SS-collar tab BeVo Vs. Embroided

[mathiass]

Hi friends.


I have wondered, searched and could not find, therefore I started this thread.
This thread is about the SS-collar tab for EM/NCO, BeVo is the object Im focusing on.

Whats the difference between that one, and a SS-collar tab that is embroided?
Is it all about war economy? That the BeVo were given our later during the war, or something?

I would be glad if anyone could enligthen me.

Regards
Mathias

[Ian Hulley]

BeVo were machine woven onto a material strip, the 'RZM' style were machine embroidered onto a heavier piece of backing material .. both needed a buckram or similar backing to keep the shape of the tab.

Ian.

[mathiass]

BeVo were machine woven onto a material strip, the 'RZM' style were machine embroidered onto a heavier piece of backing material .. both needed a buckram or similar backing to keep the shape of the tab.

Ian.

Thank you.
I do hope that others, have even more info about the difference.

[RobertE]

Bevo was introduced during the war, and the backings were unique with a cheesecloth like backing. Embroidered (RZM) was also used throughout the war, but was introduced pre-war.

Angolias book on SS insignia would be of interest to you, if you are looking for more edtailed info on introduction dates and phase out dates. It's not perfect, but a great starting reference.

regards, Robert

[mathiass]

Bevo was introduced during the war, and the backings were unique with a cheesecloth like backing. Embroidered (RZM) was also used throughout the war, but was introduced pre-war.

Angolias book on SS insignia would be of interest to you, if you are looking for more edtailed info on introduction dates and phase out dates. It's not perfect, but a great starting reference.

regards, Robert

Thank you very much for the info. I looked up the author Angolia, he has really written some interesting books, and plenty of em. The books are a bit too expensive to buy for me right now though.

[Felix]

Thank you very much for the info. I looked up the author Angolia, he has really written some interesting books, and plenty of em. The books are a bit too expensive to buy for me right now though.

Angolias book is very good, and was the best for a long time. Its considered a bible and a must have because it covers nearly all SS insignias and sorted by organisation, divisions and branches from the earliest days to the end 1945. Though the photos are often small and bad and not usuable for reference purposes still the other qualities are very good. It is not free from faults and few repros has sneaked in.
Beavers new book on SS insignias is a recommendation by many as well. It has a far higher reference value and also a lot of interesting personal accounts.

The initial question was if there is a real difference in BeVo tabs or Rzm "pattern" embroidered ones.
Was BeVo more common later in the war because it was cheaper to produce?
I will put the machine woven insignias in general in to the context because BeVo actually only means manufactured by a special company BeVo in Wuppertal. Quite often all machine woven insignias are refered to as BeVo's.
Thats not the main thing here even if I put in a bit of correct history.

I think the main thing was to stop producing hand embroidered insignias and make machine made ones instead. That is cost effective. Also materials used in BeVo manufacturing style was often synthetic Rayon instead of harder to get cotton. That can speak in favor for the BeVo's as cheaper to manufacture, and faster. Germany tried in many ways to lower the cost of manufacturing items, equipment, uniforms and tanks, guns etc.
If one looks at the progress of the insignias one can notice that machine woven and part embroidered insignias was around before the war started. BeVo woven eagles was used early by Wehrmacht as breast eagles but luftwaffe for some strange reason did not use machine woven eagles to any great extent at all. They continued to use their machine embroidered eagles till the wars end.

BeVo skulls and eagles were used on the SS caps as soon as the SS VT overseas cap went out of date. There never were any machine embroidered hat insignias apart from the late war pirate trap and perhaps a few other rare and odd ones. (the woven trap in itself cost less and makes it easier to sew on to a cap as well - that was to get more effective - still you dont see many M43's with traps in period pics) Compare that with the sleeve eagles where you had a huge mix of machine embroidered eagles and those in BeVo-style. Even in late war there were a lot of machine embroidred sleeve eagles and even new versions not found earlier in the war.

One can also notice the Rzm tags of for example a tropical SS BeVo sleeve eagle which has the letter code A for complexity level. The same code A tags can be found on the machine embroidered hammerhead eagles.

The so called Dachau collar tabs for feoreign legions were all machine embroidered and they are late war. There was also BeVo collar tabs found as well in Dachau. The foreign shields were mostly also machine embroidered apart from the Ukrainian blue and yellow and Croatian and so on.

I think it has not so much to do with cost and time regarding insignias, though Germany really wanted to cut costs, but rather by different contracts, orders and to which branch, LW, Heer or SS or others. Availability of raw materials played a part as well as did the development of the technology. There is not so much to save on relatively cheap insignias compared to other things such as uniforms, guns and tanks that had a bigger chance to change the outcome of the war. Only late war printed insignias can clearly be seen as an inexpensive way to produce many insignias.

//Felix

[mathiass]

Big thanks Felix, I guess noone will be able to answer my question better, then what you just did.