Earth-brown SS-VT uniform

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 10-29-2009, 05:42 PM

I hope colleague Peter will add something from his own wonderful collection of uniforms as well as primary reference sources, not the least of which are photos from his albums especially of SSTV personages. Or some of you reading this who also have some evidence and data of merit?

And those who actually have handled the most recent grey uniform can perhaps generalize about it better than can I, an outsider and poseur.....?!

I wonder where the cotton erdbraun tunic that I owned in 1971 got to? And all the nice grey peaked caps...? I sold it all for pennies on the dollar. Maybe they were eaten by critters....destroyed by overzealous collectors...or otherwise went the way of the buffalo as has so much since the Nixon era? Granted time, we all embark on such searches for "Rosebud".....

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 10-29-2009 05:42 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

Fultz · 10-29-2009, 06:33 PM

Well, it appears that at least by the date of this catalog. the open-collar uniform was called feldgrau. Either the color had changed, or just the name of the color.

Mike C · 10-29-2009, 06:53 PM

Similar to the tunic in posts 74 and 75, I have a well worn, similar tunic - what Beaver called the SS field grey drill blouse on pages 675 - 681 of volume 2. It has been heavily modified with the French cuffs removed and then re-attached to extend the length of the arms. Of note is the fact that the runic tab and LAH cufftitle are flatwire....

Mike

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 10-29-2009, 07:00 PM

by Fultz

Well, it appears that at least by the date of this catalog. the open-collar uniform was called feldgrau. Either the color had changed, or just the name of the color.

In fact, the catalog is from the end of the year 1940.
My point, dear Fultz, in posting the catalog was to show you the kinds of textiles used in this regalia as well as to elucidate the issue of private purchase which you raised.

I hope our little tutorial on your behalf is sufficient?

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 10-29-2009, 07:01 PM

by Mike C

Similar to the tunic in posts 74 and 75, I have a well worn, similar tunic - what Beaver called the SS field grey drill blouse on pages 675 - 681 of volume 2. It has been heavily modified with the French cuffs removed and then re-attached to extend the length of the arms. Of note is the fact that the runic tab and LAH cufftitle are flatwire....

Mike

Thanks, a very handsome piece, to be sure. The woven wire insignia were the inexpensive variants suited to this order of dress. See the headings in the Kleiderkasse price list.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 10-30-2009, 04:44 AM

Hitler's last adjutant, Darges (below), died recently and I include this image of him and his boss of wartime by one of the Leibfotografen, I think Walter Frentz, to illustrate my point about the cosmos of field grey. Or this is actually earth grey... but more likely just one of the endless and entirely ordinary shades of field grey that make us insane?

I do not see the Fuehrer reprimanding Darges as concerns the color of his uniform. He apparently fired the man on 19 July 1944 for his failure to kill flies in the briefing room at Rastenburg, at least such is in the article in the Bild Zeitung.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 10-30-2009, 04:54 AM

Who is going accept the sublime task as concerns illustrating all the textiles in the Kleiderkasse catalog so as to enlighten the seekers of fabric truth in the early years of the SS?

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 10-30-2009, 05:00 AM

The attached are in no order whatsoever. The Eskimo cap cover with the Hoheitszeichen is an image of my cap that someone has altered....go figure. Who can match the images to the headings in the catalog?