I'm coming up to the defense of the skull!!! It wasn't a Nazi invention (through they forever besmirched it - like other symbols, the originally sun-symbolic swastika included), it goes back to medieval
Landsknechte/mercenaries times and was later on adopted by the Prussian cavalry,
die Husaren/the hussars. The tradition was preserved, Kaiser Wilhelm II had many flaws, but he was no Nazi, yet flaunted the skull in ceremonial hussar regalia too (here with his - non-moustached - wife):
.jpg)
Today, the
Totenkopf is largely identified with the Waffen-SS (but not even all Waffen-SS units had it, the SS runes were their telltale insignia, not the skull), but German
Wehrmacht tank crews (because of their cavalry origins) had it too, on
both their jacket lapels:
Waffen-SS tank crews and others SS soldiers
generally only had it on their caps/hats, with one of the jacket lapels showing the SS runes (yup, that is Jochen Peiper below, widely associated with the shooting of American POWs during the Ardennes Battle of the Bulge):
Exception to the rule were the notorious
SS-Totenkopf Verbände which had it
both on their caps and - replacing the SS runes - on
one of their jacket lapels, but never on both lapels (sometimes even just on the lapel, dispensing with the skull on the cap). So the gentlemen below on the left is a
Panzer soldier of the
Wehrmacht, the other two are
SS-Totenkopf Verbände members.
Given how many vile and atrocious things were committed under the
Totenkopf, the
Bundeswehr did well to leave that part of
Landsknecht- and
Husaren-mythology behind, modern German tank crews look like Herr Vogel:
And the uniforms in the above "Are we the baddies?"-spoof are the usual wild movie-mix of both
Wehrmacht- and SS-symbols and -traits, but in a front line shelter or trench, Waffen-SS men would have looked more like this, unlike
Wehrmacht soldiers (or Allied soldiers for that matter), they were the first military unit in history to introduce early on the camouflage look that is today considered de rigueur with most armies when in the field. (The Wehrmacht was miserly in equipping its - much larger - force with all-new uniforms during the course of the war, while procurement for the Waffen-SS was generally more effectively lobbied. Also, in the 40ies the until then rare camouflage look quickly became part of the image of the Waffen-SS as it competed for recruits with the
Wehrmacht - the modernistic and "cool" camouflage look was sported on SS recruitment posters and in propaganda pictures, it added to other Waffen-SS benefits such as higher pay, lower admission age, modern medical treatment on the battle field/the blood group tattooed near the arm pit and quicker ascension to NCO or officer rank than in the stuffy
Wehrmacht.)
So the skull symbol fell away (if you squint your eyes, you can also detect a difference between the
Panzer skull - reminiscent of some medieval church art - and the SS one, the latter looking more naturalistic and Naz-ty), but the camouflage obviously left a lasting impression.
