Original German Luftwaffe Field Division Panzer Jager Rank Collar Tab Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. Excellent condition Luftwaffe Field Division collar tab; constructed of green (Flaschengrün) wool, with pink Waffenfarbe piping on all four sides of the boards; with a two silvered zink gulls signifying the rank of Unterfeldwebel (Sergeant) ; all prongs intact on the reverse; standard buckram core; measuring 57 mm x 44 mm; extremely fine condition.

The Reichsluftwaffe was official established on February 26TH 1935 as the third branch of service of the Armed Forces. On March 9TH 1935 the formation of the new Reichsluftwaffe was announced to the foreign press and on March 16TH conscription was reintroduced for all three branches of service. On May 21ST 1935 the Reichsluftwaffe designation was altered to Luftwaffe. Collar tabs were adopted by the newly formed Luftwaffe on April 14TH 1935 and followed the basic pattern of the collar tabs that had been utilized by its earlier civilian forerunner the, DLV, Deutscher Luftsport Verband, (German Air Sports League). The collar tabs were worn in matching pairs and indicated the branch of service and rank of the wearer. The Luftwaffe field divisions were rapidly mobilized from Luftwaffe ground personnel in late 1942 and early 1943, to replace the massive lose of men on the Eastern front. Due to the lack of training and poor performance in the field, of the twenty-two divisions formed, seventeen were either destroyed or disbanded before the end of the war. In January 1943 distinctive, “Jäger-Grün”, (Rifle-Green), collar tabs with newly introduced branch of service piping were introduced to identify the Luftwaffe field troops.

The 6th Luftwaffe Field Division (German: 6.Luftwaffen-Feld-Division) was an infantry division of the Luftwaffe branch of the Wehrmacht that fought in World War II. It was formed using surplus ground crew of the Luftwaffe and served on the Eastern Front from late 1942 to June 1944 when it was destroyed during Operation Bagration.

The 6th Luftwaffe Field Division, one of several such divisions of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force), was formed in September 1942 in Gross-Born Troop Maneuver Area, under the command of Oberst Ernst Weber.Intended to serve as infantry, its personnel were largely drawn from surplus Luftwaffe ground crew. In November 1942, it was assigned to the 3rd Panzer Army in Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front and posted to a sector near Nevel. Here it defended against Soviet operations in the area.

In November 1943, responsibility for the division was transferred to the Army and it was renamed the 6th Field Division. Shortly afterwards, its Field Jager battalions became the 52nd, 53rd and 54th Jager regiments while its original artillery, tank destroyer and flak battalions was integrated into a new 6th Artillery Regiment. In the summer of 1944, the 6th Field Division held an area to the east of Vitebsk as part of LIII Corps of the 3rd Panzer Army. The division was encircled during the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive at Vitebsk within days of the start of the Soviet Army’s Operation Bagration on 22 June 1944. The division was destroyed with its commander, Generalleutnant Rudolf Peschel,[Note 3] killed in action on 27 June 1944.