SS SHOULDER BOARDS UNTERSCHARFUHRER SUBDUED TRESSE FOR SIGNALS

Waffen-SS Unterscharfuhrer NCO shoulder boards made from black wool with subdued  tresse. With lemon yellow piping for: Signals. 

Black wool shoulder boards were also worn by Army Unteroffizier ranks in all services especially Panzer and Armoured units.

Has button hole for uniform attachment and black wool strap

The rank tresse is the subdued version and not the early shiny silver ones. 

The SS used black wool shoulder boards throughout the war changing only the rank tresse.  Rank tresse was sewn onto the edges of the shoulder boards.  The early war tresse was originally shiny silver aluminum but during the war (sometime in 1940) the tresse was changed to a grey or tan colour with a slight green shade. Probably due to the ease of seeing this bright silver tresse the Germans quickly introduced the subdued tresse instead.   

After 1940 both silver and the subdued tresse was worn on the shoulder boards.

Check out our other Waffen SS Shoulder boards of different ranks in all services with different piping Waffenfarbe colours in stock.

The Signal Corps (Nachrichtentruppe des Heeres) was an arm of service in the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, whose role was to establish and operate military communications, especially using telephone and radio networks.

By order of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht dated 14 Oct 1942, it was part of the combat arms of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS until 1945.

At the start of the war the Signal Corps had:

• 104 divisional signal units with a headquarters, telephone company, radio company and light supply column
• 23 corps signal units with a telephone company, radio company, two telephone and radio companies and a light supply column
• 10 signal regiments and 12 field signal commands at army and army group level with HQs, a 1st (Operating) Unit (I. Abteilung (Betrieb)) with a telephone and a radio company, as well as a 2nd and 3rd (Construction) Unit (II. und III. Abteilung (Bau)) each with an operating and three construction companies
• 7 surveillance companies for communications surveillance
• 45 independent truck cable construction, telephone operating and telephone construction companies;
• 14 signal reserve units

As more large formations were created during the war, numerous new and reserve units were established including independent signal companies or special units, among them the wire construction companies, decimetre band (i.e. UHF) radio relay companies, carrier frequency companies, telephone exchange companies and telephone maintenance companies.