Revised Interpretation of S.D.V. and S.D.VI. markings

[Don M]

Darn that Jerry Burney! He has acquired a Police Bayonet, scabbard and frog that have caused me to revise my earlier tentative interpretation that the Schupo command at Oberhausen in the Düsseldorf administrative district was represented by the marking S.D.VI. Photos of this rig are presented below with Jerry's permission.

The bayonet and scabbard are both marked S.D.V.336. The frog is dated 1929 and stamped Pol. Präs. Oberhausen. It is certainly possible that the frog was combined with a bayonet and scabbard from a different command at some time after their original issue, particularly when the bayonet and scabbard were cut down to standard length. However, I think it is more likely that they remained with the original command.

As noted in www.historywritinsteel.com, S.D.I. through IV. are rather confidently identified as the commands located at Essen, Wuppertal, Düsseldorf and Duisburg, respectively. I had previously concluded tentatively that the Oberhausen command was S.D.VI. based on the fact that the Oberhausen command was the only remaining large unit and the data presented in Tables 7-6, -7 and -8 of HWIS suggested that S.D.VI. was significantly larger than either S.D.V. or S.D.VII. While this is still true, I believe Jerry's rig provides stronger evidence than the inventory numbers of small and not necessarily representative samples of these markings.

Accorginly, I have revised item #1 on the New Insights page of my web site www.historywritinsteel.com.