Article about: Hi, showing some pictures of my latest addition to the collection. It's a Heer M42 I picked up from an Italian collector. It has some wear (but no mothing I can see), but what I really like
Just like a Barbie doll. Change the accessories. LoL
But seriously. I really like it.
Thanks MAP.
I preferred Action Man to Barbie Dolls, but I know what you mean!
It's such a basic tunic (i.e Heer EM), one of the most commonly produced in the Third Reich, so you'd think they'd be very easy to find - until you want one that is... I must admit it's been a fairly long wait and I was really looking for an M43 (not restored) as I'm trying to stick to mid/ late-war Heer. However, according to the Feldbluse book authors (they say) that the first M42 tunics seen in wear were at the battle of Kursk in July 1943, so I suppose the M42 qualifies for the 1943+ 'look'. Hence I grabbed it.
Perhaps the name M42 (of course just a modern collector term) is more to do with when the type was designed, than when it actually reached the front-line troops? Or perhaps they will one day be re-christened "early pattern M43's". Interestingly, as recently as the 1970's, in Brian L Davis's 'German Army Uniforms' book (a 'Bible' of it's time) he only seems to refer to M36, M43 and M44, seemingly lumping the M40/ M41 in with the M36, and the M42/ M43 in together too.
I've attached a picture that is supposed to show German soldiers captured at Kursk (I can't be sure though, it's from the internet), as you can see, one soldier at the front is wearing an M42 tunic.
I took a few more pictures yesterday, slightly closer this time. I think they demonstrate more clearly that the eagle and collar patches are applied with the same thread that the tunic is constructed with.
In the second picture down you can see some zig-zag stitching that is part of the construction of the base tunic (picture taken under the lower pockets), it's the same as the stitching on the eagle.
by MAP
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