BACKGROUND: In February 1941 the DAK, Deutsches Afrika Korps, (German Africa Corps), the German expeditionary force, arrived in Tripoli to assist the Italians in their disastrous North African campaign. The DAK ground units were supplemented with Luftwaffe air and anti-aircraft support units and eventually with the Herman Göring Division and the Fallschirm Lehr-Brigade, (Paratroop Instruction/Demonstration Brigade). Regulations of March 16TH 1942 introduced a new cufftitle for wear by all Luftwaffe personnel actively serving in North Africa. Personnel transferred out of the North African theatre were to remove the cufftitle although it was permitted for wear by personnel who had been wounded in North Africa and been sent to a continental European hospital and by those at home on temporary leave. Officer’s ranks cufftitles were worked in bright silver/aluminum hand embroidery while EM/NCO’s ranks cufftitles wee worked in machine embroidered silver/grey threads. The cufftitles were to be worn on the lower right sleeve of the service tunic or field blouse. Of Note: The Luftwaffe’s "Afrika" cufftitle basically held the same status as the army’s "Afrikakorps" cufftitle that had been introduced July 18TH 1941 with service in North Africa being the main criteria and was not considered a campaign award as the later introduced, (January 15TH 1943), "Afrika" with palms cufftitle was.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly, 32mm tall, 37cm long, deep navy blue wool construction, EM/NCO’s cufftitle with machine embroidered, block letter, Latin script, "AFRIKA" in light silvery/grey rayon threads. The cufftitle has the typical opened back construction with the top and bottom edges folded over and machine stitched to the reverse.