My Feldbluse 15

[Kohima]

Many thanks for the advice, Andy.
I quite agree with your thoughts regarding an ultimately pointless, not to mention extravagant, arm-specific colour variation, at a time when there were far more pressing needs for the German Army and, indeed, Germany as a whole.
Also, thank you for the recommendation of Mr. Baldwin’s volumes. I was planning on investing in the Verlag book, to complement their excellent two volumes on the Poilu, as I do not plan to venture too far down the Imperial German route..
But never say never, right? We all know how slippery this Militaria slope is!

Thank you for your kind words, too, Anderson. It certainly is one of those items that looks like it was simply scooped up, out of the war.. and dropped straight into your collection. Although it is clearly repaired and patched, all are of a purely preserving nature and none to deceive. Your opinion means a lot.
My best regards and wishes,
Rob

[Kohima]

Well, I made the mistake of ordering the Verlag-Militaria volume, misleadingly titled ‘The German Army’, when it should, in fact, be titled ‘The Bavarian Army in the First World War’.
Almost every item in it comes from the Bavarian military museum (with begrudging use of a handful of items from one other museum and nothing from any private collection), leading to a very skewed picture of the ‘German’ army being almost completely Bavarian in origin.
While the Bavarian museum clearly has a most impressive collection, there are some startling omissions in the book (presumably because they do not have an example and chose not to seek one from anywhere else), and the items shown feature all the peculiarities of the Bavarian uniforms, rather than the typical styles worn by the bulk of the German Army.
In short, I am currently trying to return the book, but the publisher seems interested only in telling me how great it is and that every serious historian should have one. Disappointing, all round.

However, I also acquired volume 3 (1916) of Michael Baldwin’s series..
I learned more from the first photo caption of this book than from my first scan through the whole of the Bavarian tome! Despite its bafflingly scrappy layout and, worst of all, an unfortunately generous sprinkling of spelling, homophonic and grammatical errors, I do not doubt that I shall be gathering the whole set in due course, and grimacing my way through them, simply for the wealth of information and insight crammed within. It benefits from a collector’s enthusiasm for detail and answers all those questions that only a collector would ask.

I have learned that my M1915 bluse is probably of very early manufacture, evidenced by several features shared with the earlier models; such as, the closely woven cloth, the greener colour, the white cotton lining (replaced with grey in 1916) and having bridles for the 1907/10/14 shoulder straps.
Chuffed with that!

[AndyM35]

Kohima, I am very pleased to hear that you are enjoying Volume 3 of Michael Baldwin’s epic Feldzug series. They definitely are worth collecting and look very cool all lined up on the book shelves. Being able to sit down and visually track the fast evolution of Imperial German field gear over the course of the war, is a wonderful thing and these volumes serve as a great tribute to truly passionate collector and scholar of the subject.

Andy

[Kohima]

Volume 2 is on its way..

Who was it that said he had no intention of getting too involved in Imperial German kit?

[toot]

still turning up after over 100 + yrs. amazing.

[Kohima]

Technically, this one turned up (for me) after about 70 years, but I take your point!

Oh, and there was indeed a colour difference for Jäger and Schützen troops! They also had a darker green collar facing.