Wartime Infantry officer service tunic

[Marcel Banziger]

This week I received a what I believe to be an original wartime infantry officer service tunic. The tunic is in worn condition with wear and tear on the cuffs and the neck and also on the inside it shows lots of signs of being worn. I am not familiar with these tunics so I don't know if it is normal but it feels this tunic has some padding added to the shoulders to give a more wide shouldered strong look. The shoulderboards are missing but these would've been the sewn-in type of shoulderboards. Above the left pocket flap there are signs of two medals being worn, apparently later replaced by a longer ribbonbar plus the pocketflap itself also once had a medal attached. All in all this jacket has a very nice worn look about it which the photos don't show good enough unfortunately. Still I hope the photos are good enough for you, the experienced collectors to give me your opinion!

I have plenty of photos, hope you guys don't mind. Looking forward to hear your experiened opinions

[Marcel Banziger]

And some more photos:

(I wonder why some photos are automatically turned 90 degrees, these were uploaded correctly upright!??)

[Marcel Banziger]

Anyone familiar with these tunics? Should there be padding in the shoulders or is this custom done? I know it happened with gymnasterkas a lot but I am not familiar at all with these service tunics. And what are your overal impressions? Did I do good with this one? Thanks a lot in advance.

[Kohima]

These tunics were almost routinely padded, which gave them a very smart and powerful look.
I have an airforce version with heavily padded shoulder and upper yoke sections.

Yours has certainly seen some service and looks good!
I like it, though (as with much Red Army kit), it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact date, as these remained in production for a little while after the war.

Well done,
Bob

[Marcel Banziger]

Thanks a lot Bob. Much appreciated!
There are indeed no stamps or dates inside the tunic. Do you perhaps know 'till how long after the war these were produced? Can't find any info (at least not in the English written part of the net).

All the best,
Marcel

[Kohima]

The Mundir was introduced on 15th January 1943 and seems to have remained in production/use until replaced by the open collar type (worn with shirt and tie), on 24th February 1949.

Cheers,
Bob

[Lancier]

In addition to Bob's reply it can be noted, that the 1949 open collar service uniform was authorised for generals and also the officers of air force and armoured units. The traditional standing collar service tunic was not replaced for the rest of the officer corps until the march 1958 regulations.

Best regads
Lancier

[Kohima]

Oh, with the self-rotating photo problem; it’s best if you go into ‘edit’ on each one, then crop, fiddle or even leave it as it is, and then click ‘save’.
Don’t know why, but it generally works.

I hope that helps,
Bob

[Richtofen]

thats a very nice Kittel you have there, dating them can be difficult and they were used into the mid 50's, 1955 is i believe when they were replaced but please don't quote me. I've personally observed the earlier ones having lighter liners like the one you have but im sure variants of all kind exist. those models do have shoulder padding, some have very little however some can get incredibly insane I have one NKVD kittel with a ridiculous amount of shoulder padding likely a few centimeters thick. The exterior on that one is curious I have not seen one that light before! Great catch!