Post war German red cross great coat?

[p-59a]

I came across this Red Cross great coat at the swapmeet today. It has no makers marks. The buttons have an embossed B on the back and the inside liner has a black ink stamped 52AA over a red ink stamp 48 N. Two other ink stamps are a red ZH 62 and a black 72. I think it is German, but have not found anything on line. If West Germany came to be in 1949 and this is in fact a 1948 great coat then what does it fall under? Yours David

[p-59a]

ink stamps

[p-59a]

button

[SOLDAT1]

Hi
This is a Swiss great coat can be bought for £30 in uk $46

Robert

[p-59a]

Hi
This is a Swiss great coat can be bought for £30 in uk $46

Robert

Thanks Robert! I had googled Swiss, but came up empty. I got it for $10 USD and a MK11 Astro compass in the box for $40 USD so all in all not a bad day. Yours David

[SOLDAT1]

Hi David
You did ok they are nice coats anyway. Just found this site that sell them


http://www.meanandgreen.com/army/Swi.../2170/158.html




Robert

[jonni]

Very nice coats - you can buy them VERY cheap in the "Army Liq Shops" in Switzerland for CHF 5,-- / piece which is app. 4 EUR...

[uscob]

Very nice coats - you can buy them VERY cheap in the "Army Liq Shops" in Switzerland for CHF 5,-- / piece which is app. 4 EUR...

Yes, the "Zeughaus" had them in Loads.
I had to dump a Truckload of them, dated down to WWII because of mothing.
Now I have some Kilos of Buttons somewhere. Maybe I have to scrap them, who need's Swiss buttons.

[Marc Sherriff]

Maybe I have to scrap them, who need's Swiss buttons.

Try the Swiss military, they might want them back.

Marc

[uscob]

Try the Swiss military, they might want them back.

Marc

I tried the same with my Spanish Air Force Button's. Franco coronet they couldn't use and Kings Crown they have enough, so I scrapped around 100 Kilos of them. Btu don't worry, I still have 30 or 40 Kilos.
The only I didn't scrapped are the British ones and with mostly anodised ones you might imagine how much 120 kilos are. There I found some rare ones like SAS Cap Buttons etc.

[Gene T]

Yes, the "Zeughaus" had them in Loads.
I had to dump a Truckload of them, dated down to WWII because of mothing.

I often wonder why the practice of eulanizing woolen clothes came to an end. The residual amount of permethrin in the treated articles is usually well below the level toxic to humans, and far less than what is found in typical insect repellent sprays. If they had continued the practice, those of us with a closet full of woolen uniforms may not have to behave like mad frogs every time we see a tiny moth flutter past our field of vision today, and Nico wouldn't have had to dump a truckload of otherwise serviceable coats!


Gene T

[Collectinsteve]

I'm guessing this process wasn't around 60 years ago? Or perhaps the makers didn't care for the expense since the uniforms were going to be used up before moths got to be a problem. Long term durability of short term items is never a big concern.

Swiss wool seems to be extremely delicious to moths. Either that or Swiss storage standards aren't very good. Because pretty much all of my early Swiss items (dating back to the 1920s) have lots of moth damage. The more recent stuff seems to be no worse than anything else wool, so perhaps the wool processing changed.

BTW, I had a moth worm eat a hole in one of my BW Kragenspiegel. Found the little bastard in there happily munching away. Not pleased.

Steve

[uscob]

I often wonder why the practice of eulanizing woolen clothes came to an end. The residual amount of permethrin in the treated articles is usually well below the level toxic to humans, and far less than what is found in typical insect repellent sprays. If they had continued the practice, those of us with a closet full of woolen uniforms may not have to behave like mad frogs every time we see a tiny moth flutter past our field of vision today, and Nico wouldn't have had to dump a truckload of otherwise serviceable coats!


Gene T

Now I could sell them. A Cap Maker in Germany told me he would have bought them for the fabric for faking old Caps.
the Problem with these Coats was, they came from a Costumes Guy and he stored them in an open Barn!!! I also got WWI Swedish and lot's of Danish/GB Coats, but all not servicable. some I kept and sold them to a theater what used them for homecoming POW's in a play, so they were great for this.

[Gene T]

I'm guessing this process wasn't around 60 years ago?

Hi Steve,

Eulanization had been around for decades before Bayer stopped making one of the main chemicals in 1988, for "internal reasons" that were never specified, so the treatment option was definitely available at the time these coats were issued (the OP coat is '62 dated and refurbished in '72). Even the Swiss company Ciba-Geigy was making the same stuff under the trade name "Mitin", which can be seen on a little white label inside lots of German and French berets of the period, alongside others sporting the "Eulan" label.

The Swiss are as frugal as (if not more so than) the Germans, and always built things to last. It just puzzles me that they would have balked at spending a few extra CHF to help preserve these quality made uniforms, which were after all meant to serve for decades. Perhaps they were afraid that these chemicals posed an unknown health risk? How bad can it be if the German and French soldiers were incubating their sweaty head in this stuff all day long?

Anyway, German toxicologists actually studied this issue thoroughly after public concerns were raised and found no significant link between eulanization (of household carpets) and increased health complications. Still, the treatment seems to have been permanently abandoned out of some sort of (unfounded?) fear.

Mozilla wins again!


Gene T

[p-59a]

Interesting, In how many places can you start with a post about a misidentified great coat and end up with a mini chemestry lesson? I love this web site!!!