WWII Italian SS Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS collar tab set

WWII Italian SS Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS collar tab set. Hand embroidered rank collar tab set for a Brigadeführer und Generalmajor of the Italian Waffen SS. The tabs are embroidered in silver bullion on red wool with silver bullion piping.

The 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Italian) also Legione SS Italiana (29. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Italienische Nr. 1)) was an SS formation of Nazi Germany during World War II. It was originally created in the Italian Social Republic in 1943 as the Italian Legion, later renamed to a brigade. The unit was upgraded to division status on 10 February 1945.

The Kingdom of Italy on 8 September 1943 signed an armistice with the Allies. In response, the German Army and the Waffen-SS disarmed Italian troops unless they were fighting for the German cause. The new Italian Social Republic was founded on 23 September 1943 under dictator Benito Mussolini. On 2 October 1943, Heinrich Himmler and Gottlob Berger devised the Programm zur Aufstellung der italienischen Milizeinheiten durch die Waffen-SS (“Program for the deployment of Italian militia forces by the Waffen-SS”) which was approved by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

In October 1943, 15,000 volunteers started training at Truppenübungsplatz Münsingen, but 9,000 of them were unsuitable and released for training in police units, the Black Brigades, or for labor.

On 23 November 1943, 13 Miliz-Battalions pledged their loyalty before being moved to SS-Ausbildungsstab Italien. The unit was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff and called Italienische SS-Freiwilligen-Legion, but soon renamed 1. Sturmbrigade Italienische Freiwilligen-Legion.

In April 1944, three battalions fought against Allied bridgeheads of Anzio and Nettuno with good results, for which Heinrich Himmler on 3 May 1944 allowed them to wear SS-Runes on black rather than red and be fully integrated into the Waffen SS. Members of the “Vendetta” under former Blackshirt Lieutenant-Colonel Degli Oddi particularly distinguished themselves in defeating a determined effort by the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division to overrun their positions and capturing a number of prisoners.

On 7 September 1944, it was renamed to Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS (italienische Nr. 1) under Generalkommando Lombardia of Army Group C. By December 1944, the unit comprised 15,000 men. In the spring of 1945, the division under the command of Ernst Tzschoppe as Kampfgruppe Binz fought against French units in Lombardy and the Partisans in Piedmont.

Regulations for the SS Collar Tab went through quite an evolution in just a short 16 year period. The first SS Collar Tabs were introduced in 1929 by Heinrich Himmler as part of the newly introduced SS uniform code. Initially, tabs were worn by both lower rank SS men and their senior leaders. Lower ranks would wear a rank tab as well as a numbered unit identification tab, with senior leaders wearing their rank tabs on both collars. In 1933 the well known “SS” runic tab was adopted by Hitler’s personal body guard detachment, the “Leibstandarte” or “LAH”. The LAH used this runic tab in lieu of the numerical unit identification tab to identify them as members of the elite unit protecting the “Führer”. In 1934 the runic “SS” tabs were again adopted for use by the early “SS-VT” units. This adoption eventually led to the wide spread use of SS runic tabs by German Divisions; the later non-German volunteer units would not be permitted to wear the runes, and bore their own unit designed patch instead. SS Collar tabs can be found in an extraordinary variety of numbers, designs, and piping’s depending on unit and rank, from hand-embroidered tabs worn by officers to mass produced embroidered and machine woven types that were used on combat uniforms.