What do you guys think about this SS Tunic?...

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-03-2010, 04:08 AM

Knowledge of history and geography are essential in the search for old pieces of textiles as well as the people who made them. Postscriptum: someone else can post pictures of the training institutions of the SS Verfuegungstruppe and other branches of the SS, can they not?

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 03-03-2010 04:08 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Walter** · 03-03-2010, 11:37 AM

by Friedrich-Berthold

As Mr. Bruce has noted, I have included several tutorials here on this theme. An authentic SS Junkerschule Toelz or Braunschweig uniform is a costly proposition, and said piece in this thread is a poor fake.

Here some over seen illustrations.

Seekers of truth have only to look at our tutorials and learn a lot.

Foetid woolens are not for the faint of heart or those who want to take short cuts.

The insignia on the second tunic confuses me. Shouldn't it have the Abschnitt number in the collar tab as well as on the cuff title?

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-03-2010, 01:44 PM

by Walter

The insignia on the second tunic confuses me. Shouldn't it have the Abschnitt number in the collar tab as well as on the cuff title?

It confused me, too, but it is one of several that exist in this form, i.e. with a roman numeral on the sleeve which I infer to mean a member of the Sturmbann staff. I own a second with the same format, as does Bob Coleman. Mollo or the less useful works make no mention of this kind of insignia in use, but the tunic as you see it was sold by Manions in 1978 in just this configuration.

The secondary reference works poorly treat the Allgemeine SS, which was constantly being reorganized, as is the case with many para military and military organizations, you know.

The uniform is wholly real as are the insignia. I actually bought pieces in the 1978 Manion's catalog in which this piece was first sold. When Bob Clark showed the uniform some years ago, there was much confusion about it, but other examples exist with a roman numeral on the sleeve and arabic numeral on the collar.

The works in German on the organization of the Allgemeine SS are quite helpful on this score. Lumsden's book is first rate, but there are a lot of "unknown unknowns" in this connection.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-03-2010, 02:30 PM

Viz: these photos are courtesy of Gottlieb and Bob Coleman.

**Walter** · 03-03-2010, 02:46 PM

Thank you for this new insight.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-03-2010, 03:28 PM

by Walter

Thank you for this new insight.

My idea is a guess based on the extant examples, two of which I own by a total fluke. I do not know whether this custom was officially permitted, or an Eigenmaechtigkeit, but it existed and makes sense if one reads the rank lists. The staffs were the core organization of the Allgemeine SS, since the bulk of its members were part timers.

The Saarbruecken uniform is a nice piece, and when I got it in the present decade via Bob Coleman, I did not realize that I had purchased a couple of pieces from the catalog when it first appeared more than 30 years ago. I still own one of the caps I bought then. I cannot scan the images, but I still have the original catalog. The Saaz uniform is from post 1938, in fact.

There is much about this regalia we do not know, and no one seems to care, as all the effort resounds to the SS Totenkopfverbaende and die Ritterkreuztraeger der Waffen SS.

Happy woolens and odd embroidery to one and all.