Status Updates From Nazi Regalia

A Luftwaffe pilot is measured for flight equipment. He is wearing the one-piece flying overall over which a parachute and a life-jacket would have to fit.

Grand Admiral Erich Raeder wearing the EK1 and medal bar from both World Wars, as well as the Nazi Party badge.

Field Marshall Erwin Rommel visits a unit in North Africa. The field gray tropical service dress for many of these officers was probably privately made. Like their British adversaries, the Germans adopted a fairly relaxed attitude to dress in the field and even wore captured British and South African clothing and equipment.

Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, who commanded Army Group Center in the invasion of the USSR in 1941. He is listening to a report from a Feldgendarmerie Oberfeldwebel.

Men of the SS-Kavellerie-Division during the invasion of the Soviet Union. In 1944 the division received the honor title 'Florian Geyer,' and with it, the cuff title. From 1942 to 1943 some men wore an unofficial 'Kavallerie Division' sleeveband in gothic script.

A PzKpw IV driver and radio operator in summer-weight clothing. The rose pink epaulets of the Waffenfarbe are visible on the driver, while the radio operator wears the black panzer side hat.

Backed by an HJ band and choir and the Deutsche Arbeitsfront symbol, Hitler launches the "People's Car," the Volkswagen, on May 26, 1938. The VW "Beetle" lasted longer than the Thousand Year Reich which spawned it. The Volkswagen was one of the KDF projects which allowed workers to buy a car by purchasing a large quantity of saving stamps over a long period of time.

A tank crewman, NSKK man, and Hitler youth step boldly into an unknown future in this Nazi propaganda poster. The route from youth, through the NSKK, to service as a tank soldier, was a logical progression for German males. The Panzerwaffe (tank arm) was an elite within the army and Waffen-SS.

Hitler and Albert Speer inspect a new tank.

The Fuehrer signs autographs for young HJ members and a "civilian" boy in lederhosen.

This bicycle despatch rider has a civilian gas mask and her uniform has a Hitlerjugend sleeve diamond.

Goering wearing the Pour le Merite and the Knight's Cross, which were dwarfed by the vulgar Grand Cross of which he was the only recipient.

Himmler and Sepp Dietrich take the salute in summer 1940. The Waffen SS has been in action in Poland and France and Dietrich has added new decorations to those he won in World War I.

Himmler wears the prewar SS uniform and the collar patch insignia of a Gruppenfuehrer. He was later to adopt the unique rank insignia of Reichsfuehrer-SS which showed oak leaves in an open wreath.

Himmler wears the striking and sinister uniform of the prewar SS.