Help with chevron in Soldbuch pic

[Waffenreich]

Good evening,

I am considering adding this Soldbuch to my collection, but have been searching for the meaning of the chevron he's wearing on his right sleeve. I know he's too young to have been an "old fighter" and lived nowhere near Austria to support Austrian pro-Nazi organisations prior to 1938 so can anybody shed light on what this is and why he'd be wearing it???

He's got a pretty good spread of combat units and was KIA in France in December of '44. He's buried in the war cemetery at Hottot-les-Bagues.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Bob

[Waffenreich]

2.

[ETN]

Hi Bob,

That can't be anything but an old fighter chevron. While young, he may have been a member of the Hitler Youth (or maybe the DJ?) prior to his military service.
That is the only scenario I can think of.

Best,
Erich

P.S. Great Soldbuch

[Felix]

I agree, that is an old fighters chevron for sure.

When was he born? He might be older than he seems to be,,,

I cant tell if and early member of HJ was qualified for wearing an old fighers chevron or not, but it is possible.

//Felix

[Waffenreich]

Erich & Felix, thanks for the replies!

I agree it certainly looks like an AK chevron, but he was born on 15 Feb 1924 and the pic in the book dates to at least 1 Aug 44 as that's when he was promoted to USF.

I've seen a fair number of pics of guys who were former HJ/DJ members prior to their service entry and don't recall ever seeing a chevron on somebody this young?? Nor do I recall reading anywhere that this was an eligibility factor for wear.

Thanks again - can anybody else help????

v/r

Bob

[Ian Jewison]

Was discussed last year: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=445355

/Ian

[Waffenreich]

Thanks Ian! The guy that offered this to me did in fact get it from Dave. Funny how so much of this stuff comes full circle. I tried searching for it on here but came up empty - appreciate the link!

Interesting thing about him potentially having early HJ service is that it is not mentioned anywhere on the documents I copied from his file at the U.S. National Archives today??

In any case it's a nice piece and if I keep it I hope I can pin down something concrete as this sort of thing drives me nuts.

v/r

Bob