parade boards in field?

[Paul Walmsley]

I have noticed a few parade shoulder boards labelled as being from field tunics. (in the shoulder board section).
How common was this practice? Was it limited to senior NCO's/officers? Some elite units had embroidered ciphers in their boards, what about line units? Surely this was officially banned in favor of slip on identification numbers, so can't have been too common.

[CWP]

As far as I know there is no such thing as a parade board. All shoulder boards had stitched letters or numerals for unit ID prior to the outbreak of the war. Slip ons for boards were instituted around the beginning of the war but many soldiers retained their old insignia, especially sew in boards. I have seen even the very early pointed boards in use as late as 1944 in photos. I'm also not clear what the difference would be between an officers "parade board" and a field board, I think they were the same.

Chris P.

[Paul Walmsley]

Thanks Chris!

[Schulterklappen]

Clarification

First you must clarify what is a shoulder board and what is a shoulder strap. Shoulder straps are "Schulterklappen" and are worn by enlisted personnel and NCOs. Shoulder boards are "Schulterstücke" and are worn by officers. A variety of uniform styles existed, service tunics, walking out dress tunics, drill tunics, parade dress tunics and field blouses. A sew in style strap would be worn on walking out dress tunics (Ausgehrock) and the parade dress tunics (Waffenrock). It was usually worn on the service tunic (Dienstrock), but sometimes a slip-on straps was worn instead. Drill tunics (Moleskinrock) used slip-on straps. Field blouses (Feldbluse) used slip-on straps, but tailor made pieces exist with sew-in straps. Tailor made straps for parade tunics did exist and many times did not have the "keyhole" style button hole. Officer's boards were also made with matte finished braid for field wear. There are rules of thumb for what should be worn and there are also numerous anomalies as to what was worn! Shoulder straps many times were made of scraps of cloth and felt instead of regular wool. Angolia's books and also books by Brian Davis have a lot of good information on the subject.

[Dave Suter]

To add to what Glen said, EM/NCO straps changed somewhat during the war, both in materials used and in construction. There were also several different types of NCO tress used, and the regulations concerning the wearing of unit identifiers also changed - and was frequently ignored. While the subdued braid would never have been used on a waffenrock, when it comes to field tunics, never say 'they didn't do that.'

[CWP]

I think most dealers and collectors alike refer to all German shoulder insignia as "shoulder boards." This is OK since it is an arbitrary term, as "Schulterklappen" means something like "shoulder flaps" and "Schulterstücke" means "shoulder pieces." Likewise, unless people use German words, I am not aware of people using English to differentiate between Kragenspiegel and Litzen, generally these are all referred to as "collar tabs."

Chris P.

[Schulterklappen]

I took the terms "shoulder boards" and "shoulder straps" from Angolia & Schlicht's first volume of "Uniforms & Traditions of the German Army 1933-1945". I find it's more precise and descriptive of the actual pieces then a generic term.

[Brendan Hunt]

Here's an example of the earlier pointed shoulder straps being worn in the field. Its hard to tell from the distance, but if you look closely you can make out the angles. This photo was either taken in Mid-1942 or Mid-1944. This is from a small grouping of mine.



-B