Guys (esp Stefan
) I started this debate (about uniform colour) in the Third Reich Forums, but, surprisingly everyone to date 02/12 has agreed with me that's no fun! Here is what I posted there and I'm anxious to see what you learned gentlemen think.
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Ok,
I'm no authority on Uniform colour but there has been an awful lot of conversation on this subject before the reenactment forum came to life and there certainly hasn't been short of argument since.
The very basic disagreement comes from trying to decide which 3 different types of "converted" unforms, ie the Swedish, the NVA , and tailor made uniforms are the "correct" type.
Swedish:
NVA:
Tailor made: (in this case "At the Front Militaria")
I'll come right out now and say that my unteroffizier's tunic is built from an NVA tunic similar to the above, and has been described as being completely the wrong colour by some and by others its quite popular.
I would like to share quite a leading website (called LANSER) that goes a brief but significant way to describing colours, materials and cuts of wartime uniforms. I consider it to be one of the more accurate uniform websites out there.
Click on the link and scroll down to "FIELD BLOUSES - NCOs & MEN"
http://members.shaw.ca/deutschesoldaten/
One section which I found particularily interesting was this decription of the colours of later war tunics:
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All the while, material used in the construction of uniforms in Germany had downgraded; by the time the changes collectors refer to as "M43" were made, uniform cloth was made up of hybrids containing less than 50% wool. Uniform colours varied widely, from the original green-grey known as "field grey" to slate grey and even shades of brown. Buttons came to be painted grey rather than field grey as well.
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Prime example...is this a wartime tunic?
If you answered "No" then you are wrong. It is a Army Model 1942 (issued 1943) Combat Tunic for an Unteroffizier in a Pionier (Engineer) Unit! Currently worth $1450
And the shape of collars:
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Some soldiers even changed the collars on so called "M42" and "M43" field blouses to dark green, months and even years after all newly made blouses from the factory ceased having dark green collars. There were no standards for "uniformity' with regards to these details in the German Army, and most late- war photos show a motley array of dark-green and field grey shoulder straps, mixtures of national insignia breast eagles, and varieties of the three types of collar patches, both backed and unbacked
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If this is true, are the quality of the tunics we are constantly tussling over then, well, academic? ie. Towards the end of the war when so many manufacturers were making uniforms from so many different parts of occupied Europe using such varied materials, can we say that there was NO standard?
(from At The Front militaria "www.atthefront.com" showing different types of wartime tunic)
I know this isn't going to stop us debating merits of swede over NVA or whatever, in fact fashion is often one of the most envied and money-influenced topics today. Someone is always going to look at your suit you're wearing in the street and think...gee that's a cheap make!
I just can't help wondering whether we are nitpicking someone's feldblouse because we paid $500 for ours, when another person feels their's is perfectly acceptable for $100. Of course we can't say to a person, "$100? You cheapo", so instead we say...
"Hey that's Farby!" (Farb is a German word for "colour", used in this context it means wrong colour)
Is it a case of sour grapes perhaps?
What do you all think?...discuss.
[ 13. February 2004, 04:59 AM: Message edited by: BratwurstDimSum ]