website:
www.germanpolice.org/insignia/shoulderboards.htm

there you can see the "open" and "closed" variant of the shoulderboards including timeframe used.

[Dave C.]

Without doubt, Gendarmerie related shoulder straps.