SEVEN (7) PIECE GROUPING OF ORIGINAL SS VERFUGUNGSTRUPPE ITEMS - Pg. 2
			By the beginning of the war on 1 September 1939, the armed SS or "SS bewaffenet" as it was then informally called, consisted of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, which had been expanded to include three (3) motorized infantry battalions, together with a variety of support organizations, the SS-Verfugungstruppe (SS-VT) which comprised the "Deutschland", "Germania" and "Der Fuhrer" motorized infantry regiments with artillery support and six (6) other independent Totenkopf Standarten across Germany , to include the SS-Heimwehr Danzig (City of Danzig Home Guard). As a direct result of the impressive service of all of these units in the Polish campaign, the 3 SS VT regiments were combined into the first full SS division, which became known as the SS-V, or SS Verfugungsdivision. Similarly, the independent Totenkopfstandarten combined to become the SS Totenkopf Division.
			The collective performance of these various SS formations in the battles of Belguim and France in May-June 1940, as evidenced by the winning of six (6) Knight's Crosses by SS officers for heroism in these actions, only served to further enhance the growing, and well deserved, reputation of the armed SS as an effective military fighting force. By the time that the holder of the Soldbuch that is part of this lot, Herbert Richter, joined the SS-Verfugungstruppe on 20 April 1941, the SS-V division was already deeply involved in the invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece respectively where, together with the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, they again performed in an admirable fashion. By the end of those campaigns, the SS-V Division had been renamed "DAS REICH", with large numbers of its veteran personnel being drawn off as cadre to form the nucleus of three (3) new SS Divisions then in the process of being raised.
				This photo illustrates how the skull and rank pip are pinned through the set of SS-VT Unterscharfuhrer collar tabs. The materials and construction of these tabs is fully consistent with characteristics seen on other knonw surviving SS-VT tabs.