Kampfgruppe ,,Deak" 

Uniforms

Standard Waffen SS uniforms were worn.

Collar patches

German Insignia issued - Not known (in some sources the collar patch worn by 22. SS Division is mentioned as possibly being issued to the kampfgruppe)
Hungarian Insignia issued - none

Arm Shields

German insignia issued - none
Hungarian insignia issued - none

Cuff tiles

German insignia issued - none
Hungarian insignia issued - none

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1st Ski battalion (1 Ungarische SS Schi Bataillone)

Uniform

Standard Waffen SS Gebirgsjaeger (mountain troop) uniforms were worn. This included boots,gebirgsmutze, feldbluse, wedged trousers, Mantel (greatcoat), ski's

Collar patches

other information

As the 1st Ski battalion was mostly made up of Hungarian mountain troops the Honved mountain troop edelweiss badge was worn on the left hand side of thr Gebirgsmutze. Any medals or honours that had been presented during the soldiers time serving in the Hungarian army (including the Gendarmerie) were allowed to be worn.
Camouflage (Tarnbekleidung) was issued to the 1 Ski battalion.

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1st Sturmjaeger Regiment

Uniforms

The  regiment were issued with captured French khaki jackets and tunics, some members of the regiment were issued with Italian jackets and boots. The members of the regiment were also issued standard German SS issue mountain clothing.(gebirgsmutze, ski wedge pants, ski mountain shoes)

Insignia

German insignia issued - Not known
Hungarian insignia issued -  3400 Hungarian produced 'H' collar patches were issued to and worn by members of this unit. The enlisted men received 2 pairs and the officers 3.

 
(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)

Arm Shields

German insignia issued - none
Hungarian insignia issued - The regiment was issued with the first and only run of the arm shield issued by the Hungarian honvedministerium (see armshield information below). No evidence (photographic or otherwise) has yet come to light to confirm this

German insignia issued - none
Hungarian insignia issued - none

Originally German rank insignia was to be worn but at the request of the men Hungarian Honved 6 pointed star rank insignia were worn. Private purchase riding boots and the 'Bilgeri' ⁽¹⁾ style boots were also worn. Honved Officer buckles were also worn.

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(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)

SS Brigade ,,Ney"

(tarrkamilitaria)

Other information

Some of the members of SS Brigade ,,Ney" wore brown leather coats and Honved officers buckles and belts. In winter a black sheepskin mutze was worn which had the deaths head badge on. Privately purchased Hungarian riding boots along with the 'Bilgeri' type of boots were worn by members of the brigade.

Kampfgruppe Szalasi

Uniform and Insignia

Standard German issue uniforms. The insignia worn when the unit was kampfgruppe ,,Szalasi” is unknown. When taken over by the 31. SS Division it is assumed that the divisional insignia would have been worn.

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25 Waffen Grenadier Division der SS ,,Hunyadi" (ung. Nr.1)

Due to ,,Hunyadi" originally being planned as a division of around 12 500 men there was a shortage of standard Waffen SS uniforms (uniforms were issued from 02 November 1944 - 31 December 1944). The short fall was made up by the issue of other uniforms and by the wearing of Hungarian Honved uniforms.
On 26 October 1944 an order was issued which included the following notes on the uniforms for the ,,Hunyadi" division - "the Hungarian crest will be worn on the upper left arm and the name of the division on the left arm". On 10 November 1944 a document was issued that stated that a Hungarian (style) uniform made from German material will be issued to the division ⁽²⁾. This is replaced by a document dated 24 December 1944 stating that the division would be issued Waffen SS uniforms made from German material. The final order concerning uniforms was issued on 14 February 1945 which stated that the division would wear standard Waffen SS uniforms but with their own collar patches, armshield and arm decoration (cuff title).

In this picture of
Szinay, Grassy and Podhradsky
Please note that Szinay, Grassy and Podhradsky are wearing Honved uniform (with visable green collar in the case of Szinay, he is also wearing the officers version of the 'H' collar patch)

German Insignia issued - According to some sources collar patches were made but not issued.
Hungarian Insignia Issued - 'H' patches were issued (please see Hungarian SS collar Patches section below). Home made patches were also worn (both embroided and some made from tin plate), blank patches and standard SS (double sigrunen) were also worn.

(tarrkamilitaria)
As worn by Vilmos Olbricht
For more of this collection please follow this link
http://www.tarrkamilitaria.hu/targyreszlet.php?tt_sorsz=142

German Insignia issued - None
Hungarian Insignia issued - A very limited amount ⁽³⁾ of officially produced armshields were issued to the ,,Hunyadi" division and these were issued to 2 honour guards. The design consisted of the Hunyadi family sign of a raven holding a ring on the national colours of Hungary. Homemade versions were made and worn. Due to the design most of the homemade armshields were of the basic 'H' on the Hungarian colours ( as issued to 26. SS ,,Hungaria") as they were easier to produce. The majority of men wore no armshield. (No photographic evidence has yet come to light to support the wearing of the armshield)

 

(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)

German Insignia issued - Although allowed to wear a cufftitle under the German - Hungarian agreement no cufftitle was issued
Hungarian Insignia issued - A limited number (please see footnote 3 below) were produced and issued to the division. The script used was the same as the 'H' collar patch (antiquaform). No photographic evidence has yet come to light to support this but sources in Hungary state that a photo exists of 2 rows of men on parade wearing ,,Hunyadi" cufftitles. A veteran who was present during the visit of Heinz Fanzlau and Gottlob Berger to the Neuhammer camp to review ,,Hunyadi" and ,,Hungaria" states that prior to the visit ,,karcsíkok,, (cuff title) were issued to the honour guard and that after the visit the cuff titles were  taken back .
 

Hungarian Honved officers riding boots and trousers were worn as was the Bilgeri style of boots. The wearing of mixed uniforms (German tunic - Hungarian trousers or vice versa) was prohibited by an order being issued but this may not have been adhered to. Hungarian 'Barras' jackets were worn as was the sleeveless 'Peizwestern' style coat. Hungarian pistols and holsters (these being natural colouring) were worn (the holsters on the right as in the Honved and not on the left as in the German Army) Hungarian pioneer style boots were worn by members of the division. A 12 point agreement of 14 February 1945 was official confirmation of the various uniforms being worn.

        
(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)
 


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26 Waffen Grenadier Division der SS ,,Hungaria" (ung. Nr.2)

Due to the short period of time between the setting up of the division and it having to withdraw from Neuhammer camp in February 1945 the issuing of German uniforms to the division was very limited. Other uniforms supplied to the division consisted of captured uniforms in store, these included Italian, French and Czech uniforms (and possibly others). Hungarian Honved uniforms were worn along with some civilian clothing. One source talks of firemen and SA uniforms along with whatever else could be found/liberated during the march from Poland to Neuhammer being used.

German Insignia issued - According to some sources collar patches were made but not issued.
Hungarian Insignia Issued - 'H' patches were issued (please see Hungarian SS collar Patches below). Home made patches were also worn (both embroided and some made from tin plate), blank patches and standard SS (double sigrunen) were also worn.

German Insignia issued - None
Hungarian Insignia issued - A very limited amount of officially produced armshields were issued to the ,,Hungaria" division (please see footnote  3). The design consisted of the letter 'H' on the Hungarian national colours.  Homemade versions were made and worn.  The majority of men wore no armshield. (No photographic evidence has yet come to light to support the wearing of the armshield)

 

(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)

Please see section in ,,Hunyadi" section.

 
(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)
  Honved issued Cufftitles.
 

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Hungarian SS Collar Patches

In the original orders from October 26 1944 no mention is made of special collar patches for the Hungarian SS units. However by the end of 1944 it was decided that the letter 'H' (standing for HUNGARIA - the name for the old larger Hungary) would be worn by the divisions and approximately 5000 'H' patches were produced as a sample by Paszomanygyar in Budapest and issued as follows - 3400 to the Sturmjaeger regiment, 600 to the ,,Hunyadi" division (2 honour guards being issued with the patches and the rest being issued to other members of the division) the remaining patches were issued to other members of the Hungarian SS units. There were Officers (patch with Border) and enlisted mens versions. The 'H' was in the Antiquaform and machine embroidered.

(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)

Hungarian SS Arm Shields

In February 1945 the SS Main Office decided that the armshield for the Hungarian SS units would consisit of a shield bearing the word "Ungarn" with the national colours of Hungary (Red, white and Green) underneath. If any of these armshields were made none were issued to any of the Hungarian SS Divisions. Although a decision had been made by the SS main office, in an independent move the Hungarian honvedministerium decided  on its own design of armshield for all the Hungarian SS units. This consisted of the word "Hungaria" at the top of the shield. Underneath was the red, white and green national colours. At the lower end of the national colours was the Arrow Cross symbol and above that was the crown of St Stephen. Approximately 1000 pieces were made in Budapest and issued to members of the SS divisions (These were issued to the Sturmjaeger regiment). These were machine embroidered. There was no officers version due to the limited run.  
 

     
(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)
 

Hungarian SS Helmet Insignia

It was originally decided that the helmet insignia should consist of a letter 'H' instead of the SS emblem and the national colours in a shield but no official orders were issued stating the emblems and the siteing of the insignia. Some members of the two divisions made their own templates for painting insignia on their helmets and some simply painted over the german black -white - red tricolor on former Wehrmacht/Heer helmets with the Hungarian colours.

Due to the overall lack of leadership on helmet insignia the following variations were seen -

a) steel helmet with SS on the right side and swastika on the left - as worn by German Waffen SS units
b) steel helmet which had SS only on the right side of the helmet
c) steel helmet which showed only the black - white - red tricolor on the left side
d) steel helmet with SS on the  right, and 'H' on the left
e) steel helmet with 'H' on the left and nothing on the right
f) steel helmet with 'H' on the left and on the right the  red, white, green tricolor
g) steel helmets without any insignia (majority)

To get out of the mess of differing insignia, it was ordered by the General Inspectorate of the Hungarian SS at the beginning of April 1945 that in future the correct insignia for the steel helmet should be the letter 'H' (white shield, black border and letter 'H') on the right  and on the left the Arrow Cross symbol (red border, white middle, dark green arrow-cross). A workshop was created at Roth near Nurnburg for the wholesale painting of the helmets with a spray gun and stencils. The workshop had only just started production when the workshop had to close down due to the area being over run by the allies.

 
(A.v.Payer Armati Hungarorum)
 

In Hungary in 2010 (possibly by a political party for the election) a poster was issued consisting of 2 soldiers. The soldiers were wearing standard 1940's German uniforms and Steel helmets. The insignia on the left hand soldier was the standard SS collar patch and SS insignia on the helmet. The right hand soldier had the 'H' collar patch and 'H' helmet insignia.
 

(1) This style of boot was named after former Kaiserjaeger Major Bilgeri. Made from soft leather the bottom part is designed to be like a hiking boot with double soles sewn on, they had a metre long piece of leather that was wrapped around the ankle and lower leg. These were originally issued to Hungarian Mountain Artillary troops in 1940 and afterwards to officers in the Hungarian motorised troop. They were similar in looks to the boots worn by the Afrika Korp.
(2) One veteran remembers being told this when he first joined the division
(3)  These were part of a batch of 4000 insignia issued to the ,,Hunyadi" and ,,Hungaria" divisions. This consisted of armshields and cufftitles. The breakdown of the insignia is not known