An Original WW2 German Kriegsmarine NCO's Uniform 'Bevo' Breast Eagle. Gold Eagle on a Blue Ground

A Kriegsmarine uniform removed souvenir of a British officer from his occupation service at Kiel in 1945. German Naval uniforms and headgear were based on traditional designs that date back to the creation of the Prussian Navy in 1848, and although uniforms and headgear did evolve during the interim years many items used during the Third Reich would still have been quite recognizable to the Imperial sailor.

The Kriegsmarine, (War Navy), adopted a slightly modified version of the NSDAP’s, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, (National Socialist German Worker’s Party), national eagle for wear on the front of the headgear and the right breast of the uniform on March 24TH 1934. The Kriegsmarine’s version of the national eagle was identical to the army version except for the coloration with the army utilizing silver, white and grey eagles while the Kriegsmarine utilized golden yellow eagles. The only exceptions in the coloration of the Kriegsmarine eagles was that personnel serving in the Administrative branch utilized a silver eagle while eagles worn on the white jumper shirts were in cornflower blue.

Generally, office ranks used hand embroidered breast eagles while NCO/Maanschaften ranks used machine embroidered or machine woven breast eagles. Besides the hand embroidered, machine embroidered and machine woven breast eagles the Kriegsmarine also utilized removable, metal breast eagles on a limited basis. The Kriegsmarine's most famous ships were the U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. Wolfpacks were rapidly assembled groups of submarines which attacked British convoys during the first half of the Battle of the Atlantic but this tactic was largely abandoned in the second half of the war. Along with the U-boats, surface commerce raiders (including auxiliary cruisers) were used to disrupt Allied shipping in the early years of the war, the most famous of these being the heavy cruisers Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer and the battleship Bismarck. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, greatly reduced the effectiveness of commerce raiders against convoys.

Code: 23816