SA Medical Officer's Brown Shirt

[pjm]

Here's a nice SA Medical Officer's Brown Shirt for a medical Obersturmbannfuehrer, Standarte 88, Wetzlar/Lahn or Dillenberg, Group Hessen.

Research has indicated this could be from San.-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Bohrer who assumed the position of the unit's doctor in December 1936.

There is one set of loops on the pocket, likely for a sports badge.

[BOB COLEMAN]

What a wonderful item. Mission impossible would be finding a matching kepi from the pre-1939 uniform regulations. Note the extra thick silver collar tab piping. This was an optional upgrade usually found on the uniforms of higher ranking S A and S S men.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

My wise friend makes an important comment about the silver vs alu wire Effekten on this SA Montur. Here is an SS cap of early make with the silver wire Gehirnbremse ("brain brake")

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I think in the German edition of the Schlicht/Angolia book on the Wehrmacht uniforms there is some comment to the effect about silver wire insignia being phased out from the passage from the Reichswehr to the Wehrmacht by 1935 or so. I shall have to re-check the volumes for the actual citation. The SA and SS of the period 1932/5 aped many customs and traditions from the armed forces.

[adlerfan53]

Stunning tunic you have there. Love these.

[pjm]

Thanks. A kepi would be a nice addition, Bob. Interestingly, I have an early RZM NSDAP visor cap with a soft leather visor, an SA style button as a cockade on the removable brown velvet band with dark blue piping and silver chin cords. Not quite a match but at least the piping and button correspond. And, who knows... I once saw a red piped political leader's visor cap with metal luftwaffe insignia brought back from North Africa by a US bomber pilot.