Quote:
Originally Posted by awdaniec666
Just one correction GP: Only few or one hussar unit had the skull ("black hussars") which meant they won´t grant mercy upon the enemy as far as I know. It was a more or less new thing dating back not that long ago. One of those units was stationed in Danzig (Leibhusaren?) at the turn of the 19/20 th century..
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More on skull and bones:
The Knights Templar organisation, active from the 12th until their demise in 1307, adopted a skull-and-crossbones flag to identify ships belonging to their vast fleet. The later Knights of Malta, made up of many former Templars and using the same flag, became known for piracy. AKA the Skull of Sidon.
https://www.crystalinks.com/skullsidon.html
It is widely believed that the skull and crossbones was first used by the Knights Templar in the Middle Ages.The Templars or Knights Templar, occasionally documented as the Order of the Temple, The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon was the largest charity for nearly two centuries, especially after it was officially endorsed by the Catholic Church in 1129. Its pacifist members became known for many good deeds, and also for the supposed introduction of the Skull and Crossbones.
According to Masonic legend, the skull and crossbones are the bones of Jackes de Molay. In an effort to seize the riches of the Templars, the Church ordered that the society be disbanded. deMolay, the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights,was burned alive by the Church. When three Templars came looking for his bones, they found only his skull and femurs. By this time the Templars had become accomplished mariners, and the skull and femurs of the last Grand Master became their nautical symbol – the Jolly Roger.
The legend of the Skull of Sidon also contains some clues to the Jolly Roger’s relationship with the Knights Templar. The Lord of Sidon, himself a Templar, lost his love when she was young.On the night of her burial,the Templar snuck to back to her grave and dug up her body. At the same time, he heard a voice instructing him to return after nine months to find a son. Nine months later, the Templar dug up her grave to find a head resting on the skeleton’s femurs. The same voice told him to guard the head, because it would bless all of his endeavors, and defeat any enemies before it. The symbol of the son, or the skull and crossbones, became the protecting genius for the Templar.
What should be noted here is that the port of Sidon had always nested pirates. Therefore, the skull and the crossbones could have been used as a symbol for the pirate flag before the time of the Knights Templar.
Use of the symbol as a military insignia began with the cavalry of the Prussian army under Frederick the Great. Frederick formed Husaren-Regiment Nr. 5 (von Ruesch), a Hussar regiment commanded by Colonel von Ruesch. These Hussars adopted a black uniform with a Totenkopf emblazoned on the front of their mirlitons and wore it on the field in the War of Austrian Succession and in the Seven Years' War.
In 1808, when the regiment was reformed into Leib-Husaren Regiments Nr.1 and Nr.2, the Totenkopf remained a part of the uniform. During the Napoleonic Wars, when Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was killed in battle, his troops changed the colour of their uniforms to black or apple green, with a Totenkopf on their shakos in mourning their dead leader. Other sources claim that the "Black Brunswickers" were so equipped while Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick lived, as a sign of revenge on the French.
The skull continued to be used throughout the Prussian and Brunswick Armed forces until 1918, and some of the stormtroopers that led the last German offensives on the Western Front in 1918 used skull badges.
Two of the well-known units were the Black Hussars and the Brunswickers. The Brunswickers at one time actually had the words "Momento Mori" written on the badge itself. In other words, the skull and bones had the words "Momento Mori written right under it on their uniform. Here is a 19th-century comment on the badge from a Scottish magazine: