My Mates Dad

[Ben Evans]

Hi guys, just at work and my colleage bought this in to show me as he knew I collect WW2 German buckles. This is his father who's name is Franc Stefancic, he was born in 1926 in Lublana, Slovenia and drafted into the German Army in 1944. From what my mate knows he was part of the Heer guarding an artillery company on the French/Italian borders until he surrendered to the Americans. He was not a fan of the Germans as they shot two of his brothers for not enlisting. After they listened to his story he was drafted into the RAF in Italy changing engines in Stirling Bombers. here are pics of his RAF "chipbag" hat, some "shitehawks" as we used to call then and some pics of him and some form of rail pass I think. I just wondered if anyone knew what the badge on his arm would have been (Slovak?) and it looks like he is wearing a M42 tunic (hard to tell, it seems the breast pockets are like M36 ones) and jack boots. I thought by then he would have had ankle boots and a M43 tunic. Any info guys on any of thsi would be nice to pass onto my work mate

Cheers

Ben

[Ben Evans]

1

[Ben Evans]

2

[Ben Evans]

3

[Ben Evans]

4

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Ben, interesting stuff. Please thank you mate.

He is wearing RAD uniform in post 3. The upper sleeve insignia will be the conventional area badge of spade with area code number.

Cheers, Ade.

[HPL2008]

The uniform seen in post # 2 is a Waffenrock parade/dress tunic of the Heer, with insignia for a private soldier. The branch color appears to be white for infantry.

The uniform in post # 4 is not a Heer uniform, but one of the Reichsarbeitsdienst. The sleeve badge is the spade-shaped unit insignia and below it is the Swastika armband. (Note that the image is "flipped"; they are actually on his left arm.) Collar patches are of the third (1942-1945) pattern. Rank is the lowest one of the RAD, the basic-level Arbeitsmann.

[Dean]

Great shots, he looks so young! I know the Germans had to make ankle boots due to the lack of leather but lucky soldiers had high boots till the bitter end. I have several KIA photos with bootless soldiers.

[Ben Evans]

Thanks for that guys so far, I was very surprised to see he was in the RAD, I thought they wore a brown tunic

[Dean]

I think the collars and cuffs were brown in the RAD