Beautiful Tunic! I have only seen one in the flesh, so yes very rare indeed!
Gary
Beautiful Tunic! I have only seen one in the flesh, so yes very rare indeed!
Gary
This Stammabteilung rig was found still in the hands of the veteran's daughter in 1995.
The veteran, Major John Hall, was the comanding officer of the U.S. Military Govt. in Solingen. He also brought back several daggers still in the bags all from WKC.
The daughter allowed that he would dresss up in the tunic, riding boots and straight legged white piped trousers on Halloween. Included with the tunic were two Alg. visors; one with the velvet center band and an EM that had officer chin cords added but still had the black side buttons.i
The caps
Some of the daggers.
These uniforms and hats are all breathtaking!
Bob Hritz
stunning
Thanks for sharring
Cheers
lars
I associate myself with the colleague in Arizona about our friend in Texas and his remarkable woolen finds. These are extraordinary items. I suppose one could figure out who this office in the Essen Rhein Ruhr Stammabteilung was, in fact. I am glad my Texas colleague has joined us here, and we profit from his company.
The officer's cap with the orange lining and the RFSS tag is, I think, the first model of such caps made under the RFSS regulations ca. 1934 or so.
Wonderful material. Bravo.
Postscriptum: the daggers are very nice, too. If only there were some way to return to whatever year in which these were found and see the scenes of the war booty in detail. One can imagine these being sold on the black market or heaped up in the hands of the military government and being regarded as complete junk.
The tunic has a WW1 wound badge sewn to the tunic that appears to be guilt in the pictures but, as I recall, it was merely a well worn black variety. There are also 2 small horizontal medal loops sewn onto the center of the left pocket as would be appropriatre for a small Golden Party Badge or other (probably) early badge with horizontal pin. Armed with the proper documentation (Dienstalterlists?), knowing the above and with the rank and unit represented by the collartab and cufftitle - with time the original owner could probably be identified.
A veteran in Dallas had 10 dolches in a large picture frame in his den. An SA, couple of Armys, Lufts, an SS, RAD leader – you get the picture. His story was that several troops in his company had been getting in trouble with the local German populace “checking out” the local housing for “contraband” (loot) during occupation. The company commander sent him into the town where the guns, daggers, swords were required to be turned in and he was instructed to bring back a musette bag full, “enough for the whole company”. The Co. Commander told the troops at lunch that there was a war souvenir for each of them on one of the tables. When they finished lunch, go get one, and NOBODY better be getting trouble with the locals from now on. The vet said he simply brought back the daggers that were left on the table……the unwanted ones!!
Bob Coleman is the master of such biographical research. The units in question were not very large, but there was also more fluctuation and to-ing and fro-ing in the ranks of officers than one would think. Do look at the back of the rank lists for those who left of their own will in good graces; those who were asked to leave; those who were told to get the h3ll out; those who went into the Wehrmacht; those who went to Valhalla.
All the names make it all more compelling to imagine what bits of each biography as well as their fetid woolens made it across the abyss of time. I my mind's eye, I see these things pitched on the pyre and made into smoke and ash.
But with some care and effort, one could figure this all out, especially if one knew the age of officers in Solingen and the Ruhr area and when this man might have joined the Stammabteilung from the active duty Allgemeine SS. The early caps fit with the tunic. The bad part is that the local records of Allgemeine SS units generally did not survive the war intact, and you need a name to use the Berlin Document personnel files as a point of departure versus the geographical locale of a unit. At least I think so.
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