Police Sleeve Eagles

[W.Unland]

Hello,

As a new contributor allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bill Unland, and I am a collector of police insignia, including, but not limited to the Third Reich period. Like many police collectors I am a retired cop.

My primary interest is in police, enlisted ranks sleeve eagles, and the variations thereof. To start off here I will post a few of the less comonly seen types of eagles.

The first is a black TENO police eagle. The TENO fell under the jurisdiction of the police, and this insignia was authorized fairly late in the war. Consequently, relatively few were actually used, and examples are very hard to come by. This particular eagle shows signs of having been sewn down to a tunic, and is of a pattern, totally un-realistic and particularly "modern" in design, that is recognized to have been produced late in the period. Like all late war eagles this example is "cut" around the design.

Edited June 8, 2006 by W.Unland

[W.Unland]

The next eagle is a Gemeindenpolizei eagle in red carmine worn pre-war by the municipal police of small towns. This branch of the police was obsorbed into the Schutzpolizei with the start of the war, so all GEMPO eagles of necessity date early in the TR period. Since this color of eagle was discontinued after only a few years of use they are extremely hard to find, particularly "named" examples as shown here.

[W.Unland]

Finally, here is a Wasserschutzpolizei yellow eagle on typical police "speckled" summer HBT backing. Although the WSP "usually" wore typical naval blue "reefer" type jackets there is photographic evidence of their wearing double breasted tunics in summer green material. This is the eagle that would have been utilized on that uniform. This is the only example of such an eagle that I have ever seen.

[W.Unland]

If there is any interest here, I will continue with other examples, and if there are any other police cloth collectors about I would love to see what treasures are hidden out there.

Best regards.,

William Unland

[Scowen]

Hi Bill,

First of all let me welcome you to the forum, I hope that you will enjoy your time here. I for one would love to see more as I know absolutely nothing about cloth, but have always admired the Polizei insignia.

Thanks for showing these & I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Cheers

Don

[Scott]

Not my field, but I can appreciate the effort that goes into collecting these. I'd like to see more as well!

Scott

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes indeed, I have always liked these. I have seen exactly one WSP eagle in the same construction as yours, in my cousin Ted's collection. That makes TWO, then!

How about Luftschutzpolizei (successor to SHD in 1942) eagles, SchuPo green on Luftwaffe uniform material? There should be zillions of them out there, based on the number of personnel, but I've never been able to find one.

[W.Unland]

Thank you for the kind comments.

Regarding the Luftschutzpolizei, there were actually three colors of police eagle utilized by that branch. The green on gray was used by the air raid wardens proper. Carmine-pink on gray was used by the Luftschutzpolizeifeuerwehr, which were firefighters I assume responsible for protecting Luftschutzpolizei facilities. And white on gray was utilized by the "maintainence" section of the branch, again I believe responsible for unit facilities.

Here is a photo of the three different Luftschutzpolizei eagles. The pink one looks a bit "greenish" in this scan, but it is a dirty gray in hand.

Glad to hear that another yellow on green eagle is out there. I would be most interested in seeing a scan if you can post it.

Edited June 8, 2006 by W.Unland

[W.Unland]

To continue, here is an example of a Feuerwehr, fire department, eagle on summer weight green cotton. Although Feuerschutzpolizei eagles, with black swastikas are commonly encountered on green, Feuerwehr with carmine-pink swastikas are very uncommon, particularly on summer weight material. These were worn on green coveralls utilized by female auxiliaries and other fire personnel in some circumstances.

This pattern of eagle is one of the most handsome, with fine details and very realistic eagle, particularly the head.

Edited June 8, 2006 by W.Unland

[W.Unland]

And last for now an EXTREMELY rare Schutzpolizei green on white cotton. This eagle is controversial, to say the least. These were authorized by regulations for less than a year in 1936 for senior NCO's entitled to wear the officer's style white summer tunic. These were quickly replaced with the green summer HBT after the olympics. No period photo or actual tunic showing this eagle in wear is known, and there are many reproductions extant. That said this example appears to me to be authentic, and is consistant with early 1936 police eagles. This is the only one I have ever found that I believe to be real. It is characterized by the rather "muddy" wreath details, and very realistic eagle.

Regards,

Bill Unland

Edited June 8, 2006 by W.Unland

[--dj--Joe]

Mr. Unland

I appreciate seeing all the different examples.

Thank you!

--dj--Joe