It has recently come to my attention that the Bundeswehr did attempt to overcome the two biggest complaints about the Splittertarn uniform:
1. Noisy
2. Very hot to wear
I saw a jacket on eBay a few months ago that was said to have a soft cloth, not thin canvas. I verified this with the seller, but I lost the bid on it. It sold for a lot of money.
I just received a jacket just like it. It's made from a thick, soft cotton. The construction is almost 100% identical to other jackets. The only differences are noted are:
1. There is no Olive Drab lining on the upper half of the inside.
2. The "male" side snaps are shiny instead of copper.
3. The RiRi zipper is blue instead of olive drab.
The tag, unfortunately, is completely blank. So I can only guess the production date is late 1957.
The fun thing for me is I didn't know I was buying this rare type! I thought I was buying a very nice blue variant jacket to replace my existing one (my trousers are near new condition). I am very happy that I received this instead! Unfortunately I was planning on selling my existing blue jacket, but now I have to keep both.
Attached are pictures of the typical canvas type (left) and soft type (right). Look closely at the cloth comparisons. You can see almost no stitching detail on the canvas example (left) but can on the soft type (right). And finally, a picture from the front that shows the zipper and snaps.
Enjoy!
Steve
1. Noisy
2. Very hot to wear
I saw a jacket on eBay a few months ago that was said to have a soft cloth, not thin canvas. I verified this with the seller, but I lost the bid on it. It sold for a lot of money.
I just received a jacket just like it. It's made from a thick, soft cotton. The construction is almost 100% identical to other jackets. The only differences are noted are:
1. There is no Olive Drab lining on the upper half of the inside.
2. The "male" side snaps are shiny instead of copper.
3. The RiRi zipper is blue instead of olive drab.
The tag, unfortunately, is completely blank. So I can only guess the production date is late 1957.
The fun thing for me is I didn't know I was buying this rare type! I thought I was buying a very nice blue variant jacket to replace my existing one (my trousers are near new condition). I am very happy that I received this instead! Unfortunately I was planning on selling my existing blue jacket, but now I have to keep both.
Attached are pictures of the typical canvas type (left) and soft type (right). Look closely at the cloth comparisons. You can see almost no stitching detail on the canvas example (left) but can on the soft type (right). And finally, a picture from the front that shows the zipper and snaps.
Enjoy!
Steve
However, they should always be hidden because the "heads" are standard brass pebble textured snaps. My guess is they tried to fix the problem of the brass snaps ripping out. The metal was too weak. This same problem exists for Belgian jackets made in 1956. I have developed a special technique for unsnapping these old items because it is easy to damage them.
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