52. Day, January, 3, 2020
For a propaganda photo in the army newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" ("Red Star") our friend put a German cap on his sacked piglet ...:
It is a leader (officers) cap of the "black" SS - one like this ...:
The badge of the gang of murderers, the skull, which should actually be on the cap band, is already missing in the photo, it has probably already disappeared into another soldier's pockets as a "souvenir"...:
(Incidentally, I can only be pleased - because if I showed the bust somewhere in public, I would have had to cover the skull as a symbol of a prohibited anti-constitutional organization in the sense of criminal law paragraph 86a anyway ...)
Soldiers of the Red Army were really keen on such SS militaria as presentable trophies at home, although they also showed their typical pragmatism with this kind of passion for collecting:
By far the most popular loot were the daggers that belong to the black SS uniform, like this one:
These daggers were extremely popular because they served as trophies for mundane everyday purposes - from the melee weapon to the can opener.
In any case, there are literally hundreds of photos of Red Army soldiers wearing such daggers towards the end of the war ...:
Even otherwise, the Soviet soldier looted very pragmatically:
Particularly popular were things that could be sent home and reused there: shoes, ear gurad nails, bedding, clothing, fabrics and the like.
The richest booty was mostly the "rats", as the front soldier called the rear guard troops!
The Soviet soldier did not usually loot valuable things - he had to hand them over anyway, either to the commander of his unit, who usually claimed the best items, or to the post office when he wanted to send them home.
Just in time when the Red Army crossed the German border, a decree appeared that allowed the soldiers to send a package home every month, which was equivalent to an official permission to loot!
In the "classless" Soviet Army, it was strictly regulated who was allowed to send how much per month: simple soldiers were allowed a maximum weight of five kilograms per month, generals were allowed to send 16 kilograms in the same period! The senior officers found ways to send far more home ...
At the same time as the "package decree" an official list appeared, which should NOT be looted: weapons, ammunition, fuel, food, boots, cattle, railway wagons and rails, cars, trucks, amber and champagne were declared state property - whoever used them the threatened punishments!
(The Roitarmist preferred to empty a captured bottle of champagne immediately, so as not to be tempted to loot it ...)
A list has survived what a pioneer named Tarnichev sent to his wife Natalia in the Orel governorate:
Children's shoes, wool for winter coats, white flannel for underwear, bedding and leather that could be used to make shoes.
Another case is on record, in which a soldier who had "conquered" an abandoned estate together with his unit, removed all the perfect window panes from the frames there, tied them together to form a package, stuck a note with his address on it and then added it the regimental post office!
But back to our cap:
Now it can bathe in ultrasound ...
... then it is glued to a cork ...
... and primed ...:
Next week I'll paint the cap ...
Cheers