The logic of the Oberschütze and Rottenführer insignia.

[Fitzwilliam]

I'm looking at the Wikipedia article, "Ranks and insignia of the Waffen-SS" and I see that the progression in the EM ranks is Schütze (blank collar tab), Oberschütze (sleeve pip), Sturmmann (single sleeve chevron) to Rottenführer (double sleeve chevron) before the NCO ranks and their insignia are reached. I've sometimes wondered why, in the US military, higher officer ranks are represented with the color silver whereas lower officer ranks the color gold. Major (gold oak leaf) vs. Lt. Col (silver oak leaf), for example. My reasoning being that gold is a more precious metal than silver and should go to the grades above. Similarly, when I see the insignia for ranks in the SS below NCO, I reason that Rottenführer should be the sleeve pip with the double and single chevrons going to Sturmmann and Oberschütze, respectively, since NCOs and officers (up to and including Obersturmbannführer) are all represented by some combination of pip. The pip seems the more "precious" object than the chevron in this instance.

[von thoma]

I've sometimes wondered why, in the US military, higher officer ranks are represented with the color silver whereas lower officer ranks the color gold. Major (gold oak leaf) vs. Lt. Col (silver oak leaf), for example.

I agree, U.S 2nd Lieutenant and Lieutenant also.

More incongruences:

SS-Sturmscharführer wore two pips and two double chevrons on patch, but three pips on shoulder strap.

SS-Oberscharführer wore two pips on patch, and only one pip on shoulder strap.

SS-Scharführer wore one pip and one double chevron,and no pip on shoulder strap.


And why they repeats the SS ranks on collars and shoulders ? The German Heer doesn't make it, but yes in the Luftwaffe's ranks.

Who knows the reasons......

[Fitzwilliam]

I believe what you're seeing, with regards to the shoulder straps, is the Heer equivalent rank. I learned of this recently; because the SS ranking system was slightly different from the Heer, the SS started wearing their Heer equivalent rank on their shoulder straps so Heer troops would know whether an SS man outranked them. Prior to this, the SS only wore their pips on their collar patch. The link below shows Heer and SS insignia grades and you'll notice that there are a few EM grades that don't have an SS equivalent.

http://www.alanhamby.com/ranks/rank.htm

[Ian Hulley]

and two double chevrons on patch

You mean 'Litzen' strips.

Ian

[HPL2008]

The number of pips on the collar patches and shoulder boards of the Waffen-SS didn't match simply because they came from two entirely different systems of insignia: The collar patches from the SA/SS system and the shoulder boards from the military system.

Within the Allgemeine SS and the early armed SS formations, the shoulder boards only identified a broad rank group (enlisted/company grade officer/field grade officer/general officer). Military-style shoulder board rank insignia were only adopted by the SSVT/Waffen-SS for purely practical reasons, namely that the SS troops would have to operate together with or subordinate to army troops, thus making it necessary to clearly identify the exaxt equivalent rank.

Of course, this made the additional collar rank insignia seemingly unnecessary, and collar patches with the SS runes or (in the case of the Totenkopfdivision) a death's head on both patches were introduced around 1940, but it soon became noticeable that this posed a new problem: Unlike the army, the Waffen-SS widely wore camouflage smocks which covered the shoulder boards; thus the traditional collar rank insignia did make sense after all, and these collar patches were soon discontinued again (although still worn by some for a long time after.)

(Himmler, by the way, was not enthusiastic about the men of the armed SS wearing army-stlye shoulder boards.)

As for the question why silver outranks gold in U.S. rank insignia for Major/Lt. Col. and 2nd Lt./1st Lt., have a look here:
http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Catal ... &ps=24&p=0