The colour of the collar of the Wehrmach Uniform ?

LegoMen · #1 (**permalink**) August 17th, 2009, 12:33 AM

Hi all,

As asked by the admin, I have first used the search function to search for a topic that was related to my question. Now at first sight I did not encountered something what would have. Now if this topic / question has already been made or asked... my apologies Adims & Members.

Before I go further, I will say why I hope to get this information. I need this information because I make decals for Lego MiniFigures (and will use those MiniFigures in a diorama). Since I like to do that correctly I need some information.

To topic,...
I'm totaly no authority on WWII and his uniforms and I already search around but without any luck because you really don't know what keywords you should use (+ the terminology is also unknown). So the question is: what is the difference between all the collars of the Germans ? I really talk about the colour of the collar and not the inside colour of the BEVO Collar Tab Insignia.

Clarifying...
You have a gray collar + the collar Tab Insignia (see first picture). But you also have the black, dark green collar (and maybe other colours ?). But what's the difference ?

Plus, there is sometimes a white lines around the collar (see picture). What does that mean ?

Thanks for your time,
kurt

Slipdigit · #2 (**permalink**) August 17th, 2009, 02:32 AM

The colors for the collars are dependent on the year the uniform was made. By late in the war, the blue-green collar had been abandoned owing to economy measures, starting with the Model 1943 Service Tunic. Field-gray cloth shoulder straps also began to be issued with this model tunic, and became standard later on. The pockets also no longer had box pleats and were not as deep and the flaps were cut straight across, no longer having the 3 points.

The colored line is the Waffenfarbe-color of service. Each Arm of Service had a specific color associated with it and was worn on the collar and on certain insignia, mostly early in the war, but could still be seen later in the war. It was used less due costs. White is usually infantry, but can also be bandmasters, recruiting office, war college, mortar battalions, motorcycle units, just to name a few.

hucks216 · #3 (**permalink**) August 17th, 2009, 11:08 AM

The white lines around the collar that you refer to were there purely to make the uniform look a bit smarter, and as time progressed and with the need to provide a degree of camouflage (and to cut costs) with a standard field tunic this lining (called 'tresse') was discontinued. This is the same with the different coloured collars that you see.
In December 1934 the collar changed from the basic fieldgray (Feldgrau) to a fine cloth collar of darker Feldgrau.
In Sept 1935 this darker Feldgrau collar was replaced by a collar of dark bluish green insignia cloth.
Beginning of 1940 this was again to be replaced by a collar of uniform Feldgrau cloth.
(Source: Feldbluse - The German Soldier's Field Tunic 1933-45 by Laurent Huart & Kean-Philippe Borg)
If you look at this dealer's page you can see various tunics, some have the tresse in place while others don't... The Collector's Guild

As always there were cases where a soldier managed to retain the darker collar & the tresse through whatever means, which sometimes included privately purchased tunics (as shown by the final image I have attached, to a Jaeger Signals Oberleutnant, although it is a walking out tunic rather than a field tunic).
I have attached images of some of the collars of tunics in my collection to show just how different they could be.

The coloured line that Slipdigit mentions is the small thin line found around the epaulettes & the 2 strips of colour on the collar litzen (the 2 bars on the collar's), White for infantry, lemon yellow for signals, pink for panzer etc.

LegoMen · #4 (**permalink**) August 22nd, 2009, 03:02 AM

First of all... thanks for your help.
Second and to show that I don't ask to ask... these are the decals that will be used on the Lego Minifigure torso. If I made some mistakes or if you like them, I love to hear it... 8)

The classic one

The other ones.

C.Evans · #5 (**permalink**) August 23rd, 2009, 06:20 AM

Hi Legomen, the correct name for the collar color of the earlier war collars is Bottleneck Green. I have an Artillery Majors tunic that is a 1939 model tunic with classic B/N Green collar.

The Shoulderboards that came to points were pre war and were dropped by I think? 1938?? not sure of exact year?? but definately totally dropped early war. Those Shoulderboards are often called the "Old Style" shoulderboards. The "white and or Silver" you see around the collars also denoted that the man was an NCO.

Here are some examples of Branch colors (Waffenfarbe)

Red is Artillery/Flak.
Lemon Yellow is Signals/Recon-which usually were former Cavalry.
Salmon Pink is Panzer Truppen.
Carmine Red is General Staff.
Purple is Chaplains.
Champagne Red or Bordeaux Red ars for Smoke/Chemical and Nebelwerfer Troops.
Lime Green is for Panzer Grenadiers.
Grass Green is for Jagers.
Green is for Gebirgejagers.
Black is for Pioneer Troops (Engineers)
Gold is for Cavalry.
Dark Blue is for Medical.
Cornflower Blue is for Transportation.
Orange is for Feldgendarmerie/Recruting.
White is for Infantry.
Propaganda Kompanie used Smoke Grey for it's Farbe color.

Same colors are used by the Waffen SS. However, some colors are different when used by the Luftwaffe. For example, LW Signals had brown Waffenfarbe instead of Lemon Yellow.

Hope this helps?