Some Heer shoulder straps and slip-on unit titles.

[PaulW]

Rear. Note the variation in the scrap cotton on the tongues.

[PaulW]

Tongues.

[PaulW]

Details.

Looks like they might be a (lightly) worn pair, with wear to the button-hole, and 'button abrasion' around the button-hole.

The piping is the standard rayon type, with the 'stair-case' effect when seen from some angles, as I tend to call it!

[PaulW]

These boards came with these Pioneer battalion "659" 1940 pattern removable slides.

This was a very interesting Unit that operated independently (not linked to any particular Division etc) at the Corps level. There is a good deal of history on this particular unit recounted on "Lexicon Der Wehrmacht":-

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/...t/PiBat659.htm

which shows service in France in 1940, preparations for Barbarossa in 1941, Crete, then Greece (including anti-Partisan combat), and ending the war in Croatia. It's service also included high-security work in Bulgaria in early 1941 that was carried out in civilian clothes!

[PaulW]

They can of course keep my Pioneer battalion "246" (246 Infanterie Division's integral Pioneer battalion) slides company too!

On another note regarding the position of the slides (either butted up against the shoulder, or positioned about a third of the way from the base), I have seen both in wartime pictures.

As a pair of shoulder boards with factory applied embroidered insignia (e.g on the Waffenrock etc) tended to have the numerals positioned about a third of the way from the base (or perhaps halfway between the base and the bottom of the buttonhole), rather than butted up against the shoulder seam, I have always imagined this to be the correct position. Again, wartime practice shows both!

Regards, Paul