Prisoners uniform Help needed

[Rogerd]

Hi to all,

I have this battledress. It came from an old collection of nice WWII uniforms. The only thing I know its a prisoner uniform. But what kind of prisoners? POW? War criminal? Collaboraters?...
Is there someone who has seen this before and can help me ID this BD?

Its dyed in dark green and a yellow piece of cloth has been sewn in the back were a piece was cut out. A tag says 'reconditioned service clothing'.

All help is welcome!

[Rogerd]

more pics

[Rogerd]

more

[Rogerd]

The P stamp indicates its a 1942 BD I guess. Any ideas are welcome.

[Bond]

I thought P would be for 1941 issue.

I have read that POW used BD's were more of a purple/brown colour, but it depends on which nation did the dying as other countries seem to have different colours for their POW BD's.

[Rogerd]

Thanks for the answer!

So this was used for German POW's?
Is the yellow piece a common thing?

[Rogerd]

Are there any pics of POW's in these kind of BD's?

[pete]

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Interesting how it is a circle and yellow color..and could be an aiming mark of sorts, but I wonder was it psychological in addition to identifying? Its also interesting how it is made so if you remove it there's a large hole left, thus its not just sewn on and just ripped off easily! Interesting photo, I have seen PW written in paint before on German clothing, and BD like this with no markings.

Pete

[Rogerd]

Its also interesting how it is made so if you remove it there's a large hole left, thus its not just sewn on and just ripped off easily!

Pete

The Germans did the same in their prisons and Aussenlager where political prisoners were locked up. They had black/blue trousers with a strip of yellow cloth along the seam, and a black/blue jacket with a yellow band sewn in the arms, also cut out. So you could not remove it.

To me the yellow circle is just to ID prisoners more easily and prevent escapes.

[peter monahan]

I agree: the colour is not signifiicant except that it would be hard to over dye it, and the cut out means ripping it off doesn't work either. Easy to make, very easy to ID. perfect prison uniform - like the orange jumpsuits used to day: everybody knows what they mean!

[pete]

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Well Peter its a good thing Bubbles Wrestling Uniform is Green too then, no mistaking that for who it is! The "Green BXXXXXXD" is easily Identified!

Pete

[peter monahan]

Pete

Do we need to get out of the house more?

Peter

[pete]

.

Hahah....on the WAF after 2 beers....I was so tempted to post a link with orange jump suits on Ricky and Julian but the profanity would break the rules on here. God bless Cdn TV series

Pete

[byterock]

In Canada any way there where two main reasons for the cut-out (besides the obvious easy to identify part)

1) Made it very had to create a civilian jacket out of it or die it and make it into a passable CW military uniform

2) Once doctored like this it could not be traded/sold by PoW on civy street.

One has to remember that there where many hundreds of German PoWs working on farms in western Canada and they had a great deal for freedom.

[Dave Alexander]

In 1944/45 there were PoW camps in Lincolnshire where the inmates were from Poland and the Baltic states. They had been drafted to fight on the Western Front and after D Day took the first opportunity to desert and surrender to the Allies. They would leave to work on the farms in the morning and return at night. They wore BDs like this only with a large black diamond sown into the back.