No national flags on 1st Model Moleskin jacket?

[Gene T]

This is completely off topic, Steve, but here is a close-up comparison between my oldest and youngest moleskins. The former for sure did not come with national flags





It's quite interesting how the cloth used in these two instances is virtually identical, even though 60 years and a global war separated one from the other. In fact, it's easy enough to imagine that these fabrics were woven on the very same loom! Even the colors are very similar (the M 1928 is a shade or two greener). This is yet another example of the post-war German designers (from both sides of the Wall) falling back on old (and tested) ideas when they were responding to the changing material demands of their new military(ies).

As an aside - both the M-1928 and BW era moleskins show a subtle but readily visible vertical ribbing on their obverse, and (when viewed from a certain angle) a much less obvious diagonal ribbing on the reverse. If these represent the correct "front" and "back" sides of moleskin, then my experience has been that all of Sturm's repro- and fantasy-camo items are printed on an 'inside out' cloth. Not that this is of any practical significance to any of us...


Gene T

[Guardian 5]

Gents - Here's some examples of "no flag" battle and fatigue dress.

In addition to the circumstances discussed by Steve and Uwe, I would submit that members of the second line Heimatschutz Kommando were sometimes issued incomplete uniforms, as was often the case with reserve components in the U.S.A.

The first picture seems to provide examples of the "transition era." It's possible that the flag of the Hauptmann (right picture) is obscured, but the Leutnant is clearly lacking one.

Gene T - I'm digging the old school moleskin! Nice!

[Guardian 5]

I'm not sure if this gunner is HSK or not.

[Guardian 5]

These combat engineers are clearly identified as belonging to the HSK.