The Hand Grenade Division - Shoulder Strap Devices


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Shoulder Strap Devices

In addition to the use of waffenfarbe, or branch of service colours, to distinguish between units, shoulder strap devices also came to be used extensively. The type of device used depended on the rank of the wearer.

Rank	Type of Shoulder Strap Device
Offiziere (Officers)	Gilt metal
Unteroffiziere mit Portepee (Senior Non Commissioned Officer)	White metal
Unteroffiziere ohne Portepee (Junior Non Commissioned Officer)	Embroidered
Mannschaften (Men)	Embroidered

The table below lists the most commonly worn devices. One can distinguish between two different kinds of devices - Branch Insignia, which distinguished unit type, and Unit Insignia, which was generally a numeral to further distinguish between separate units of a specific type.

On 1 September 1939, for security reasons, the Army issued orders that unit insignia was to be removed or obscured. Some soldiers wore cloth "slip-ons" that slid overtop of the shoulder patches in order to obscure their rank, unit, or both. Some units and individuals nevertheless continued to use both Unit Insignia and Branch Insignia during the war. Some elite units like Grossdeutschland were also permitted to retain their distinctive shoulder strap insignia.

On 16 February 1944, the official prohibition against wearing unit insignia was rescinded; however, insignia was to be worn on cloth "slip ons" which were slipped over the shoulder boards. Branch Insignia was often retained. For example, an officer in the 7th Panzerjäger Battalion might remove the numeral 7, as this information would be of use to the enemy if he were captured or his dead body recovered, but keep the "P" cypher so as to be distinguished from an armoured crewman or motorized infantryman, who also wore the pink piping.

Branch Insignia

Branch Insignia devices were often used for units of different branches, so the waffenfarbe was an equal part of the identification process in tandem with these two devices.

The table below is listed with symbols first, then numerals, and finally alphabetically by letter identifier. There were many categories of soldiers who had no authorized shoulder strap devices to distinguish them, they are not listed here, but included everyone from Officers of the Army Supreme Command (OKH - Oberkommando des Heeres) down to Military Police soldiers.

Branch Insignia tended to be letters in Gothic script, though as can be seen below, certain units used Latin or Roman letters. Actual metal devices varied widely in terms of pattern; there were also different sizes to better fit multiple devices on shoulder boards in conjunction with rank stars. Embroidered devices also varied widely in quality and style. The samples here should be seen as representative only of the general design.

Unit Insignia

Unit numerals were in Arabic numerals for battalion, regimental or division sized units (with the unit identifier providing the key to which type of unit the numeral belonged to) while Roman numerals tended to refer to a specific military district ("Wehrkreis"). Elite units were identified by special insignia which is shown on a separate page of this site.

Final Note

A final note - some officers, with Field Marshall Gerd von Runstedt being the most famous, were permitted to act as "Chef" (literally, Chief, or what the British Commonwealth would refer to as "Honorary Colonel") of individual regiments. Field Marshall von Rundstedt for that reason habitually wore the collar patches of an Infantry officer rather than those prescribed for his rank, as well as the white waffenfarbe of his rank, and on his shoulder straps he wore the Arabic numerals "18" that designated the 18th Infantry Regiment in which he still held honorary status, and had commanded in 1925-26.

Shoulder Strap Device	Officer	Senior NCO	Junior EM	Worn by
Snake			Veterinary Officers and NCOs (Carmiine)
Crossed Cannons		Individual Officers (W) (Red)
Lyre + School Number				Army School of Music (White)
Short Sword				Military Justice (Bordeaux Red)
Staff and Serpent			Medical Officers and NCOs (Cornflower Blue)
Mercury's Staff				Supply Troops (Light Blue)
Cog Wheel				Engineer Officer's Academy (Orange)
Roman Numeral				Veterinary Research and Inspection Department (Carmine) (Number of Wehrkreis)
Roman Numeral				General Command (White) (Number of Command)
Roman Numeral				NCO's Prepatory School (White) (Number of Wehrkreis)
Roman Numeral				Military District (Wehrkreis) Cavalry School (Golden Yellow) (Number of Wehrkreis)
Roman Numeral				General Armoured Command (Rosa) (Number of Armoured Command)
Roman Numeral				Recruiting Personnel (Pre 1942) (Orange) (Number of Wehrkreis)
Unit Number				Veterinary Unit (Carmine)
Unit Number				Artillery Regiment Assault Gun Battalion (Red)
Unit Number				Infantry Regiment (White)
Unit Number				Cavalry Regiment (Golden Yellow)
Unit Number				Signals Battalion (Lemon Yellow)
Unit Number				Motorcycle Battalion (Copper Brown) From 28 November 1941
Unit Number				Armoured (Panzer) Regiment Rifle Brigade (Schützen) Staff (Rosa)
Unit Number				Light Infantry (Jäger) Regiment Mountain Troop (Gebirgsjäger) Regiment (Light Green)
Unit Number				Armoured Infantry (Panzergrenadier) Regiment
Unit Number				Smoke Battalion (Bordeaux Red)
Unit Number				Medical Battalion (Cornflower Blue)
Unit Number				Transport Battalion (Light Blue)
Unit Number				Engineer (Pioneer) Battalion
Gothic A				Army Veterinary Academy (Carmine)
Gothic A				Military Medical Academy (Cornflower Blue)
A + Unit Number				Mounted Reconnaissance Battalion (Golden Yellow) (A="Aufklärungs" - Reconnaissance)
A + Unit Number				Mounted Reconnaissance Battalion (Copper Brown) From 28 November 1941 (A="Aufklärungs" - Reconnaissance)
Gothic B + Unit Number				Artillery Observation Battalion (Red) (B="Beobachtungs" - Observation)
Gothic B + L entwined				Artillery Observation Training Regiment (Red) (B="Beobachtungs" - Observation, L="Lehr" - Training)
D + Division Number				Infantry Division Staff (White)
D + Division Number				Light Division Staff (Golden Yellow)
D + Division Number				Armoured (Panzer) Division Staff (Rosa)
D + Division Number				Mountain Troop (Gerbirgsjäger) Division Staff (Light Green)
E + Unit Number				Armoured Trains (Rosa)
E + Unit Number				Railway Pioneers (Black)
Capital F and lower case L				Infantry Anti-Aircraft Unit (White) (Fl="FlaK" - Anti-Aircraft)
Capital F and lower case p + Unit Number				Fortress Anti-Tank Unit (Rosa) (From 29 November 1944) (Fp="Festungs Panzerabwehr Einheiten - Fortress Anti-Tank)
FS + Arabic Numeral 1 or 2				Ordnance Technician School (Red) Waffenmeisterschule
Capital F and lower case P + Unit Number				Fortress Engineer Unit (Black) (FP="Festungs Pionier" - Fortress Engineer)
G + Group Number				Army Group Command (White)
GW				Mortar Battalions (White) (GW="Granat Werfer" - Grenade Thrower)
GS + Roman Numeral I or II				Army Gas Defence School (Bordeaux Red)
J				Motor Maintenance Troops (Rosa)
KA				War Academy (Carmine)
K + Unit Number				Motorcycle Troops (White) (K="Kradschützen" - Motorcycle Troops)
K + Unit Number				Motorcycle Troops (Rosa) (K="Kradschützen" - Motorcycle Troops)
K + Unit Number				Motorcycle Troops (Grass Green) (K="Kradschützen" - Motorcycle Troops)
KS + Number of School				War College (White) (KS="Kriegs Schule" - War School)
Gothic L				Veterinary Training and Research (Carmine)
L				Artillery Training Regiment (Red) (L="Lehr" -Training)
L				Infantry Training Regiment (White) (L="Lehr" -Training)
L				Armoured Infantry (Panzergrenadier) Regiment As part of "Panzer Lehr" Division
L				Signals Training Regiment (Lemon Yellow) (L="Lehr" -Training)
L				Armoured Training Regiment (Rosa) (L="Lehr" -Training) Also Panzer Regiment "Lehr"
L				Smoke Training Regiment (Bordeaux Red) (L="Lehr" -Training)
L				Medical Training Unit (Cornflower Blue) (L="Lehr" -Training)
L				Transport Training Unit (Light Blue) (L="Lehr" -Training)
L				Railway Pioneer Training Company Engineer (Pioneer) Training Battalion (Black) (For EM, Black outlined in White) (L="Lehr" -Training)
L + Roman Numeral I or II
MS				Army School of Motoring (Rosa)
P + Unit Number				Anti-Tank Unit (Rosa) (P="Panzerabwehr" - Anti-Tank Defence) (Later changed to "Panzerjäger" - Tank Hunters)
R + Unit Number				Mounted Artillery Unit (Red) (R=)
US + First letter of name of school				Artillery NCO School (Red) (US = "Unteroffizier Schule" - NCO School)
US + First letter of name of school				Infantry NCO School (White) (US = "Unteroffizier Schule" - NCO School)
US + First letter of name of school				Signals NCO School (Lemon Yellow) (US = "Unteroffizier Schule" - NCO School)
US + First letter of name of school				Pioneer NCO School (Black) (US = "Unteroffizier Schule" - NCO School)
D + Unit Number				Machine Gun Battalion (White) (M="Maschinegewehr" -Machine Gun)
R + Unit Number				Mounted Artillery Unit (Red) (R=)
R + Unit Number				Motorcycle Units (Golden Yellow) (R=)
RS				Army Cavalry School (Golden Yellow) (RS=Reiter Schule - Rider School)
Gothic S				Artillery School (Red) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S				Infantry School (White) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S				Cavalry School (Golden Yellow) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S				Armour School (Rosa) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S				Alpine and Mountain Troops School (Light Green) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S				Army Gas School Smoke Troop School (Bordeaux Red) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S				Transport Supply School (Light Blue) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S + Arabic Number				Motorized Infantry Regiment (Rosa) (S="Schützen" - Motorized Infantry)
Gothic S + Arabic Number				Signals School (LemonYellow) (S="Schule" - School)
Gothic S + Arabic Number				Railway Pioneer School (Black) (For EM, Black outlined in White)
Gothic S + HB				Army School of Dog and Carrier Pigeon Services (LemonYellow) (S="Schule" - School, HB=)
Gothic SS				Army Sports School (White) (SS="Sport Schule" - Sports School)
T		Technical Officers (Black)
V				Army Map and Military Survey Personnel (White)
VH				Experimental Command Hillesleben (Red)
VK				Experimental Command Kummersdorf (Red)
W + Roman Numeral				Recruiting Officer Personnel (White) (Number of Wehrkreis)
Roman W				Garrison Battalion Vienna (White) (W="Wien" - Vienna)
WB				NCOs and Men of the Staff of the Military Authority of the Reichsprotektor (White)
WS + Arabic Numeral 1 or 2				School for Artificers (Red)

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