Original WWII German M44 Black Panzer Breast Eagle Brought Home By A U.S. Veteran Certified

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Original WWII German M44 Black Panzer Breast Eagle Brought Home By A U.S. Veteran Certified. The Deutsche Heer, (German Army), originally adopted a slightly modified version of the NSDAP’s, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, (National Socialist German Worker’s Party), national eagle by order on February 17TH 1934, with instructions to have it applied to all steel helmets, visor caps, and tunics by May 1ST 1934. Later amendments to the introductory order stipulated that the national eagle was also to be worn on all field caps, the sports uniform and the black panzer wrap tunic. The eagle came in three distinct designs with two having slightly different, out-stretched wings and the third with down-swept wings. Of the three designs one of the eagles with out-stretched wings was the NSDAP political style while the other was specifically for the army, and Kriegsmarine, (War Navy), and the eagle with the down-swept wings was utilized on helmet decals and belt buckles, among other items. Generally officer’s ranks utilized hand or machine embroidered breast eagles while EM/NCO’s ranks utilized machine embroidered or machine woven breast eagles. During the war the breast eagles were manufactured in a variety of slightly different manufacturing techniques and colorations. The early, standard issue, EM/NCO’s M36 breast eagles were generally machine woven versions produced in white threads and were to be abolished in 1939 to be replaced with a less visible, machine woven, grey, M39 breast eagle but the changeover was never fully completed. The early produced M36 and M39 breast eagles were mounted on a dark blue/green base while later production models were on a field-grey base. Both the M36 and the M39 breast eagles were intended for wear on the combat field blouse. The breast eagles for specialized uniforms, such as the black Panzer, (Armoured), wrap tunic or the tan tropical field blouse/tunic were generally mounted on colored bases to match the particular uniform being worn. Later in the war, (Circa 1944), a simplified, final, machine woven version of the breast eagle was introduced and utilized on a variety of combat clothing including the M44 field blouse and assault gun and panzer green HBT wrap-around tunics. Finally a printed version of the breast eagle was also introduced late in the war and utilized in limited quantities.  Later, M44 pattern, machine woven, national breast eagle with outstretched wings, clutching a wreathed, canted, swastika in it’s talons in matte grey rayon threads on a woven, black, inverted triangular, rayon base. The eagle’s wingspan is roughly, 3 3/4″, (9.5cm), from wing tip to wing tip. The eagle is still on its original, black, rayon factory roll and is in overall very good condition with minimal age toning and fraying to the outer edges of the black rayon factory roll. Hard one to find!  Gettysburg Museum Certified (COA) provided. Rare 100% 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. OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE! The M44 style is more rare than the earlier styles!