Cuff Title Question - Were they all Awarded?

[John F.]

Hello:

I understand that certain cuff titles were awarded to personnel in units that participated in certain actions or campaigns such as in Crete, Africa, Metz, Kurland, etc... but what about the cuff titles like “Reinhard Heydrich”, “Das Reich”, “Grossdeutschland”, etc. Were these just honorary cuffs titles or was something specific had to be accomplished in order to receive one?

John

[Daniel Krause]

Kreta, Africa, Metz, Kurland were awards.

The other ones are "just" unit designations.

Best regards

Daniel

[John F.]

Daniel:

Thank you!

John

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi John, Daniel is correct.

The other cuff titles were all formation designations. But the 12th SS Panzer Divison "Hitlerjugend", even though theirs fell into the latter, awarded the cuff title with a ceremony after the soldier had earned it by seeing action. I beleive this practice was also done within one or two other Waffen SS formations.

Cheers, Ade.

[CSP]

Well...believe it or not guys, the Großdeutschland cufftitle could be and was awarded as a permanent award....albeit very very seldom to the extent I have been able to research it. I know of one instance and have a photo copy of the Urkunde...I also own the officer's uniform. who earned this honor. Unofrtunately, the original Urkunde was not turned up by the family (yet?). Veteran sources indicate as well, that this happened sometimes....but such sources are second hand reported to me...so I do not necessarily state the report as fact.

This is an area I continue to research for publication someday. My belief from research at this point is that the practice was started by von Manteuffel. I do not think it was necessarilly sanctioned by OKH/OKW, but could have been. The copy I have of the award being made was fro the most part in the standard "Bezitzeugnis" format...it was dated and signed by von Manteuffel as Division Kommandeur...whose signature is unmistakeable. It was dated in 1944 and has in one of the lower corners "No.4" ( I do not have it in front of me so the exact lettering may be off). So...I suspect that there were at least three others made. von Manteuffel is frequently pictured after he gave up command still wearing the Großdeutschland cufftitle. I am guessing that he was awarded No. 1.

So, there you have it...