Despite its small size at the outbreak of war, unlike the Luftwaffe, the SS maintained its own Feldgendarmerie from 1939 onwards.

The SS also modelled the structure and size of its Feldgendarmerie units on the Army example. Its units however, unlike those of the Army, were not used on the home front, and were effectively “field units” intended solely to support its Divisions in the field. Unlike the Army Feldgendarmerie, no SS-Feldgendarmerie units were based at Wehrkreis level within Germany, or with the various Feldkommandanturen, or Army and Army-Group levels.

An SS-Feldgendarm guarding captured allied troops in Normandy after the invasion of June 1944. The NCO is wearing the SS pattern cuffband.

 

Many SS-Feldgendarmen, like their counterparts in the Army, were drawn from the civil police and like the Army, the SS adopted the orange-red Waffenfarbe colour as piping on their shoulder straps and occasionally on headgear.

Original shoulder straps in black wool with orange piping for an SS-Unterscharführer of Feldgendarmerie

For the greater part of the war, the SS used its own sleeve eagle on the left sleeve, though the orange thread Feldgendarmerie sleeve eagle was occasionally used.

 

Initially, the SS utilised the army cuffband with the inscription “Feldgendarmerie” in pale grey thread on brown, but in 1943 a special SS version was introduced with the new inscription “SS-Feldgendarmerie” in silver grey Latin script on black. This was worn until 1944 when the use of the cuffband was abolished completely.

SS-Pattern Feldgendarmerie cuffband machine woven in silver grey rayon on black.

 

SS-Unterscharführer of Feldgendarmerie wearing the SS-Feldgendarmerie cuffband.