modern nazi combat uniforms?

[ObKrieger]

Surely, Germany's "victory" would have been more of a cease fire than an overall surrender of allied forces. For this reason, I feel that they would have had to maintain a large conscript military. For this reason, I based my opinion of the DDR uniform being the most likely line of evolution.

this is a very good point. i like the line of thinking there.

perhaps the Waffen-SS would actually shrink a bit and turn into more of a spec-ops unit than a large combat force. they would probably end up with the quality uniforms and they would probably look like the new russian soldiers in their new camos do.

along the lines of a large conscript-based wehrmacht, i have to agree with you that the uniforms might be very simplistic and cold-war like, as the DDR uniforms were.

now, how about headgear. how do you think the helmets would evolve? would they change their helmets to what they were in the DDR or would they do the same thing that we did with american M1's, which is keeping them until the 80s and then using some kind of new helmet made of a kevlar material?

[wwmilitaria]

I think before you can make any conclusion on the line of design you have to decide if there will be a distinction made between service tunic and combat uniform, which did not exist in the Wehrmacht and developed slowly with the beginnings of the Bw and the NVA. Early pictures of the Bw show soldiers wearing a mix of service tunic and combat uniform quite often.
I still beleive the M44 dress is a step toward this distinction and would have followed further. I do not support the thought of an M44 uniform to be a result of material shortages only. It is an answer to changing conditions and requirements. Example: try opening the lower pockets of your M36 or M 43 tunic while strapped with MP 44 mag pouches! Would equipment like that have been in longer use, the lower jacket pockets would "naturally" wander to the trousers!

There

[panzerjaeger44]

this is very difficult to conclude has anyone else seen liebmuster pattern cammo that was going to be adopted by all service arms from 45 on the swiss attempted to copy it and its the alpenflage uniforms that you see in all the paintball shops the germans were highly developmental about producing cammo for particular regions and locations something that the us military adopted post 67 with the introduction ofthere first cammo , i think that they may well have adopted combat utility unifroms that are more in line with what the modern combat troop is wearing but the cammo itself would be more along the lines of theatre of operations specific if anyone wants to see liebmuster ill take pics from the beaver book and post them

[Paul R]

I think before you can make any conclusion on the line of design you have to decide if there will be a distinction made between service tunic and combat uniform, which did not exist in the Wehrmacht and developed slowly with the beginnings of the Bw and the NVA. Early pictures of the Bw show soldiers wearing a mix of service tunic and combat uniform quite often.
I still beleive the M44 dress is a step toward this distinction and would have followed further. I do not support the thought of an M44 uniform to be a result of material shortages only. It is an answer to changing conditions and requirements. Example: try opening the lower pockets of your M36 or M 43 tunic while strapped with MP 44 mag pouches! Would equipment like that have been in longer use, the lower jacket pockets would "naturally" wander to the trousers!

There

Well, the DDR helmet is a pattern that was designed and prototyped by the Germans in WW2.

There was more than one reason for the M44 style. One of which was material shortages. The other reason was a lack of manpower and a need to get more and more uniforms out onto the field in a quicker manner. A lot of corners were cut in the M44 tunic, for these reasons.

I feel that once the bullets stopped flying and the economy had a chance to recoup, they would have gone back to a more traditional uniform, as we did in the US.

[davejb]

I tend to think that there would have been minor changes in the design yet using lighter weight materials as did most of the modern armies after the war, on the whole the overall design of the TR uniforms were far superior to that used by the allies and a natural progression would occur in newer materials as it has done to date, the design of caps and helmets i believe would alter very little except for metals and cloths, if its not broken why repair it, thats my two cents worth so there!

[Paul R]

I am convinced that the helmet that we associate with the DDR would have been phased in. After all, it was developed during WW2, by the Germans. I think in was slatted for limited production field testing, when the war grew to an end.

[jimpy]

Example: try opening the lower pockets of your M36 or M 43 tunic while strapped with MP 44 mag pouches! Would equipment like that have been in longer use, the lower jacket pockets would "naturally" wander to the trousers!

Hi guys.
Originally I wasnt going to "stick my oar in" on this topic, other than to watch and see how it developed. HOWEVER, with the above comment, I thought that I would now do so.
I know that I am not the only forum member who has done their time with their respective national armed forces, (British Army in my case), but I would like to point out one thing about the above comment.

Just about EVERY nationality whose armed forces wear a dedicated combat smock/jacket, has lower pockets on that jacket. The majority of the time, the soldiers main equipment waist belt sits/is worn just above those pockets, but they, (belt kits), are still used.
Granted, there is a more common shift towards smaller "belt orders, (less pouches on the belt), and towards the wearing of "body mounted rigs" eg: the British Osprey/Kestrel Body Armour with MOLLE pouch system, but belt rigs ARE still a necessity and therefore they will ALWAYS interfere in some way, shape or form with jacket lower pockets.
Therefore, by default, any developments in combat uniform would, in theory at least, go hand in hand with personal equipment development.
In recent times, the only combat uniform that the British Army has had that has NOT had lower pockets, was the 39ptn BD and its successors, HOWEVER, one of the suggested BD uniforms at the time was similar to the previous service dress/battledress being of a conventional cut and style, very similar to the Wehrmacht uniform, but with an open neck jacket!
We can summise until the cows come home what the battle dress of any countries that had been subjugated by the 3rd Reich would have been, fortunately, we are not in the position of reality on this front.
My own personal thoughts are that any armed forces under German command, would all be wearing a similar combat smock, possibly with a national flag on the shoulder, but with slight national variations.
As an example, take a look at the way the WarsawPact forces were uniformed prior to the break-up. All very similar uniforms with slight variations.
This, in turn, economises on materials and supplies and makes "friend or foe" identification easier.

Anyway, ramblings over for now guys.

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy