Third Reich Police sleeve Eagles

[W.Unland]

A yellow on "flecked" police green "summer weight" HBT material is also known. It is assumed that this eagle was worn on an overall type uniform for dockside work when a double breasted blue service uniform would have been impractical. Photos also exist showing a "green" HBT summer double breasted reefer type jacket in wear.

Here is an example of such an HBT eagle.

[attachmentid=43399]

[W.Unland]

A late war "bevo" style eagle was produced for use by the Wasserschutzpolizei. It is identical in pattern to the grey "combat" and black "panzer" eagles shown above, but executed in yellow on dark navy blue. Here is an example of such an eagle.

[attachmentid=43400]

[W.Unland]

Officers of the Wasserschutzpolizei wore a gold bullion eagle on a dark navy blue background. I don't own one of these and I apologize to the owner of this eagle for posting without permission, but I lost its attribution, and it is the only original example I have seen. Note that the swastika is rendered in gold.

[attachmentid=43402]

[W.Unland]

Late in the war some Psudo-police type organizations were brought under the authority of the police and were authorized to wear a police sleeve eagle. One such group was the Luftschutz, or air raid protection service. They wore a green eagle on a luftwaffe blue/gray background as opposed to a police green background for the Schutzpolizei.

Here is an example of such an eagle on blue gray for use by the Luftschutzpolizei.

[attachmentid=43403]

[W.Unland]

This eagle is also on Luftwaffe blue/gray but the branch color is carmine pink. This eagle was utilized by the Luftschutzpolizeifeuerwehr, or the fire fighting service of the air raid police.

[attachmentid=43404]

[W.Unland]

Luftschutzpolizei "maintainence" personnel wore a white eagle on Luftwaffe gray as shown here.

[attachmentid=43405]

[W.Unland]

Late in the war the TENO came under police authority and it's members were authorized to wear a black police sleeve eagle. These are VERY rare as they were only used for a very short period of time.

This is an example of a black Tenopolizei eagle on police green background.

[attachmentid=43406]

[W.Unland]

And lastly, I will show a white on police green eagle. These were used by female police personnel late in the war. Pre-war they wore a small white eagle on their lower left sleeve, but later adapted a "full sized" white sleeve eagle such as that shown here.

These eagles could also be utilized by the Verwaltungspolizei, or administrative police, regulations for which stipulated a gray eagle. As there were VERY few enlisted personnel in the administrative police, and only at the rank of senior NCO, I believe that the vast majority of these off white/silver eagles were intended for use by women.

[attachmentid=43407]

[W.Unland]

In conclusion, I must caution that this discussion is in no way to be considered "complete". I know that other eagle collectors out there have other types of eagles, such as that for a general officer, Autobahnpolizei, panzerpolizei, etc; that I do not possess, and I would invite them to add theirs to this compilation.

I hope that this might serve of some value to those just starting to collect police eagles, and to those who might not have seen the many variations extant.

Any comments, additions or corrections to my rather superficial narrative are cordially invited.

Thank you for looking. I apologize for some of the poor quality photographs, resizing to fit this format degraded some of them more than I anticipated.

Best regards,

Bill Unland

[--dj--Joe]

Mr. Bill Unland, thank you for the many great images and the information.

Corrected my notes on my Feuerwehr Officers.

--dj--Joe

Edited June 17, 2006 by --dj--Joe

[Scowen]

An excellent & informative thread Bill, thank you very much.

Without asking you to give away too much info, & forgive a me for possibly a stupid question (remember I'm a cloth virgin ) is there any particular trait to look for on the obverse or reverses when checking for originality? Or is it down to quality of the work & material etc

Thanks again.

Don

[W.Unland]

Hello,

There are some characteristics that suggest that an eagle might be a reproduction.

Most noticable, a body "filled in" on the reverse with white (or other color) bobbin thread, when the rest of the eagle is not so "filled in" is highly suspect. Of course, UV reactive white thread on the back is an absolute sign of modern production.

[attachmentid=43701]

This is a very good reproduction, examples of which are for sale as we speak for big money on some very reputable dealer's sites as authentic. Unfortunately, this trait is on occasion found on authentic eagles, and can not be taken alone as proof of an eagle not being authentic.

Here is a "good" example of this same pattern eagle for comparison. It seems that this one forger, who makes a few different pattern eagles, uses the same machine for all of them, and this "filled in" body characteristic always displays itself on his reproductions.

[attachmentid=43704]

Here is another of his repro's this time with a brown bobbin thread filling in the body.

[attachmentid=43703]

Like all cloth, the reproductions are becoming VERY good. I have lately seen eagles that I believe were embroidered using scans of photographs, possibly from forums like this, and then rendered using computer controlled embroidery machines. Luckily, when they enlarged the photos to life size the image became "fuzzy" and the resultant eagle was like wise "out of focus".

With the prices of these things getting as high as they are I expect even more convincing fakes as time goes by.

I will post a little dissertation on recognizing fakes if there is any interest. I sometimes feel that I am the only "eagle weenie" out there

Regards,

Bill Unland

Edited June 17, 2006 by W.Unland

[--dj--Joe]

I am always enthsiastic to learn about spotting fakes.

--dj--Joe

[Scowen]

Thank you Bill for the extra info & yes, I too would love to know more if you have the inclination & time.

Cheers

Don

[Guest Rick Research]

A friend came by today so I could scan his latest finds for him. These were obtained directly from a U.S. veteran, who stated that these Gendarmerie eagles were removed from the SS clothing depot at Dachau. I have no clue whether such items were supposed to have been MADE there or were simply STORED there--but in the general shrieking and yelling that accompanies anything concerning SS collecting and Dachau insignia, I've never heard mention of POLICE items being taken from that depot before.

I'll show fronts and backs of the two types he took in case there is anything unusual about either, since I have NO clue, myself.

Trimmed edge type:

[Guest Rick Research]

And full oval from the same source. If you hadn't mentioned that these have the district lettering removed, I'd have never known it. Try as I might, front or back, it's been done so well here that I can barely see the merest ghost of those letters, and don't know if I'm tricking my eyes into seeing removed "Dachau" barely impressed into the backing wool after all these years.

[Guest Rick Research]

Both types of eagles were scanned at the same size to each other.

[W.Unland]

Dear Rick,

Both eagles look OK to me. I see no reason why these could not have been stored at the clothing depot Dachau for use by feldgendarmerie units of the WSS.

The 2nd oval was produced without lettering later in the war. That 3 feather is an odd bird. I have one exactly like it.

I think that these small ovals don't have room for an embroidered district. Besides, if intended for Feldgendarmerie use they would NOT have had any district or town name in any case.

Regards,

Bill Unland