Original Items: Only One Set Available. This is a lovely matched pair of Luftwaffe Air Force Division Hermann Gring DAK Tropical Mannschaften Schulterklappen (Enlisted personnel Shoulder straps). They are the button-attached style and are made completely from lightweight olive tan tropical fabric, with Wei (white) piping around the edges, the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) for Luftwaffe General Rank officers, as well as for Division Hermann Gring, named after the Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall himself.

Both shoulder straps are in very good condition, showing some light fading and staining, but no major damage. These would be perfect to help dress up any Luftwaffe DAK shirt or tunic!

The Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Gring (1st Paratroop Panzer Division Hermann Gring – abbreviated Fallschirm-Panzer-Div 1 HG) was an elite German Luftwaffe armoured division. The HG saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and on the Eastern Front. The division began as a battalion-sized police unit in 1933. Over time it grew into a regiment, brigade, division, and finally was combined with the Parachute-Panzer Division 2 Hermann Gring in 1944 to form a Panzer corps under the by then Reichsmarschall. It surrendered to the Soviet Army near Dresden on May 8, 1945.

With the NSDAP seizure of 1933, Hermann Gring was appointed as Prussian Minister of the Interior. In this capacity, all Police units in Prussia came under Gring\’s control. On 24 February 1933, Gring authorized the creation of a police battalion. Working in conjunction with Gring\’s secret police, the Gestapo, the unit was involved in many attacks against Communists and Social democrats. In January 1934, under pressure from AH and Himmler, Gring gave Himmler\’s SS control of the Gestapo. To reinforce the position of his remaining unit, Gring increased its size and instituted a military training program. During the Night of the Long Knives, the unit and Leibstandarte SS Adolf AH executed many SA leaders, removing the formation as a threat to the NSDAP.

In 1935, Gring was promoted to command of the Luftwaffe and ordered the unit transferred to the Luftwaffe, renaming it Regiment General Gring in September 1935. Two sub-units were separated from the regiment in March 1938 and redesignated German 1st Parachute Division, the first of the Fallschirmjger (airborne) units. In 1936, the regiment was assigned for Gring\’s bodyguards and as flak protection for AH\’s Headquarters. The regiment participated in the annexation of Austrian (Anschluss) and the invasion of the Occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, and then in March 1939. During Fall Gelb, this force took part in the invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium.

During Operation Barbarossa, the regiment was attached to the 11th Panzer Division, a part of Army Group South. The regiment saw action around the areas of Radziechw, Kiev and Bryansk. In July 1942 the regiment was upgraded to brigade status, and then to full division in October 1942 as a Panzer division. While the division was in formation, the Second Battle of El Alamein had forced Field Marshal Erwin Rommel\’s Afrika Korps to retreat to Tunisia. The division was sent to Tunisia piecemeal, where it eventually surrendered with the rest of Panzer Army Africa.

The reformed division was designated Panzer Division Hermann Gring and sent to Sicily. After the Allied invasion of Sicily was launched on 10 July 1943, the division was engaged at the Amphibious Battle of Gela and the Battle of Centuripe, retreating to Messina afterwards. When the armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces was signed, the division took part in the Operation Achse to disarm Italian troops. The division participated in the fighting following the Allied landing at Salerno in Operation Avalanche on 9 September. It then retreated towards the VolturnoTermoli line, and then to the Gustav Line, where it was pulled out of the line for rest and refit.

The Corps size Fallschirm-Panzerkorps Hermann Gring was created in 1944 through the combination of the unit with the Fallschirm-Panzergrenadier Division 2 Hermann Gring. After the start of the Allied offensive, Operation Diadem, on 12 May, the division retreated towards Rome and then abandoned the city. The division arrived in Poland in late-July and fought alongside SS Division Wiking and the 19th Panzer Division on the Vistula River between Modlin Fortress and Warsaw. In August, its counter-attack against the Magnaszew bridgehead, defended by the 8th Guards Army, failed after heavy fighting. Between August and September 1944, the division used captured Polish non-combatant civilians as human shields when attacking the insurgents\’ positions during the Warsaw uprising. Following the destruction of the town, the division was attached to the newly formed Army Group Vistula formed 24 January 1945, defending the ruins of Warsaw in what AH termed \”Festung Warschau\”, or Fortress Warsaw. During the Vistula-Oder Offensive, much of the division was broken in battle.

In April, the remnants of the Hermann Gring Panzerkorps were sent to Silesia, and in heavy fighting were slowly pushed back into Saxony. On April 22, the Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Gring was one of two divisions that broke through the inter-army boundary of the Polish 2nd Army (Polish People\’s Army or LWP) and the Soviet 52nd Army, in an action near Bautzen, destroying parts of their communications and logistics trains and severely damaging the Polish (LWP) 5th Infantry Division and 16th Tank Brigade before being stopped two days later.

In early May, units of the corps attempted to break out towards the American forces on the Elbe, but were unsuccessful. The corps surrendered to the Red Army on 8 May 1945.

The Luftwaffe, the air force of the German military during the Third Reich, was established in 1935. Over the next 10 years, Luftwaffe troops wore a huge variety of uniforms. Enlisted men generally wore uniforms issued from military depots. Most enlisted soldiers had wool trousers and a short jacket with two internal lower pockets, called a Fliegerbluse, as well as a dressier 4-pocket tunic, the Tuchrock. Officers wore the same general uniform styles, but as officers had to supply their own uniforms, they usually wore tailor made versions. There were also myriad varieties of specialized uniforms worn by certain units or in specific situations, from the tuxedo-style gala formal wear uniform of the pre-war period, to the plain coveralls worn by crews of anti-aircraft cannons. There were work uniforms, tropical and summer uniforms, and camouflage clothing for airborne troops and other Luftwaffe soldiers in ground combat. Flight crews had their own specialized gear, including leather jackets and warm, electrically heated suits. Most but not all Luftwaffe uniform jackets bore the Luftwaffe emblem of a flying eagle holding a swas.