Condition: Excellent
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Product Description: This Eastern People’s Sleeve Eagle is a tough piece of insignia to find. This eagle pattern was used by the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, the RMBO. It’s a fairly large eagle, machine embroidered, with a bold and impressive-looking distinctive eagle and swastika organizational emblem, on a backing of wool fabric in a typical brown political shade. The eagle is perfectly and intricately rendered in off-white thread, and is completely intact, with only extremely slight age toning. The plain-woven wool backing fabric shows some slight moth tracking, as well as a couple of small moth nips on the tip of the left wing. The reverse of this Eastern People’s Sleeve Eagle was factory coated with a glue type substance, to protect the back side of the embroidery. Stitch holes around the edge show that this patch was removed from a piece of uniform. This scarce eagle remains in excellent condition.
Historical Description: The German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht), as formed in 1935, and as they existed until the end of World War 2, consisted of the Army (Heer), the Air Force (Luftwaffe) and the Navy (Kriegsmarine). The Waffen-SS fell under the command of the Wehrmacht during the war. Each of these branches of service had a unique eagle design that was worn on both the formal dress and parade uniforms, and the field uniforms, of the members of that branch. These eagles were worn on soft headgear, including service and field caps, as well as on the uniform jacket. In the Heer, the Luftwaffe, and the Kriegsmarine, this eagle was worn on the chest of the tunic; collectors have termed these “breast eagles.” The Heer and the Luftwaffe generally used the same eagle style, though variations in color of the eagle or the backing distinguish between the two. The Luftwaffe used their own flying eagle emblem. The Waffen-SS sleeve eagle (and cap eagle) had wings that came to a distinctive tapered point. The cap, breast and sleeve eagles used by the various military branches were manufactured in many variations. There were machine-woven and machine embroidered versions, usually used by officers and NCOs. Hand-embroidered bullion wire eagles were typically for officers. There were metal eagles, for caps, or for uniforms that were intended to have detachable insignia. There were even eagles embroidered on camouflage fabric, intended for use on special field uniforms. There were also eagles in specific colors for use on tropical uniforms. Some of these eagles were mass-produced and are still common today. Others were, and are, very rare.
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