S008057 "PRINZ EUGEN" EM/NCO'S CUFFTITLE. (Ärmelstreiffen)

BACKGROUND: The 7^TH SS-Freiwillingen-Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen" was originally formed in March of 1942, and was the first Waffen-SS division to be composed primarily of ethnic Germans, (Volksdeutsche) from the Balkan countries of Serbia and Croatia. The division was formed as an anti-partisan unit and spent most of the war in this role in Yugoslavia. (October 1942-May 1945). In April 1942 the division was accorded the honor title "Prinz Eugen" after the Austrian Prince, Eugene of Savoy, who along with the Hungarian Janos Hunyadi had driven the Turks out of Hungary in the battle of Zenta in 1697. After being allocated the Prinz Eugen honor title all divisional personnel were authorized wear of a scripted cufftitle until November 13^TH 1944 when the 13^TH SS-Freiwillingen-Gebirgs-Regiment was authorized the "Artur Phelps" cufftitle in honor of their fallen divisional commander SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Artur Phelps who was killed by the Russians on September 21^ST 1944. Of Note: In spite of the, "Freiwillingen", (Volunteer), designation in the division’s title, most of the Volksdeutsche were actually conscripted. Also Of Note: The RZM, Reichzeugmeisterei, (National Equipment Quartermaster), was official founded in June 1934 in Munich by the NSDAP as a Reich Hauptamt, (State Central Office), and was based on the earlier SA Quartermaster’s Department. The functions of the RZM were not only to procure and distribute items to Party formations, but also to approve chosen designs and to act as a quality control supervisor to ensure items manufactured for the Party met required specification and were standardized. Starting in late 1934 items manufactured for the SS came under the quality control of the RZM and were marked by a cloth RZM/SS approval tag. The dimensions and design of these cloth tags was altered in 1935 and this second pattern tag remained in use until early 1938, when it was replaced by a paper tag. In 1943 the Waffen-SS assumed full control over their uniform item production and no longer fell under the authority of the RZM. Also Of Note: The Prinz Eugen cufftitle was manufactured in the standard machine embroidered RZM pattern and a unique, variant, BeVo-like woven pattern. The somewhat unique BeVo-like weave was utilized on a small number of SS cufftitles with the Prinz Eugen cufftitle being a prime example. This Bevo-like weave is discussed and photographed in G. Williamson & T. McGuirl’s book, German Military Cuffbands 1784~Present, page 169, and also in Ulric of England’s book, A Collectors Guide to SS and Political Cuffbands, pages 72, 73 and 74.

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