Rifle Cord (NVA)

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Rifle cord for turret armament for armored personnel carriers and armored personnel carriers with four acorns 1986–1990
Award certificate

The NVA's rifle cord was an award of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which was donated on June 22, 1957 with the order number 49/57 by the Minister for National Defense Willi Stoph . Following this order, the rifle cord was to be introduced for the NVA by December 31, 1957. However, their first awards took place in November 1957. The first shooting lines were manufactured this year by the Dresden company Stanzila. From 1958 to 1960 VEB Präwema from Markneukirchen took over the production . The latter company was the largest producer of metal badges in the GDR.

In addition to badges of achievement , best badges , classification badges and military sports badges , the rifle cord was one of the so-called "five soldier awards" of the NVA.

Carrying method

Until 1979 the rifle cords were worn from the right shoulder flap loop to the second upper button of the uniform skirt. In the case of the double-breasted starting jacket, also from the shoulder flap loop to 12 cm above the top button under the lapel. From October 1, 1979, however, the uniform no longer went to the second button, but came from the epaulette loop to the first button. Members of the Volksmarine wore the rifle cord up to the second year of training on the Kiel shirt from the right shoulder seam, which is about 7 cm away from the sleeve seam, to the knot of the scarf. From the 3rd year of apprenticeship onwards, just like the land forces, from the shoulder flap pad to the first button.

Award terms

The rifle cord could be given as an award to all soldiers , sailors , NCOs , mates , NCO students, ensign students and officer students

  • who had an exemplary political and military attitude,
  • whose weapons were always in good and operational condition and
  • who fulfilled the conditions for obtaining the shooting line during the target practice.

With command 12/59 the rifle cords for riflemen, tanks and artillery were then also introduced for the teams, subordinates and officer students of the German border police , the VP readiness and the VP readiness Berlin and also awarded here up to the highest level.

With order number 63/60 of the Ministry of National Defense of November 1, 1960, with effect from December 1, 1960, there was a change in the conditions for awarding rifle lines. From this point on it could be awarded to every soldier, sailor, aviator, NCO, mate, NCO and officer student of all branches of the NVA. However, only for pure shooting performance up to the fourth level. The first acorn awarded was always a prerequisite for admission to acquire the second, etc. From 1960 onwards, only the silver-colored cords with a silver-colored edition or, for the Navy, the dark-blue cords with a golden edition were issued.

In 1982 it was stipulated in directive No. 02/82 that the shooting line can be awarded at

  • Shooting with rifles,
  • Shooting with tank weapons,
  • Shooting with armored personnel carriers (SPW), armored personnel carriers (SPz) and
  • Shooting with artillery weapons in direct shot as well as for launching anti-tank guided missiles.

  • Rifle cord for tank shooters 1957–1960

  • Rifle cord for artillery shooters with an acorn 1957–1960

  • Rifle cord torpedo shooters of the naval forces 1957–1960

  • Rifle cord, rifle weapons, naval forces with three acorns since 1957

  • Rifle cord rifle weapons Land forces with an acorn since 1957

  • Rifle cord for artillery shooters of the land forces with an acorn 1986–1990

  • Rifle cord for artillery shooters of the naval forces with two acorns 1986–1990

  • Rifle cord of the border troops on land with three acorns 1986–1990

  • Rifle cord of the border troops at sea with an acorn 1986–1990

  • Rifle cord for turret armament for tanks with an acorn 1986–1990

Graduation

The NVA's shooting line came in four stages. When the conditions for the award were met for the first time, only the rifle cord and its edition were awarded. With repeated fulfillment (level II to IV) only one acorn each time . This tradition had already been practiced in the Wehrmacht . The maximum award was therefore three acorns if the award conditions were met four times.

Appearance and types of shooting line supports

Overview of the rifle cord requirements of the NVA

The rifle cord of the NVA is approx. 35 cm long and consists of braided aluminum spun . The rifle cords of the border police, riot police and VP readiness were also made of braided aluminum, but interwoven with green, of which ten parts were silver and two parts green. The exception was the rifle cord of the border police of the sea, which consisted of ten parts dark blue and two parts green.

The acorns awarded for this were always placed in the lower third of the rifle cord. Corresponding to the type of rifle cord pad, these pads consist of a 50 mm high and 45 mm wide silver-colored or gold badge and show the badge of the troop category awarded within a wreath of oak leaves.

1957 to 1960

  • Land Forces
    • Rifles (silver-colored overlay with silver-colored rifle cord)
    • Artillery (silver-colored overlay with silver-colored rifle cord)
    • Panzer (silver-colored edition with silver-colored rifle cord)
  • Naval forces
    • Rifles (gold-colored edition with blue rifle cord)
    • Artillery naval forces (gold-colored overlay with blue rifle cord; not awarded)
    • Torpedo (silver-colored overlay with blue rifle cord; not awarded)
    • Torpedo (gold-colored overlay with blue rifle cord)

The rifle cord for artillery and tanks was awarded from 1957 to 1960 up to the second level, that for rifles even up to the highest fourth level. The support for the riflemen shows two crossed rifles with the bayonet folded out , whereas the artillery support shows an upright flaming grenade . The version for the armored units, on the other hand, shows a stylized Soviet armored car moving from left to right. The award of the rifle line for torpedo was stopped in 1960.

From 1985

With effect from December 1, 1985, new rifle cords were introduced with the order 05/85 and awarded for the first time in April 1986. The word was again exaggerated. The rifle cord itself remained unchanged and was still made of silver-colored spun silver for members of the land and air forces and border troops of the GDR and dark blue for the navy and border troops of the navy. As a result, the following types of shooting line existed from 1985:

  • Land Forces
    • Rifles (silver-colored overlay with silver-colored rifle cord)
    • Artillery (silver-colored overlay with silver-colored rifle cord)
    • Turret armament tanks (silver-colored edition with silver-colored rifle cord)
    • Tower armament SPz / SPW (silver-colored support with silver-colored rifle cord)
  • People's Navy
    • Rifles (gold-colored edition with blue rifle cord)
    • Artillery (gold-colored overlay with blue rifle cord)
  • Border troops
    • Country: Rifle weapons of the border troops (silver-colored overlay with silver-colored rifle cord)
    • Coast: rifles of the border troops (gold-colored overlay with blue rifle cord)

In contrast to its predecessors, the rifle cord support was enlarged by 1 mm and now measures 51 mm (height) × 46 mm (width). It shows two crossed rifles with an extended bayonet in the oak leaf wreath of the rifles. The edition of the border troops, on the other hand, shows a border post of the GDR in an oak leaf wreath with an AK-47 lying in front of it , also in an oak leaf wreath, an upright missile in front of two crossed ancient cannon barrels. For the also newly created editions of turret armament for tanks and armored personnel carriers or armored personnel carriers shows a T-72 moving to the left in the former and a BMP-1 in the latter .

Others

For parade events and ceremonial acts, there were also shooting cords without appliqués, so-called “representation cords”. By 1984 around 1,300 ropes had been lent to members of the Ministry of State Security.

Trivia

In NVA jargon , the cord was known as the "monkey swing".

Web links

Commons : Schützenschnur  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Feder, Jürgen Wagner, Ralf Swoboda: Military badges of the German Democratic Republic. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-327-00523-0 , pp. 41–45.
  2. ↑ The border troops on the coast also included members of the Coast Border Brigade and boat companies