BACKGROUND: With the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22ND 1941 the German army encountered large segments of the non-ethnic Russian populace that greeted them as liberators from the yoke of Bolshevism. Although Hitler was suspicious of the ethnic make-up and loyalty of these personnel the German commanders in the field quickly saw the advantage of utilizing these willing personnel in non-combatant roles. As a result of manpower restrictions the German army began employing non-ethnic Russian POW’s and volunteers as laborers and supply personnel in the rear areas as early as the summer of 1941 against the express wishes of Hitler. In an attempt to convince the Turkistanis to ally themselves with the German cause Hitler finally allowed the formation of a Turkistan Legion in November 1941 which was to be attached to the German 162ND Infantry Division as a parent and training unit. In the autumn of 1942 a specific identifying national sleeve shield was introduced for members of the Legion. The Turkistan Legion’s national sleeve shield underwent modifications in September 1943 and again in mid-1944. Of Note: Although there are five distinct languages in the Turkistan region the Germans elected to use, a grammatically incorrect, Arabic script on the first pattern Turkistan Legion’s sleeve badges in spite of the fact that Arabic is not one of the spoken languages. The German’s attempted to remedy this affront by altering the script on the third pattern badge to the ancient Turkic Jagatai script although it too was no longer spoken in the region.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Third and final pattern, Turkistan Legion sleeve shield as introduced in mid-1944, and worn for the duration of the war. The insignia consist of a roughly, 75mm tall, 60mm wide, vertically oval, screen printed shield with a fine, light blue, outer edge stripe, encompassing a blue, white and golden yellow mosque dome which is flanked by two side spires on a dark green background field. Both the mosque dome and the spires are topped with ornamental minarets. The shield has blue Latin script superimposed on the mosque, "Turkistan", and yellow, ancient Turkic Jagatai script to the top edge, "T ri biz menen!", (God with Us!).