Item:
ON4762

Original German WWII Officer Lion Head Sword by Höller

Item Description

Original Item. Only One Available. This is a genuine 1889 Pattern lion head sword, as worn by a German Army officer during the period 1938-1945. The sword features the classic low profile lion’s head pommel, featuring twin "ruby" set  eyes and a wire wrapped black ivorine grip with full wire wrap, mounted onto a stylized and decorative gilded brass back strap and ‘p’ shaped guard. The Langet shows a 2nd pattern outstretched NSDAP eagle and swas.


The slightly curved nickel blade is 32 1/2 inches long and is maker marked to FW HOLLER of Solingen with scales trademark. The blade retains its bright nickel finish but has been well nicked from use.

The black enamel scabbard retains the suspension rings for hanging and small style drag. The scabbard is in solid condition, with vsome noticeable enamel loss.

This is a well used but solid WW2 German Officer’s sword offered at a very good price.

The German Army (German: Heer, was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces, from 1935 to 1945. The Wehrmacht also included the Kriegsmarine (Navy) and the Luftwaffe (Air Force). During World War II, a total of about 15 million soldiers served in the German Army, of whom about seven million became casualties. Separate from the army, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. Growing from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, it served alongside the army but was never formally part of it.

Only 17 months after AH announced publicly the rearmament program, the Army reached its projected goal of 36 divisions. During the autumn of 1937, two more corps were formed. In 1938, four additional corps were formed with the inclusion of the five divisions of the Austrian Army after the Anschluss in March. During the period of its expansion by Adolf AH, the German Army continued to develop concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground (Heer) and air (Luftwaffe) assets into combined arms teams. Coupled with operational and tactical methods such as encirclements and the "battle of annihilation", the German military managed quick victories in the two initial years of World War II, prompting the use of the word Blitzkrieg (literally lightning war, meaning lightning-fast war) for the techniques used.

The German Army entered the war with a majority of its infantry formations relying on the horse for transportation. The infantry remained foot soldiers throughout the war; artillery also remained primarily horse-drawn. The motorized formations received much attention in the world press in the opening years of the war, and were cited as the main reason for the success of the German invasions of Poland (September 1939), Norway and Denmark (April 1940), Belgium, France and Netherlands (May 1940), Yugoslavia (April 1941) and the early campaigns in the Soviet Union (June 1941). However their motorized and tank formations accounted for only 20% of the Heer's capacity at their peak strength.

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