Original VERY RARE WWII German Army Feldgendarmerie, (Military Field Police) Armband (Ärmelbinde) Certified

SOLD

Original VERY RARE WWII German Army Feldgendarmerie, (Military Field Police) Armband (Ärmelbinde). The Feldgendarmerie, (Military Field Police), units were established on mobilization of the army in August 1939 and drew the majority of its personnel from the civil Ordnungspolizei, (Order Police), as they were already familiar with policing regulations and tasks. The Feldgendarmerie were assigned a wide variety of tasks that included, military traffic control, maintaining discipline and compliance of orders of the troops, the apprehension of stragglers and deserters, escorting POW’s, control of the civilian population, securing communication and supply lines, anti-partisan suppression and control of any disorder in the occupied rear areas of battle among other duties. The Feldgendarmerie were also empowered with the authority to perform location and personal searches and could demand required assistance from any military or civilian personnel. The Feldgendarmerie’s authority extended to the point that Feldgendarmerie’s ranks out-ranked similar military personnel’s ranks. As an expedient measure the Feldgendarmerie personnel originally wore police uniforms with army insignia added but by late 1939 or early 1940 they were issued army uniforms with distinct identifying insignia including a duty Gorget, a cufftitle and a police sleeve badge for wear by all ranks. When required Feldgendarmerie personnel were authorized to enlist EM/NCO’s from other branches of service to temporarily assist them in their policing duties. When EM/NCO’s from other branches of service were enlisted to assist the Feldgendarmerie they were supplied with an identifying armband for wear on the upper left sleeve of the field blouse or greatcoat. The armband was only worn during active policing duties and was to be returned to the Feldgendarmerie issuing authority on completion of the service.  Roughly, 13cm tall, 36cm long, woven, mid-green rayon construction armband with embroidered woven, black, Latin script in two lines to the obverse, “Feld-Gendarmerie”, (Military Field Police), in yellow threads. Both the top and bottom edges of the armband have interwoven rows of reinforcement stitching and the reverse of the armband has a machine stitched, central, vertical, seam. Rare to see in machine embroidered as most where machine   In good condition, good colors. Nice U.S. Veteran bring back arm band.   Gettysburg Museum Certified (COA) provided. Rare100% Guaranteed to be authentic. Sold for historic purposes only. See our other pieces on our web site.   Also note when browsing our web site there are several pages of items, at the bottom of the list look for other page numbers. A VERY SCARCE ARMBAND!