Today I became an Association Member, finally, so I wanted to seize the opportunity to post some items from my collection. I will start with two items which once belonged to Dutch volunteers in the Waffen-SS. As some of you will know, the Dutchmen were mainly concentrated in the 4. SS-Freiw.-Panzergrenadier-Brigade "Nederland", which consisted of the 48. SS-Freiw.-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "General Seyffardt" and the 49. Regiment "De Ruiter". It is quite difficult to find identified items from these units, all the more because of the two annihilations the 48th regiment suffered in 1944 and 1945. For that reason I want to post two items, both with a connection to one of the Dutch regiments.
The first is a cufftitle from "General Seyffardt". The person behind this name was Hendrik Alexander Seyffardt, the commander of the Vrijwilligerslegioen Nederland (Freiw. Legion Niederlande), who was assassinated by the Dutch resistance on February 6, 1943. The date which is mentioned in the book of Williamson and McGuirl is wrong. Three days later, the honor to bear his name was bestowed upon the first company of the Freiw. Legion Niederlande. There is a picture with a Dutch made “Generaal Seyffardt” cufftitle which was posted by a forum member on the GDC forum last summer. In the Dutch Army museum in Delft, there is another locally produced one for display. That title bears the text “Gen. Seyffart”, with the name of the general wrongly spelled. The construction displayed some similarities with “Landwacht” (the forerunner of the “Landstorm Nederland”) cufftitles I had seen previously. I think that both titles, and perhaps some other variants as well, were worn till the disbandment of the Vrijwilligerslegioen Nederland in 1943. After that, the honor to wear a title with the name of the general was bestowed upon the 48th regiment which was newly formed in October, 1943. The BeVo "General Seyffardt" cufftitles were produced from 1944 onwards and issued on a very small scale, according to some veteran accounts. No period pictures with this band in wear are known to me.
The first is a cufftitle from "General Seyffardt". The person behind this name was Hendrik Alexander Seyffardt, the commander of the Vrijwilligerslegioen Nederland (Freiw. Legion Niederlande), who was assassinated by the Dutch resistance on February 6, 1943. The date which is mentioned in the book of Williamson and McGuirl is wrong. Three days later, the honor to bear his name was bestowed upon the first company of the Freiw. Legion Niederlande. There is a picture with a Dutch made “Generaal Seyffardt” cufftitle which was posted by a forum member on the GDC forum last summer. In the Dutch Army museum in Delft, there is another locally produced one for display. That title bears the text “Gen. Seyffart”, with the name of the general wrongly spelled. The construction displayed some similarities with “Landwacht” (the forerunner of the “Landstorm Nederland”) cufftitles I had seen previously. I think that both titles, and perhaps some other variants as well, were worn till the disbandment of the Vrijwilligerslegioen Nederland in 1943. After that, the honor to wear a title with the name of the general was bestowed upon the 48th regiment which was newly formed in October, 1943. The BeVo "General Seyffardt" cufftitles were produced from 1944 onwards and issued on a very small scale, according to some veteran accounts. No period pictures with this band in wear are known to me.
Comment