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NVA Blumentarn combat suit
In recent weeks I have been very fortunate in locating a very nice 1962-dated Blumentarn smock at an unbelievably low price. And not long afterwards, I located a 1962-dated pair of pants in Austria. The price of the smock and pants together was a fair bit cheaper than you could reasonably expect to pay for the smock alone!
First introduced in 1957, the original smocks had a detachable hood, two breast pockets, a concealed and reinforced pistol pocket, and a small pocket on each arm. Later versions dispensed with the breast pockets, and the hood became permanently attached to the smock. On the first pattern there was no provision for shoulder boards, although attachment points became standard in later versions... and many smocks were modified 'in the field.' Click on pictures to enlarge.
The hood was made over-sized so that it could be pulled over the top of the helmet, and two spring clips which slipped over the front rim of the helmet held it firmly in place. Inside a narrow pocket of the hood was a face veil which could be pulled down and fasted with a button to each side of the hood. When not in use, the hood was rolled up and kept in place by a short strap which was fastened to the collar. Click on pictures to enlarge.
The plastic buttons are held on place by split rings, and are arranged in such a fashion that the pistol pocket is always accessible without having to undo the tunic. For the purposes of this picture I have installed a pre-war Walther PP. There is an aluminium disc attached to the top button of the tunic... I have no idea what it is, but perhaps it was some kind of souvenir which the previous (soldier?) owner put there. Again... just for the purposes of showing, I have attached two types of ammunition pouch to the leather equipment. The first is the scarce two magazine variant, and the second is the standard three magazine variant. My intention was to display the tunic over the top of my 1966 dated O/R's tunic, but in the end I just left it on the Panzer officer's tunic. Click on pictures to enlarge.
The pants are in fairly good condition... although one of the suspender loops is missing and one of the draw cords in the ankle has been replaced. The reinforced knee patches closely follow the design of the elbow pads on the smock... Click on pictures to enlarge.
And finally... some period pictures of 'Blumentarn' in wear.
Cheers,
Steve
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07-25-2018 12:10 PM
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A very nice set there Steve and thanks for taking the time to post. If people are looking for a fairly cheap investment buy up all the blumentarn you can find, it will be big money in the future!...
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Cheers Steve for the detailed shots and from my end are already up there in price/value! I reckon I'm lucky to have the 3 zelts, couple of packs and a gas mask bag in this pattern!
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Lovely set Steve in superb condition and how crisp and clear the pattern is considering its vintage and Your display is coming along really well what with finding a pair of pouches in the same pattern
My strichtarn pattern smock which from memory is dated 1966 also had a pistol pouch but unsure if carried over on the later examples, perhaps Rene' can add further to this
Pure speculation here Steve as i am not familiar but I'm wondering if the aluminium tag could be either a manufacture label as i know my DDR motorcyclist helmet is embossed VEB Perfekt on the inner shell dome or perhaps the most plausible could be a Decommisioned tag as i know most of my West German clothing has a large "A" stamped across the labels which relates to no longer in service before the items were passed on to the surplus market
Thanks for sharing 
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Hi James,
I have absolutely no idea about the tag - or even what it represents! Perhaps if it sported an RZM number... or maybe a swastika, more interest might have been shown in the suit... and more answers might have been forthcoming. I also have a set of early pattern grey webbing, but I thought that the leather looked better!
Cheers,
Steve
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The aluminum tag has no military connection, nor is it a maker's mark: It has something to do with waste disposal, as it is marked for the public utility company of the city of Aue and in the center says "1 can / trash / 1.20 Marks".
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by
HPL2008
The aluminum tag has no military connection, nor is it a maker's mark: It has something to do with waste disposal, as it is marked for the public utility company of the city of Aue and in the center says "1 can / trash / 1.20 Marks".
That is the assumption I came too. I checked it out using the Google translator, and although it only gives you a pure translation of words... it was good enough to understand. I left it on the smock thinking that maybe some soldier had put it on there for reasons known only to him, but I may well remove it.
Cheers,
Steve.
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James C
Lovely set Steve in superb condition and how crisp and clear the pattern is considering its vintage and Your display is coming along really well what with finding a pair of pouches in the same pattern
My strichtarn pattern smock which from memory is dated 1966 also had a pistol pouch but unsure if carried over on the later examples, perhaps Rene' can add further to this
Pure speculation here Steve as i am not familiar but I'm wondering if the aluminium tag could be either a manufacture label as i know my DDR motorcyclist helmet is embossed VEB Perfekt on the inner shell dome or perhaps the most plausible could be a Decommisioned tag as i know most of my West German clothing has a large "A" stamped across the labels which relates to no longer in service before the items were passed on to the surplus market
Thanks for sharing
Hey James the pistol pouch was eliminated when they went to the external/patch four pocket late model.
Last edited by reneblacky; 07-28-2018 at 01:27 AM.
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