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.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly, 1 1/8" tall, 18 7/8" long, full length, machine woven, black rayon construction cufftitle featuring machine woven, Latin script, "Prinz Eugen" in bright, silver/aluminum, flat-wire threads. The cufftitle is bordered at both the top and bottom edges in six strand, horizontally woven, bright, silver/aluminum wire threads. The full length cufftitle has folded over, machine stitched ends and the reverse has a white paper RZM/SS tag with black printed script and the purple inkstamped manufacturer’s numerical code. The printed script to the tag includes both the RZM logo and the SS runes within circular borders. The reverse of the cufftitle also as a protective strip of black fabric handstitched to the reverse of the script. The cufftitle is in overall excellent, unissued condition with minimal age toning.

GRADE ****1/2                             PRICE $3,349.00