Robin Lumsden

This book starts off by giving a general outline of the origins of the SS with several photographic illustrations from the 1920s and 1930s. This includes letter-headed documents and identity documents.it moves on to discuss the function of the Allgemeine-SS and their association with the police and conditions of service and their later role up to 1945. The book then moves on to discuss specific items of regalia, such as the Totenkopf, runes, uniforms (including a price list from 1938), ranks and titles, daggers, swords, rings, flags and banners. It then moves on to discuss the Waffen-SS looking at much the same information with the addition of headgear, field tunics, camouflage etc. It gives an account of the history of insignia production, colours and design in great detail breaking down collar, shoulder, arm and cuff items with excellent photographs of examples. It then details SS branches from occupied territories such as Norway and Denmark covering the same fields as previously mentioned. There are also examples of several posters prompting enlistment in languages other than German. All in all, think this is an excellent summing up with detailed illustration. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the SS or for someone needing detailed visual cues for descriptive purposes.… (more)