GERMAN WEHRMACHT HEER NCO UNTERFELDWEBEL SHOULDER BOARDS FOR JAGER TROOPS

WW2 German shoulder boards for NCO Unterfeldwebel rank.  Made of field grey wool and aluminum-silver tresse.  Has green piping for Jager Troops .  Unterfeldwebel ( 'Junior Sergeant') was a rank of the Wehrmacht, from 1935 until 1945.

Unterfeldwebel NCO shoulder boards were introduced in 1938. They indicated the rank and service branch of the wearer.

Has button hole for uniform attachment and black wool strap

The rank tresse is the early shiny silver ones. 

Rank tresse was sewn onto the edges of the shoulder boards.  The early war tresse was originally shiny silver aluminum probably due to the ease of seeing this bright silver tresse the Germans quickly introduced the subdued tresse instead.   

After 1940 both silver and the subdued tresse was worn on the shoulder boards.

Check out our other shoulder boards of different ranks in all services with different piping Waffenfarbe colours in stock.

Prior to WW2 the German term Jäger came to represent light infantrymen whose civilian occupations (mostly hunters and foresters) made them well-suited to patrolling and skirmishing.

Instead of part of a large-scale military unit they were used on a more individual and independent basis.  Due to this Jäger was used to describe skirmishers, scouts, sharpshooters and runners.

Jäger is usually translated into English as:

•    "rifleman" (in an infantry role) or "Rifles" (in regimental names); and
•    "ranger"

In WW2 the new Wehrmacht revived the name.  Raised as "light infantry divisions" (leichte Infanterie-Divisionen) operating in rough terrain.
Their infantry regiments were called Jäger-Regimenter, and in 1942 the light infantry divisions were renamed Jäger divisions.