H042176 VOLGA TARTAR VOLUNTEER'S SLEEVE SHIELD.
(Wolga Tatar Landeschilde)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 December 1941 Hitler permitted three more foreign volunteer legions to be formed from non-ethnic Russian personnel and with further expansions by the middle of 1942 there were six different eastern, "Ostvolk", volunteer legions including the Volga-Tartar legion formed from Turkistan volunteers from the Volga Ural region of Russia. As with other foreign volunteer legions members of the Volga-Ural legion were allocated an identifying sleeve shield insignia that was introduced in late 1942. The Volga-Ural legions identifying sleeve shield was altered three times during its existence.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: First pattern, machine woven, identifying sleeve shield consists of a flat topped, rounded bottom shield shape base with three horizontal bars in field-grey, blue and green with a narrow field-grey outer border. The top field-grey horizontal bar has printed white script, "Idel-Ural", "Idel" being the Tartar word for Volga. The center of the shield features a white crossed arrow and sword that cross over at the parallel line of the blue and green bars. The shield is still on its original field-grey rayon factory roll, with the manufacturers machine woven white trade name, "BeVo-Wuppertal" indicating manufacture by Beteiligung Ewald Vorsteher.in Wuppertal, to the bottom edge. The shield is in overall excellent, unissued condition.
GRADE ****3/4 PRICE $125.00
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