Heer ESL 43 buckle

[PaulW]

Hi, picked this Ernst Schneider (Ludenscheid) 1943 Heer buckle up at the weekend, hope you like it!

The seller described it as 'Coastal Artillery' (i.e blue-grey), but it looked like a dark field-grey to me, and others I've showed it to since. I've included some pictures of a worn "B & N 43" that I definitely describe as blue-grey for comparison.

Regards, Paul

[PaulW]

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[PaulW]

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[PaulW]

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[brus]

A classic and fine late-war buckle!
As stated many times: blue color not imply 100% KM/Coast Art.
Simply, blue is the color of late-war buckle issued by all Wehrmacht branches.

Regards
brus

[PaulW]

Thanks for taking a look Brus!

With reference to the colour, to me and others who have looked at it in daylight it has a green hue, not blue, but it is very dark. I've seen an "ELS 42" buckle with lighter green, I suppose paint batches varied, unless the colour was intentionally darkened at some point in 1943, before the blue-grey buckles appeared?

On a related subject, and in his research into helmet paints Brian Ice has noticed that some late war M42 helmets have a very dark feldgrau colour applied. He has speculated that this was either intentional (better camouflage), or because of disrupted paint supplies coupled with available stocks of black paint that were mixed in.

Best regards, Paul

[brus]

Hello
yes the production of the so called "late-war" buckles (in dark green/blue color without leather tab) started in 1943.
The color variation before that year are simply different color shade adopted by different makers. For example GB buckles are very dark still in 1940.

Regards
brus