Italian Waffen-SS insignia - Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums

ccmax · 01-21-2003, 07:50 PM

While I do not collect SS cloth insignia and know little about identifying real pieces, I have an interest in the Italian theater and Italian troops that served alongside the Germans late in the war. I saw these images and wondered how many actual Italian Waffen-SS pieces may have survived the war.
What Italian in his right mind would bother to keep stuff like this in late 1945 when partisans were shooting everyone who was even only suspicious of having activities in the fascist party? Over 100.000 people died in a civil war after May 1945 in Italy.
The only time I tried to purchase one of these made me find out in the long run I had made a costly mistake. The arm eagle seems well made here, I wouldn't say so about the others. I would like to hear opinions of the knowledgeable SS cloth items about these if possible. Does anyone have any real Italian SS item to show?
Best,
Cesar.

ccmax · 01-21-2003, 07:52 PM

Stamping inside an Italian Waffen-SS tunic

[IMG]http://www.datazap.net/free/ccmax45/ssitalia.jpg[/IMG]

ccmax · 01-21-2003, 07:57 PM

Here is a collar patch...

ccmax · 01-21-2003, 08:00 PM

Also, wouldn't the real examples of Italian SS cloth insignia follow the Italian, and not German patterns and standards of manufacture? From what I've seen most real examples of RSI troops insignia were manufactured in Italy.
Cesar.

**Gary Wood** · 01-21-2003, 08:32 PM

Cesar,
is the insignia you show on the same tunic?
cheers,
Gary

01-22-2003, 02:50 AM

Hi Cesar, I recently bought a great book on the Italian SS, it's Sentire,Pensare,Volere, Storia della Legione SS italiana, written by Sergio Corbatti and Marco Nava. The only problem is it's written in Italian with no English translation. There are some good pics of the Italian SS uniforms and battalions. They had quite a different take on uniforms than the Germans.
I've had a hard time with it speaking so little Italian. Maybe you could get thru it better than I.
I purchased it from Angelray Books, Bronx, New York.

Rene Chavez · 01-22-2003, 11:11 AM

Hi Cesar,

to me the German made Italian SS eagle insignia looks good!
As you know many early foreign volunteer units wore locally made cloth insignias.....with these formations expanding into Regiments and Divisions the Germans decided to regulate and only allowed their own cloth insignias to be worn on their uniforms. However with supplied shortages, regulations not being followed and morale issues, the Germans allowed foreign volunteers to wear locally made insignias and military awards.

http://axis101.bizland.com/RSIAwards4.htm

Rene

ccmax · 01-22-2003, 05:24 PM

Gary,

The eagle and collar patch are on different uniforms.

I had also heard about Sentire, Pensare, Volere and I intend to get it directly from Italy - thanks!

giorgio · 01-26-2003, 08:02 AM

hi Cesar,
be very very careful about Italian SS insigna and uniforms, a lot of
reproductions and fakes are circulating, IMO I think there's something wrong about the SS red patch....
Only Italian batallion "Debica" (which was trained at polish town
Debica) was allowed to wear SS runes, but on black patch not red, for the moment I've never seen pics in which you can see SS runes on red patches.....of course is only my humble opinion....and I could be wrong.....
Ciao Giorgio

ccmax · 01-27-2003, 07:57 PM

Giorgio,

Thanks for the insight, based on your comments in this thread I say there is a very small chance any of the pics above are of original items, what the other members think about this?

Again, I would really love to see at least one photo of an original Italian Waffen-SS piece of insignia.
Cesar.