Many people must have noticed similar "adornments" on the chest of German soldiers in old photographs and in movies: a mysterious metal plate hanging from a chain thrown around the fighter's neck. At the same time, not everyone knows what it is in general, why it is needed and which of the German soldiers was supposed to do this during the Second World War. It's time to sort out all the issues listed and clarify. For a better understanding, you will have to go from time immemorial.
The mysterious thing on the chest of German soldiers during the Second World War is called "Ringkragen" from the German words "Ring" - ring and "kragen" - collar. The name is correctly translated into Russian as "gorget". Apparently, this name came to the native language either from English - "Gorget" or from Italian "Gorgiera". It is not excluded that the word "gorget" was given to the Romance languages by Italians, since the local lands in the Middle Ages and modern times were a well-known large center for the production of weapons and armor.
What does the armor have to do with it? Moreover, initially the gorget is precisely part of the plate armor. It appeared somewhere in the XIV century, when the skill of blacksmiths and metal casters finally reached that level, which made it possible to create armor that completely covers the entire body of a knight with metal plates. Of course, medieval gorgets were much larger than those worn by the Germans in the 20th century and covered almost the entire chest of a person, but most importantly, they covered the neck and throat. As a rule, the gorget was combined with a cuirass. Together they formed a single and highly reliable system of protection for the hull.
However, the XVI century came: the price revolution and the most terrible economic crisis broke the feudal the structure of society, and the powder revolution and the formation of capitalist relations finished off chivalry in all meanings. Along with chivalry, full plate armor also died, which on the one hand was too expensive, and on the other hand gradually lost its effectiveness. Nevertheless, the armor could not disappear at the click of the fingers: helmets, cuirasses, and together with cuirass and gorgets, will still be worn for more than one century. Moreover, the gorgets, which were often worn outside the battle without a cuirass, so took root in the military environment that gradually from a strictly utilitarian thing designed to protect a person, it turned into a decoration.
By the 18th century, the gorget as an element of armor in the army had finally ceased to be used, becoming an insignia and a status sign denoting an officer. In size "Ringkragen" decreased for several centuries, until it began to look like that "mysterious plaque" on the chest of a military man. And by the 19th century, the gorget as an element of the field uniform actually fell out of use in most European armies, remaining in the army only as an object of the ceremonial uniform. Of course, there were exceptions to this practice. By the way, the army of Germany, nascent in the 19th century, was exactly that (until 1871, no Germany in the usual modern man did not exist in the form, on its lands there were many principalities, united in a very loose community).
In the second half of the 19th century, one of the best armies of its time was forged in the young German Empire. And since by that time the armies of Europe had become completely massive, they required a developed the structure of the military police, which would deal with military crimes and in the first place - deserters. It was the soldiers of the military gendarmerie in the German Empire who continued the glorious tradition of wearing gorgets. In a natural way, the German army carried this tradition of form until the Nazis came to power, the creation of the Third Reich, the Wehrmacht and the SS.
During the Second World War, gorgets in the Wehrmacht were worn by units of the Field Gendarmerie - "Feldgendarmerie". On the chest of the fighters of these formations flaunted badges on a chain with the name of the formation, made in Gothic script. By the way, for wearing necklaces on chains, German soldiers affectionately nicknamed the soldiers of the field gendarmerie: "Kettenhunde" - "Chain Dogs".
The Feljandarmerie of the Reich was distributed according to the types of troops. There was also a separate SS military police who also wore the "Feldgendarmerie" gorgets. The police were primarily responsible for catching deserters. In addition, the Wehrmacht and SS field police were engaged in military crimes, trapping partisans and scouts, took part in punitive raids in the occupied territory and was engaged in sending people to death camps. As expected, the Field Gendarmerie worked closely with the rest of the power (primarily intelligence) structures of Nazi Germany.
In 1945, the Feldgendarmerie ceased to exist. Many of its members were tried for military crimes during the war years. In 1955, it was replaced by the new organization Feldjäger, which became the military police in the reorganized Bundeswehr.
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If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about how did the Germans fight with tanks with a capacity of red liquid.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/110121/57409/
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