SEE BELOW FOR DESCRIPTION
SEE BELOW FOR DESCRIPTION
S014676 WAFFEN-SS NORWEGIAN LEGION VOLUNTEER'S SLEEVE SHIELD.
(Landeschilde)BACKGROUND: As early as 1938 Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and the Allgemeine-SS, (General-SS), began recruiting volunteer "Germanische", (Germanic), personnel who were considered to be suitably "Nordic", to serve in the SS-VT, SS-Verfügungstruppe, (SS-Special Purpose Troops). Originally these Germanic personnel were drawn from Dutch, Belgian, Danes and Norwegians but with only minor success. In March 1940 with the formation of the Waffen-SS recruitment of the Germanic personnel began to increase slightly and with the outbreak of WWII additional Germanic volunteers came forward to join the ranks of the Waffen-SS. The Norwegian, NS, Nasjonal Samling, (National Unity), party, founded in May 1933 by Vidkun Quisling, was designed and structured on the same basis as the NSDAP. Although the NS party never enjoyed any electoral success prior to the invasion of Norway by the Germans, Quisling proclaimed himself Prime Minister after the invasion. This was originally rejected by the Germans, but in September 1940 Quisling’s NS party was declared the only legal political party in Norway and in February 1942 Hitler finally appointed Quisling as Minister President of Norway. After the German invasion of Russia Quisling rallied the Norwegians in the fight against Bolshevism and as a result on June 29TH 1941 the formation of a volunteer Norwegian Legion was instituted. The Norwegian Legion fell under control of the SS and originally personnel wore a variety of NS Rikshird, (National Followers), Norwegian and German army uniforms. In July 1941 personnel of the Legion were transferred to Germany for training, exchanged the assorted uniforms for German uniforms, and on August 1ST 1941 they were allocated the official designation, "Freiwillinge Legion Norwegen", (Volunteer Norwegian Legion). Personnel serving in the Legion were authorized wear of an identifying cufftitle and a Norwegian national flag insignia on the upper left sleeve positioned below the SS sleeve eagle. Of Note: In February 1942 the Volunteer Norwegian Legion was sent to the northern Russia front by Leningrad where it served until withdrawn back to Norway in May 1943. In September 1943 the Legion was disbanded and most of its personnel went on to serve with the 5.SS-Panzer-Division "Wiking", the 6.SS-Gebirgs-Division "Nord" and the 11.SS-Freiwillingen-Panzer-Grenadier-Division "Nordland" and some personnel continued to wear Norwegian national flag insignia.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly, 65mm tall, 60mm wide, German manufactured, black wool construction, officially sanctioned pattern insignia features a flat topped, rounded bottom, shield shape base with a machine embroidered repeating red, white and blue Norwegian flag with a pointed tip bottom. The shield is in overall very good, unissued condition. Nice clean example. Hard to find!
GRADE ****3/4 PRICE $
To Order this item, please use one of the two e-mail addresses below to contact us. Please make sure to quote the item number in your e-mail
MILITARIA WANTED! If you have items for sale, please contact us. We specialize in selling single pieces and entire collections. Over 3 decades in the business and we do all the work for you. Get the best return for your investment.
-E-Mail Address pawmac@nbnet.nb.ca Or guild@nb.aibn.com
To return to the main page please CLICK below