Freies Indien RZM

[Bob Hritz]

Has anyone found further information on this RZM version? A collector friend visited with me and brought his shields. He has one and I like the manufacturing, but am alarmed at now seeing three of them and having never seen this type for the last 50 years.

Bob Hritz

[NickG]

I wonder what these field hockey jerseys have as chest patches... also embroidered or BeVo shields?
Kind of opens up the possibilities of various patterns being in existence at the time...
I'm now also more open minded even though the BeVo shields are usually depicted on period images...

[militarymania]

interesting picture,,,can anyone do a high resolution shot on those emblems??

[Askold]

Bob:

Reading your post, makes me remember what an older forum member wrote some time ago. He said that back in the day, when there was no email or proper books, people only interacted at the militaria shows. In the modern times, especially in last few years, with access to archives and the internet a number of items came up, that we never seen before or never thought existed. For example, the printed shield for the longest time were considered fake, yet now we have photos of them in wear. And not only Eastern volunteers wear them, there are photos of Western volunteers wearing printed insignia too. I suppose the same could be said for the Indian shield. Maybe I am wrong, but if it was fake it would certainly be existing in far larger quantities then just three shields.

Nick:

Looking at your photo

1. You can see how the shields bend. I think the embroidered shield whould not bend so much, but Bevo would

2. The size of the shields looks large, while the embroidered one is smaller.

[NickG]

Yes indeed different size...I noticed that too...just saying other shields were period produced!
The goal keeper on the right appears to have yet another (smaller) shield or is it the angle?

The caption translates as follows: Indian volunteers at a sport facility in 1944. The Reich did not know what to do with these
men who were killing time however they could until the war ends
Not entirely true, as they did do Atlantic wall guard duty but indeed they were never really combat tested at any front...

[NickG]

Two nice image examples (credit goes to as tagged!)
BeVo was the norm! and massive size shields in comparison with other freiwilligen!
Look how much these shields cover on overcoats with wide sleeves!

[Bob Hritz]

Here are the two shields for size comparison. I would love to have one, in my collection, but am still a little skittish over authenticity.

Bob Hritz

[Askold]

Could be in the same boat as Azad Hind helmet decals - perhaps a small number was produced for the NCO's or something along those lines.