Florian Geyer BEVO cufftitle in wear??

[Zauberflöte]

Some period photographes are known were privately made Florian Geyer ct's are worn by officers, but other than that I have never seen a period image of the in 1944 authorized BEVO cufftitle in wear.

Does anyone know if one has surfaced till date? Or at second best, an example of a genuine worn title that exists? The only original cufftitles I know of are unissued or the damaged bundle that surfaced a couple of years ago. These sometimes find their way in the marketplace as supposedly genuine cut-offs...

Thank you in advance for any conttibutions.

F

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

for the sake of the discussion, i will add various informations and pictures on the subject.

Before anything, the "Florian Geyer" was originally known as the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade, which was under command of the Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS in the Summer of 1941.

The SS-Kavallerie-Brigade took part with the 1.SS-Infanterie-Brigade (which will become the "Horst Wessel" division in 1944) and the 2. SS-Infanterie-Brigade (which will become the Latvian 19. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS in 1944) to the "pacification" done by the Einsatzgruppen during the second semester of 1941 (aka mass killing of Jews, "partisans" and civilians).

A period book ("SS-Kavallerie im Osten") was published in 1942, which obviously didn't tell the true story of the "pacification"... Below are two pictures of the front cover and the 1941-1942 journey of the unit, pictures courtesy of helbe's copy (as i'm too lazy to find mine in my archives...).

For more infos on the unit, John Moore suggested the reading of the massive work of Henning Herbet Pieper for with Degree of Doctor of Philosophy : "The SS Cavalry Brigade and its operations in the Soviet Union, 1941-1942".
I rode it and I strongly agree with him and advise this book which is available online for free :

http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2911/1/Dissertation.pdf

When the division got the permission to wear his "Florian Geyer" cufftitle, the unit was in the progress to return to the Eastern front, where the division will fight non-stop from the Summer 1944 up to its destruction in the 1945 Budapest fights.

May it explain that the division never received nor had the time to deliver BeVo cufftitles to its troops ?

I must confess that i will have to read Charles Trang 200-page picture-oriented book published in 2000 by Heimdal on the division ("La Division Florian Geyer", in French and English), i may even try to contact him, maybe he is having more infos on the cufftitle and its possible wear.

However, as shown in "German Military Cuffbands 1974-Present" essential book by Williamson & McGuirl, it seemed that high-ranking officers couldn't resist to have homemade cufftitles made for them, which are clearly not the BeVo model we know.

I'm posting below a picture of Hermann Fegelein, the Kommandeur of the division for most of 1943. The picture was taken after June 1944, when Fegelein was appointed Gruppenführer. The fact that he still use his homemade cufftitle may be a proof that the BeVo cufftitle was not available until later that year.
The second picture is from another officer of the division (date unknown).
This homemade cufftitle is again nothing like the BeVo model.

Now it seemed that some mint lots of "Florian Geyer" BeVo cufftitles were found, for example TomH provided an interesting picture taken at the SOS in Spring 2017 showing a partial lot of 11 cufftitles.

But like Frederik said, many of those cufftitles are also available with some very similar "vertical cuts" damages (I do not remember the sources of the mint and mint "damaged" cufftitles pictures), and some smart crooks even produced fake "cut-off" cufftitles stitched to partial uniform parts.
You will notice that the one proposed on RAT 10 (picture courtesy of Ratisbons, which had the lot withdrawn) is a mint "damaged" cufftitle...

To conclude, i also can quote Williamson & McGuirl about the "SS Kavallerie Division" cufftitle, which seemed to have nothing to do with the "Florian Geyer", and is more probably a post-war fantasy model.

See You

Vince

[istra63]

Once again great entry Vince

[Zauberflöte]

Thank you for the additional information Vince; indeed, basic question could also be, was the BEVO ct ever delivered to the troops at all?

Herewith two other well known images of a privately made title in wear.

[sutka]

hi guys
I never see them tunic removed
I own one mint

[simon]

Another widely available cuff title I always associate the bevo Florian Geyer with and have never seen in wear including officers pics as per FG below is the Horst Wessel, can anyone help?

[Ian Hulley]

The final cut-off cufftitle is actually a fake item ... the ct itself is original but was bought loose from the batch that were found at the Dachau SS-BW and then cut. A friend (Greg1978) was going to buy it but it was shown to be of recent manufacture.

Ian

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

yes Ian, it was previously for sale by another dealer, but Klaus had it withdraw from Rat 10.

Simon you are right about the "Horst Wessel" cufftitles (BeVo and BeVo-like 1), it seemed that the cufftitles were never delivered to any unit.

See You

Vince