The swastika stamp is, as Adrian wisely says, absurd.
The swastika stamp is, as Adrian wisely says, absurd.
Hi everyone
Thanks a lot for your commons. I also have pairs of Bundeswehr boots. However they are many differences between them. Please see the pictures below of their soles
The most difference is there is no sewing on the sole of the first boots. Besides I have never seen any Bundeswehr boots which has medal heel parts around them. Please advise thanks.
As much as one might look for differences to prove a therory what you have here is two pairs of BW boots apparently made by different manufacturers. This would mean different contracts which may have contained slightly different specifications even if both contracts were issued at the same time. In this case one pair of boots in your pics is much older than the other. Also, whilst one pair appears to be fairly recent and probably has not had much of a civilian existence the older pair has clearly seen much more of life as it were. Who knows what repairs have been carried out over time especially to the heels. The rubber heel plates likely wore away (rubber heels usually wear more quickly than the sole on the same boot) and were replaced by the steel "irons" which are still fairly easy to find today. It looks to me also that the irons are not the correct size for the heels, they seem to have sides that do not extend to the inner edge of the heel. As the others have said the Wehrmacht did not use boots like these. Apart from a swastika stamp being wrong on leather gear this one doesn't look like a NS Swatiska as it has extensions connecting the radial "feet" to the surrounding circle. This seems more to me like some kind of commercial mark which is found in many parts of the Indian sub-continent today used as a good luck/fortune symbol as it has been for centuries. It can also be seen on the Carlsberg brewery entrance in Copenhagen adorning the sides of the stone elephants plus it was used by the "swastika" Laundry in Dublin just to give two examples.
You have a nice pair of military boots but BW not WH.
Regards
Mark
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Hi Mark
Thanks so much for your valuable information. I am surprised to know that the swatika mark might be an Indian luck symbol since hey were found in Sibiu, Romania. I've also tried to find four pairs of BW era boots to compare them. I found that the maker and spec marks on the soles of the first boots are different from the other three boots. I am not trying to say they are WWII made but maybe just a very early BW boots. Any commons will be appreciated, thanks again.
The first pair may well be earlier than the others I couldn't say really but just like any other modern army the BW when procurring equipment such as personal gear would in almost all cases award contracts to several makers. Sometimes there would be several makers at first procurement other times the makers would change when further orders were placed throughout the time in service of a type of equipment. This in the case of just about every item from boots to cutlery resulted in very minor differences that did not affect the proscribed specification of the item. As you can see; the first pair and one of the others have the same metal tip on the sole where the other two are both different in this area. As I said in my initial comment the first pair as well as having leather heel plates rather than rubber have steel tips or "irons" that finish short of the front edge of the heel. This might have been the original design of the heel which has been refurbished at some point using irons of too small a size or the rubber original might have been completely replaced by a subsequent owner which is what I am inclined to believe. In the end this is an educated guess on my part but I am fairly sure of it. Maybe there is someone here who has better knowledge of BW footware. The fact remains these are very much post war boots.
Regards
Mark
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
$20.00 boots back in the 80's reanactors would cut the top straps off of them in those days. I know a guy that still has a pair from that era 78 or so so they were well made. timothy
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