cyphers on SS-Off. shoulderboards question

[Hardigan]

Hello all

Is it right that the cyphers (1,2 etc.) which were used on SS-Officer shoulderboards are also indicating Compagnies and Bataillons they served in ? I thought that they only used them for indicating Regiments or Divisions .

Thanks

Hardigan

[Antonio Scapini]

Cyphers are used to indicate regiment, except sometimes for example for some "special units" as "medical", "school of artillery", "school of nebeltruppen", "Felderrnhalle", "Grossedeutschland", and a lot of more in wehrmacht; or for another example with "LAH" cyphers for waffen.
The division in waffen-SS was usually indicate by cuff title, or by collar tabs.

[Hardigan]

As you can see on this picture of Walter Reder he's wearing a nr. 1 cypher on his shoulderboard because he was Kdr of the I./SS-PzGrRgt 5
There's a much better picture in the book of Jost W.Schneider and it's definitely a 1 !

[Bobwirtz]

No, in this case it goes back to a regiment number in the old Totenkopfverbande days.

Bob

[Dr. Strangelove]

Correctamundo!

Bobwirtz is right. "1" in this case is for Oberbayern.

[John Pic]

The 1st Reiter regiment of the SS Cavalry Brigade also wore a "1" cypher