General Assault Badge, Lapel Pin (Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen Aufschlagnadel)

As with most military and civilian awards of the Third Reich period miniature version lapel pins were permitted for wear on civilian clothing.
Most commonly these miniatures were privately purchased items and could only be purchased by individuals with the proper ownership documentation, although some miniatures were bestowed with the full sized award.
The miniatures were exact replicas of their full sized counterparts and were produced in two official sizes of nine and sixteen millimeters.
General regulations, with a few minor exceptions, permitted wear of three miniature awards at one time but prohibited the mixing of military and civilian awards on one lapel pin. Curiously regulations prohibited wear of the miniature awards on the civilian overcoat, (greatcoat).
Regulations of July 5th 1943 discontinued the manufacture of the larger, (16mm), military badges and further regulations of April 1944 dictated that the Steinhauer & Lück firm of Lüdenscheid was to be the sole manufacturer of the miniature dies with other manufacturing firms authorized to produce the awards utilizing Steinhauer & Lück’s dies after official governmental acceptance.
The General Assault badge was Introduced on June 1ST 1940, by Generaloberst Walther von Brauchitsch, for award to support personnel who were ineligible for the Infantry or Panzer Assault badges.
Criteria for award of the badge was basically the same as the criteria for award of the Infantry and Panzer Assault badges with the main qualification being participation in three separate assaults in a supporting role.
On its introduction the badge was only intended for award to combat engineers and was designated, Pionier-Sturmabzeichen, (Engineer’s Assault Badge).
Shortly afterwards award of the badge was extended to other support personnel including artillery and assault gun personnel, anti-tank and anti-aircraft personnel and medical personnel.
Before the introduction of the Tank Destruction Strip in March 1942, personnel who had single handedly destroyed an enemy tank with Infantry weapons were awarded the General Assault Badge.

Nice quality, silver washed, die struck alloy construction, exact detailed miniature of the General Assault Badge.
The roughly, 17mm tall, 12mm wide, pin features an embossed, vertically oval oak-leaf wreath with a cut-out, Wehrmacht styled eagle with down-swept wings, clutching a canted swastika in it’s talons, positioned above a crossed bayonet and stick grenade.
The plain reverse has a soldered, vertical, rifled stick pin - 50mm.