Death's Head
 

Watched one of those cable history shows last night on Tiger tanks, it was noted that Panzer Korps troops had deaths head pips on their collars. Has anyone speculated about these troops as the raison d'etre for Death's Head marked Lugers?

--Dwight

Dwight, are there other programs on tv besides the History Channel?

I watch it a lot (nature stuff too) and it is pretty cool to see markings and holsters and Lugers and such, being used and part of history. Very cool.

I think your reasoning makes perfect sense, if units wore something, our guys saw it, captured it and kept it.

Yes, Dwight:

People have speculated regarding this possiblity, however, no knowledgeable collector that I am acquainted with affords credibility to this line of speculation. As a matter of fact, several reference books, currently available, discuss the origin and authenticity of the markings.

Regards,

Yep, Dwight, that is one of the options that has been considered, along with Death Head Hussars, Brunswick Hussars and Infantry, Stosstrupp, Sturmbattalion, Freikorps, Flammenwerfer units, etc. Any unit that had the Death Head as part of their insignia, either officially or unofficially, might be the origin. Although the Death Head was adopted by the SS, the Death Head Luger pre-dated this organization by several years.

Flip this around and see how it looks. Not what the TK is stamped on, but what its not stamped on in reference to the units that wore it. There was no hesitancy for the German procurement system to stamp everything including durable equipment like holsters. If there was a Weimar/Freikorps/SA/SS/
SD/KZ/HJ/RD/RB or even a BDM unit that had the TK as an official designation it would have been stamped all over everything including their underwear just like the SS runes are. There is probably more stuff around today with it stamped on it than ever was in 1945. Think about it.


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RK