My First "Spiess" Tunic

[usmedalman]

I received my first "Spiess" tunic today. Although I am not able to post pictures, I am hoping the members here can still make some comments/suggestions.

I did a lot of reading on this forum on the topic of "Spiess" tunics and decided to wait until a Warrant Officer type came up. It was a long wait, but now that I have it, I hope it was not in vain and that I made a good purchase.

This tunic is officer quality material and has the post-1979 Warrant Officer shoulder patch without the stars. The shoulder boards are for an armor branch Stabsfahnrich (three stars on each board). The officer quality collar tabs appear to be sewn on by the factory.

The tunic is date code P/1 (1986 I believe). The thing I find interesting is that there is no evidence that the inside sleeve seams were ever opened, leading me to belive that it came with Warrant Officer patch and Spiess sripes intstalled at the factory. I did not know that this was done.

The jacket also has the dagger hanger and slot.

There is clear evidence of a ribbon bar being worn on the left side and two badges on the right side. A qualification badge (evidenced by two posts attaching) with a badge above that (perhaps a Bester badge ?) attached by a single screw post.

Given his rank and position, any ideas on the type and level of badges I should attach? Also, what would be reasonable for the ribbon bar?

[RedBaran11]

I just recieved my first Hauptfeldwebel tunic recently as well, today to be more precise. Although mine is an NCO and not a Warrent Officer.

Mine is 1982 dated and came with all the sewn insignia present but lacking anything else including shoulder boards. So I added some Panzer Stabsfeldwebel boards and a qualification badge as it had the holes for them.

I still want to badge it up a bit more, but I am still trying to decypher if it was used in a parade/walking out or service context before I put anything else on it. It could have been for either, and I am thinking the former, as it just seems too clean to have been used as service, but at the same time it is not all sparkley-glowy

[Jan Klaassen]

Nice tunic!

Besides my 4 () Warrant officer Hauptfeldwebel tunics, my first Feldwebel Hauptfeldwebel tunic is on it's way as well

usmedalman; make sure to take some pics one day!

[ehrentitle]

I just recieved my first Hauptfeldwebel tunic recently as well, today to be more precise. Although mine is an NCO and not a Warrent Officer.

Mine is 1982 dated and came with all the sewn insignia present but lacking anything else including shoulder boards. So I added some Panzer Stabsfeldwebel boards and a qualification badge as it had the holes for them.

I still want to badge it up a bit more, but I am still trying to decypher if it was used in a parade/walking out or service context before I put anything else on it. It could have been for either, and I am thinking the former, as it just seems too clean to have been used as service, but at the same time it is not all sparkley-glowy

Would that be this uniform that recently sold on E-bay for $25? I was tempted to bid on it since it was a Hauptfieldwebel uniform, but it's out of my focused collecting areas:

[RedBaran11]

Would that be this uniform that recently sold on E-bay for $25? I was tempted to bid on it since it was a Hauptfieldwebel uniform, but it's out of my focused collecting areas:

Yup, thats the one!

My main focus is Grenztruppen, but i figured for 25 bucks, why not?

[panzerwerk]

Glad you guys like my Tunics ! I bought a bunch from a friend a few years ago and needed to thin the collection , there were some nice gems in there !! Thanks for bidding guys ,I hope you enjoy them !

[eastgermansks]

I bid on the one that came with the qualification badge and no collar tabs. It was my size (G52) and I had a couple sets of collar tabs to throw on it. $15 wasn't a bad price either. Thanks, Luke.

[panzerwerk]

I thought about adding collar tabs to make them look better , but thought I should sell them as I got them so there was no question as too them being "put togethers" by me , I dont know if all the stuff was original to them , but it is how I got them from a friends collection .

I am just glad they went to good homes !!

[usmedalman]

Appropriate badges

Since my Stabsfahnrich's "Spiess" uniform is dated 1986, I am trying to figure out which badges and ribbons a Hauptfeldwebel would have worn at that time. For example, what level would his Qualification Badge have been? Since my shoulder boards are for Panzer, would the Qualification Badge have been armor, or could it have been something else? Would he have had a Bester Badge, etc. For a ribbon bar, I guess it would be important to know how much time in the army would the average Hauptfeldwebel have had and what sort of awards he would have received?

Thanks for any help.

[RedBaran11]

The first thing I would do is try to figure out what sort of qualification badge type was on it. Pre-1986 quali badges had the screw posts mu ch closer together. There is also variation on the screw post distance with all models of the badges.

If it is a pre-1986 qualification badge, I would reccomend using just the General Qualification badge, and not the Tank version.
Reason being, and I believe Dag has mentioned this on here before so please someone correct me if I am wrong, only someone actually qualified with the tank itself would wear one.
For example, a soldier assigned to a tank unit but, lets say, is assigned to operate the radio system back at the base, would not have worn the tanker qualification badge but probobly either the pre-86 General or post-86 Radio Qualification badge. Make sense? So really it would depend on whatever the individual earned his qualification in Oh, and the level could be any... had notihng to do with rank, just how well you did on all the exams and tests for the badge

As far as awards go... a Stabsfänrich i think would have at the very least a 5 and 10 year service medal and probably at least a meritious service medal or two. Fänriche are interesting becuase of all the different factors that go into them... you could have one with more bling than really high up senior officer or you could have one with very little, all depends on the individual.

I can't say for certain what badges might have been on your particular tunic, but a Bester Badge and Leistungsabzeichen are good bets.