On some of the pictures (in the media) of the boys they are wearing a green beret with a skull on it. One paper tried to make a connection to nazism and the SS. First of all the boys have never had any relation with this ideology, but still probably not a good idea to wear them. It is of course true that the SS used a similar pin. It wasn’t new in Germany either. In Napoleons time there was formed a husaren regiment, a light cavalry that was called “die schwarzen husaren” They had a black husar-uniform and the same pin with a skull. The regiment was in action through World War One and had a well known general named general Mackensen. He is in a picture in a black husar-uniform with the same pin, only bigger. When SS was formed they were presented as “die neuen schwarzen husaren”. It means the new black husaren. It wasn’t just the SS who used the skull; even the German “armour-weapon” that belonged to Wehrmacht used a similar pin. What you may not know is that an English regiment also used the skull pin. Even one of the most well known regiments in England, the 17th Lancers.
The 17th Lancers regiment was also a light cavalry and this famous regiment was the regiment of Lord Cardigan, and was called “the Cherry Pickers” because of the red purple colour of the uniform. Lord Cardigan led this regiment in what may be the most famous cavalry attack in history. “The charge of the light brigade”, the battle at Balaclava in the Krim War. The regiment still used the skull during World War Two. Mercenaries in Africa have probably also used it. Also other armies at other times has used this.
Knut Moland, November 24th 2009
