This scarce pair of officer's epaulettes could only have been worn by someone serving in Prinz Eugen or Handschar Mountain Division, the only mountain troops that the SS fielded in WW2. The Prinz Eugen element is key insomuch as they provided most of the officers for Handschar.
Prinz Eugen recruited from the Banat in Hungary, from Siebenburgen (in modern Romania) and from Croatia. Handschar recruited mainly from Bosnia from among the Muslim population. In both cases, all the recruits came from areas of what was formerly the old Austrian empire. Handschar had a somewhat chequered record, while Prinz Eugen had one of the finest fighting records of all German mountain troops in WW2. They were decimated at the end and ruthlessly finished off by the Yugoslav partisans, buried under rock slides, etc.
They are in excellent condition, of the field service variety with a deliberately dulled aluminium bullion finish.
If you want to comment on this item—re quality, age, etc—please email me.
[Militaria : Tunics : Third Reich : SS Police Fire]
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