WWII German Waffen SS Vlaanderen-Korps foreign volunteer officers visor hat

WWII German Waffen SS Vlaanderen-Korps foreign volunteer officers visor hat.  Amazing hat with black wool top, satin lining, leather sweat band, black velvet cap band, silver bullion chin cord, and fine metal insignia, in size 60.

This organization was raised in September of 1940 by Herman van Puymbroeck, Ward Hermans, and Rene Lagrou under the name Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen, with the primary purpose of recruiting Waffen SS soldiers. Probably due to his connections with the SD (Sichereitsdienst), Lawer Rene Lagrou became the first leader. He started with a recruiting campaign for the Waffen-SS and organized the action against the Jewish community in Antwerp. In 1941 he joined the Waffen-SS, and for the time he was succeeded by his antisemite friend SS-Hauptsturmführer Jef de Langhe.

The first role of the SS-Vlaanderen was to recruit members for the Waffen-SS. This happened for example at the SS-Ausbildungslager Sennheim, and later at the SS-Schule Schoten. In 1941 this ideological education was also published in a monthly “SS-Scholingsbrief”. The SS-Vlaanderen had also his own newspaper; “De SS-Man”. First published in December 1940, the editor of the newspaper was Ward Hermans, five months later succeeded by Maurits van de Walle.

In 1942 the Vlaanderen-Korps/Flandern-Korps was raised, this was intended as a separate unit within the Germaansche-SS. If you were older than 35 years of age, and smaller than 1.70 m, you were incorporated into the Flandern-Korps. The largest part of the Germaansche-SS would later turn out to exist of these so-called FK-men and served next to the SS-men.

Like in other German Occupied Areas, the Germaansche SS established the Bl (Beschermde Leden), which was the Flemish version of the FM (Fördernde Mitglieder). The BL were supporting members of the Germaansche SS, and many male and female members of the De Vlag became BL supporters. In September of 1942, there were about 4,200 BL supporters.

One year after his appointment to Standaarleider, Raf van Hulse exchanged Flanders for the Eastern Front, where he would serve as SS-Kriegsberichter. The SS-Vlaanderen was given to the hands of SS-Untersturmführer Jef Francois, who had just come back from the Eastern Front, where he served in the Freiwilligen-Legion Flandern. SS-Brigadeführer Jungclaus ordered Francois, who was the former leader of the DMO (Dinaso Militanten Orde), to reorganize the Germaansche SS with the same discipline of the DMO.

By the end of 1942, due to the little interest in the Germaansche SS in Vlaanderen, SS-Obergruppenführer Berger realized that this organization wasn’t going to make a big difference in Flanders, so he set all his attention into the direction of the DeVlag. Dr. Jef van de Wiele, the Landsleider der DeVlag, proclaimed that the Germaansche SS and the De Vlag fought the same struggle and shared the ideology. And was even appointed to SS-Untersturmführer after attending the SS-Schule Schoten. On the 20th of April 1944, he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer and was the highest Flemish SS Official.

In November 1943 Dr. Jef van de Wiele ordered every leading member of the DeVlag to join the Germaansche SS. In consultation with the last Standaardleider, SS-Untersturmführer Antoon van Dijck, he even made sure that every member of the Germaansche SS became a member of the DeVlag so that bolt organizations nearly molded together at the end of the war.

As a result of this relationship with the DeVlag, the status of the Germaansche SS changed from more political to more military one. The organization started being assigned to various guard assignments. This military status was so emphasized when in the Summer of 1943 the leadership of the Germaansche SS came into the hands of young Waffen-SS Officers who had just finished the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz.

After a dispute between SS-Obersturmführer Francios and the Dienstselle Jungclaus, the headstrong SS-Obersturmführer was sent to an outpost of the SS-Hauptamt in Germany to coordinate the Germaansche SS-Sturmbannen. Besides, Dr. Van de Wiele expressed his destructive criticism of Francois at a meeting with SS-Brigadeführer Jungclaus. On 9th November 1944, the 22-year-old SS–Untersturmführer Antoon van Dijck took over the command of the Germaansche SS in Vlaanderen. Van Dijck came from the SS-Junkerschule Tölz, after having served as adjutant of Francois.

On 4 December 1942 SS-Untersturmführer August Schollen, the leader of Stormban III/I was shot in Brussels, and his friend SS-Obersturmfuhrer Rob Verbelen, the leader of Stormban IV/I reacted with revenge. This was the start of a bloody war between the Germaansche-SS and the Resistance Movement. Verbelen organized a group of SS-Men and staged a series of attacks on members of the resistance and distinguished people in the society. As the Stafleided der Vlag, in the Summer of 1944 Verbelen faced the De Vlag-Veiligheidskorps / De Vlag-Sicherheitskorps, by combining the man power of the De Vlag, together with the Germaansche SS, the plan was to form a unit to protect their supporters against the Allied invasion. But Verbelen had other plans, he saw the unit as an expedient to squash the armed resistance. The De Vlag-Veiligheidskorps worked closely together with the SiPo/SD (Sicherheitspolizei/SicherheittsDienste), and were always present in their actions.

Due to the Allied advances of September 1944, many members of the Germaansche-SS fled to Germany. The Germaansche SS Nederland numbered 7,000, a political formation, that also served as a reservoir for the Waffen-SS.

The Flemish Legion (Vlaams Legioen) was a collaborationist military formation recruited among Dutch-speaking volunteers from German-occupied Belgium, notably from Flanders, during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen SS alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.

Established in July 1941, the Flemish Legion was envisaged by the Flemish National League (Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond, VNV) as a means of maintaining its status as the principal collaborationist party within Flanders since the German invasion of May 1940. It was formed several months after the VNV had begun recruiting Flemish volunteers for smaller Waffen SS formations and was depicted as the future army of an independent Flemish state. Amid opposition from its personnel, the roughly 1,000-strong formation was given a notionally independent status as an SS Volunteer Legion Flanders (SS-Freiwilligen Legion Flandern). It subsequently sustained heavy casualties on the Eastern Front in fighting around Leningrad.

The Flemish Legion was officially disbanded in May 1943 and reformed within the Waffen-SS as the SS Assault Brigade Langemarck (SS-Sturmbrigade Langemarck). 200 soldiers refused to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler in October 1943 and were transferred to other units or penal units. It was subsequently reorganized on several occasions and was officially designated as a division in September 1944 but remained around 2,000-strong and never expanded beyond brigade-strength. It participated in fighting in Ukraine, Estonia, and Pomerania. Its remaining personnel finally surrendered to the Red Army at Mecklenburg on 3 May 1945.

The visor cap (Schirmmütze) was an important part of the headgear worn by German uniformed military, civil, paramilitary and political organizations during the Third Reich. This was the standard cloth headgear worn as a part of the service uniform. Visor caps were worn outdoors as well as indoors, and were often required to be worn by all personnel on duty. Visor caps were made in versions specific to each organization and were often further differentiated through the use of insignia, colored piping, or style of chin cord, to indicate rank, role or branch. The insignia used on these caps ranged from simple stamped metal emblems, to elaborate hand embroidery. Visor caps were issued to enlisted soldiers and NCOs in the military and in some other organizations. Officers had to purchase their own hats, and lower ranks could choose to purchase caps that were of a higher quality than the rather basic, issue examples. The private purchase caps were generally made in very high quality, with fine materials. A wide variety of fabrics were used, from Trikot and doeskin, to heavy wool, or even lightweight white fabric for summer wear. In the military, issue of these caps was generally suspended shortly after the outbreak of the war, but they continued to be worn by some troops until the end of the war.

The Schutzstaffel (SS – Protection Squadron) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz (“Hall Security”) made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–1945) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party’s rise to power until the regime’s collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, surveillance, and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe.

The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and Waffen-SS (Armed SS). The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of combat units within Nazi Germany’s military. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; “Death’s Head Units”), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organizations. They were tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi state, the neutralization of any opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology, and providing domestic and foreign intelligence.

The Waffen-SS was the military branch of the Nazi Party’s SS

The Waffen-SS was the military branch of the Nazi Party’s SS organization. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands.

The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer (regular army), Ordnungspolizei (uniformed police) and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt (SS operational command office) beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW), with some units being subordinated to Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (Command Staff Reichsführer-SS) directly under Himmler’s control.

Initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was open only to people of Germanic origin (so-called Aryan ancestry). The rules were partially relaxed in 1940, and later the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts was authorized. These SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, and ethnic Poles were specifically barred from the formations.

Waffen-SS Divisions
1st SS divisions1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich (previously SS Verfügungs Division: later SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich)
3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf (previously SS Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf)
4th SS Polizei Division
5th SS Panzer Division Wiking (previously SS Panzergrenadier Division Wiking)
6th SS Mountain Division Nord
7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen
10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland
12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)
14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) (unofficially known as Galizien)
15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian)
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS
17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen
18th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Horst Wessel
19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian)
20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian)
21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian)
22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia (Hungarian)
23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Kama (2nd Croatian)
23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nederland (1st Dutch), formed after the dissolution of the 23rd Kama division.
24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS (Karstjäger)
25th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hunyadi (1st Hungarian)
26th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hungaria (2nd Hungarian)
27th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Langemarck (1st Flemish)
28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonien
29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Russian)
29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Italian), formed after the disbanding of the 29th “1st Russian” division.
30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian)
30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Belarusian)
31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division, variously reported as being named Böhmen-Mähren (Bohemia-Moravia)(this Division is not SS Kampfgruppe Division Bohmen-Mahren, this was a separate unit formed from training units in the protectorate after the Batschka Division) or Batschka.
32nd SS Volunteer Grenadier Division 30 Januar
33rd Waffen Cavalry Division of the SS (3rd Hungarian)
33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French), the last Waffen-SS unit during Battle of Berlin to participate in the defence of central Berlin and the area of the Führerbunker.
34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Landstorm Nederland
35th SS and Police Grenadier Division
36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Dirlewanger – historically recognized as the most notoriously criminal unit of the Waffen-SS
37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Lützow
38th SS Grenadier Division Nibelungen
Also:

SS-Oberabschnitt Böhmen-Mähren
Panzer Division Kempf, a temporary unit of mixed army and Waffen-SS components.
1st Cossack Division
26th SS Panzer Division (Brigade size only, Division title used as a deception)
27th SS Panzer Division (Brigade size only, Division title used as a deception)
1st SS Bartenura Division (Brigade size only, Division title used as a deception)