Without going into details, which are not appropriate here in any way, I have a personal and professional familiarity with what you mention above in the USA as well in many NATO countries, Central European and other world armies, navies, air forces and marine corps. Hence, my generalizations are formed by my own experience of these things over decades as well as my own study of SS uniforms over a similar period of time.
and, especially the internet fosters a dogmatism about remote and complicated things that harms all collectors, whereby authentic items are routinely and wrongly dismissed as reproductions or freaks, when they embody the actual truth.
Going through the threads you linked to in even this short amount of time, I have a feeling what you're talking about has happened far more times than you or I would like to think. I can't imagine how many great examples must have been altered by well meaning collectors, or outright disposed of, over the course of 70 years. It would likely be staggering.
Collectors do huge damage to these things because of some idea about a single form in which an item was used. I have spent a lot of effort in my 20,000 posts
highlighting the point about the chaos central to the SS as an organization. The US Army has existed since 1775 and exists today, and in today's US Army there
is even more emphasis on standardization and conformity than ever existed in Himmler's best moment. And, an American soldier has access to resources that
no SS Mann could even remotely dream possible, whereby the sense of thrift and whatever about clothing is incomparable. Germany in the 1930 was a place of endemic scarcity, whereas the US forces since 11 September until about 2013 had materiel in a form undreamed of in any other epoch.
I have seen in today's German army numerous examples of personal fashion in uniforms that would never be tolerated in the US, and, I assume, this custom was
the case in former times. For instance, the grey tunic in the Bundeswehr comes in many shades of grey, so that the uniform is not uniform at all. See the army tunic in my picture, the Lw one notwithstanding.
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 01-16-2016 at 12:26 AM.
The excellent books from the Bavarian army museum on the old German army include many examples of non regulation items and customs of uniform that were simply later adopted into the regulations.
I appreciate your attention to detail FB. The information gleaned in those 20,000 posts is an example of why I prefer to come here to learn. Rest assured it is not in vain. Many thanks.
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In other locales, there is either by design or by accident an atmosphere of anger, ignorance, and group think all of which harms learning.
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Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 01-16-2016 at 10:02 AM.
et cetera
Articles from Uniformenmarkt on how persons refused to follow regulations, and did what they wanted with their uniforms.
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