Early ZB and THW items

[Gordon Craig]

Kats-Post-caps

Here I have another nice item:


Einsatzanzug (working suit) of the "Katastrophenschutz-Post".


The small sleeve patch


The label of the jacket (same like the trousers). All "Post-KatS" clothings had their own labels with "Post" markling.

The Bundespost (Federal Post Service) and the Bundesbahn (Federal Railway) had thgeir own Katastrophenschutz-Organisations.

Short terms were "Post-Schutz" or "KatS-Post" and "Bahnschutz" or "DB-KatS".

The larger facilities, gibber Post-offices and railway-fabrics had units built up from the employees. They had to train a few days a year for that task.
In war they had to protect their facilities in terms of fire service and (most important) they had to keep their facilites in working condition.

Both KatS (Katastrophenschutz) organisations were disbanded in between 1990 and 1994.

Gentlemen,

Two Bundespost hats arrive a couple of weeks ago and it wasn't until today that I realized what they were. The light came on shortly after I took another look at the THW ZS thread that was recently brought back to life. It was the shape of the hats that finally gave me the clue as to what they actually were. Same shape as the early caps in the THW ZS thread. There are two different caps. One is a summer cap of a light weight material and in a blue grey colour. The other is a winter hat in a heavier weight material with fake fur turn up sides and in a medium blue colour. First up the summer cap.

[Gordon Craig]

The label in the summer cap.

[Gordon Craig]

The winter cap.

[Gordon Craig]

The label in the winter hat.

Regards,

Gordon

[Simon1988]

Good morning Gordon,

Sorry to tell you, but your hats are standard 1980s and 90s summer and winter hats for the bundespost postmen. The color is an undefinded blue-grey. And as you can compare with the LSHD / KatS hats hoover posted, the top of the earlier ones is much more round and the peak's much longer.
The Bundespost disaster mangement used the same blue caps like the BLSV in the early years, later they must have switched to the M43 style bluegrey cap wich was worn to the suite on hoover's pictures.

[uscob]

And some grey stuff:

my second version Filzlaus jacket.



Jackets in this style were worn by the THW from around 1966 to 1974. From then on the THW started to launch the blue / grey dress uniform. The blue stripe below the THW sign marks a Gruppenfuehrer. The pins on the pocket were added by me, they are the same age and I think they fit to the jacket.

And the two types of Filzlaus hats:



The second one looks very similar to the WW2 M43 visor.



The THW wore a metall THW sign pin on top of the visors as you can see at the following one.



And last but not least some important pieces belonging to the Filzlaus:



The braces were buttoned inside the Filzlaus trousers. German Bundeswehr used the same braces but in an olive grey color.





Wool scarf and pullover were worn in the cold season and also worn to the usual bluegrey working suite. Similar scarf and pullover were available in khakigrey color before. I am still on the search for these...

kindest regards

Must add that the grey suspenders were also used by the BW for the Naval Leather trousers for Submarine Service. I found lot's of them in a huge Lot of Suspenders from the Kiel Navy Yard. There are 3 Types of them with 1, 2 and 3 Leather Flap Pairs at the ends. The 1 Flap style is the last, but also the 2 flap ones are still isuued to the troops. A Friend told me that only the newbies get the new Stuff issued, but not the Berufssoldaten. recently he got the old olive Poncho and not the New camo ones.

[Gordon Craig]

Good morning Gordon,

Sorry to tell you, but your hats are standard 1980s and 90s summer and winter hats for the bundespost postmen. The color is an undefinded blue-grey. And as you can compare with the LSHD / KatS hats hoover posted, the top of the earlier ones is much more round and the peak's much longer.
The Bundespost disaster mangement used the same blue caps like the BLSV in the early years, later they must have switched to the M43 style bluegrey cap wich was worn to the suite on hoover's pictures.

Simon,

Thanks for the clarification on the BP hats.

Regards,

Gordon

[Simon1988]

Hello guys,

here some more things of my collection.

First a LSHD shirt, also worn by the THW. It belongs to the early sand-colored suite.





And my very early THW jacket. Must be from the late 1950s. I got also a younger jacket in a more khakigrey color. And I'm still on the search for a bluegrey one. Maybe someone is interested to cede one?

Corresponding to this the THW suite worn around 1956 to 1958.



It' s a kind of sandgrey color. A bit lighter than the LSHD one.

Here you can see the differences between the colors of the THW Einsatzanzuege:



The nearly white one is manufactured around 1955. Its style reminds a bit of the Technische Nothilfe suites in WW2.

[Simon1988]

Bergungs-Tragesaetze A

Good morning folks,

so here we have some more pictures of the Bergesatz bags. Both following bags are marked with an "A" which says they were carried by the Gruppenfuehrer and 1st Truppfuehrer.

The first one is an 1960 khakigrey bag:



The Gruppenfuehrer and 1st Truppfuehrer did not carry that much tools with them, but therefor a radiation meter and a gas detector. Furthermore a reporting pouch and different maps and a handlamp.

Like discussed in another thread the Bergesatz bags also were available in an undefined dark green color:



This version was used by some THW and BLSV or Behoerdenselbstschutz units. It might have the same age like the khakigrey one, but unfortunately there isn't a date stamped in it. So I can only guess that. Might be also the LSHD used bags in such a color before 1960. But I am not really sure about that.

I also took some more detailed pictures of the Bergungssatz B bag:





kind regards
Simon

[Persurs]

I like your collection, the Bund really does give a feel of the strong unification the German people share.

I have a 1962 Wool coat of the Bund. I bought it with no patches on it from the internet to wear as a coat myself (I take nice care of it )

Could I get some more information on the wool uniform itself? When it was worn; perhaps some reference pictures of it in being worn in the field?

Also, could you shed some light on what those pockets are inside the jacket itself? The two dual-pockets look like they would be nice for a handgun round, though I doubt that would be a feature of a civil defense uniform. Also, what are the two clips for hanging from either side that look to suspend something?

Thanks

[Gordon Craig]

Persurs,

Welcome to the forum. I'll let Simon or one of the other advanced collectors in this area answer your questions.

Regards,

Gordon

[Persurs]

I appreciate it Gordon, thanks.

[Collectinsteve]

If these guys operated like other German organizations, the wool uniform was for general service use and the cotton one was for field use (drill, exercises, and real responses).

I think this is a fantastic area to get into collecting. Lots of interesting things to go after and the prices are still reasonable. I used to have quite a bit of this sort of kit as it is interesting. But I've overcommitted myself and have since purged most of it. Still a big box of stuff field kit which will eventually find a new home.

Steve

[Simon1988]

Hello Persurs,

welcome to the froum. Maybe you can post some pictures of the dress you bought. Cause without pictures it is really hard to give an explicit answer to your question.

The Luftschutzhilfsdienst (LSHD, --> organisation of the German civil defense) used different uniforms in the time of its existence (1957 up to 1968).

The "Filzlaus" jacket I posted was made from thick wool. In its first execution it was worn as a kind of winter dress, for the cold days. The 2nd execution as shown on my picture was used as a dress uniform for ceremonials or official ocassions.

For exercise e.g. the LSHD had a special field dress, like Collectinsteve said.
It was made from cotton and woven like moleskin. From 1957 up to approx. 1960 it was manufactured in sand color. Around 1960 color of the uniforms changed to dark sand, related to "Khakigrey" (RAL 7008). From 1963 on all new uniforms and equipment (such as breadbags, field cans, etc.) were colored in bluegrey.

kind regards
Simon

[uscob]

Found an original Packet while sorting.
Was wondering about the origin for years and then I read the Label.
Bang, how stupid. They're made in the 37th Week of 1965, so 37/65 marked.