Tropical strap pictures

[Dave Suter]

Have a couple of examples now, but send yours too. My e-mail address is dasuter1@aol.com.

On the tropical fakes above - nice to see that the fake tress is maintaining the rectangular diamond rather than the square.

[Ralph Heinz]

Tropical tress

Gentlemen,

I agree with John and Willi on the tropical Heer tunic and like you, John, I just discovered the "treasure trove" of tropical straps that "kajov" of the Czech Republic has on eBay right now. Not a good one in the bunch but they are a lot better looking than the fakes of ten years ago. I'm not certain I want to detail what I see wrong with kajov's straps for fear he'll rectify it in the next batch.

Dave, as far as tropical tress -- lots of legitimate minor variations here too like so many things in the insignia field owing to different manufacturers. Don't feel safe with "square" versus "rectangular" diamonds in the center. While I've got continental silver tress on straps that have square diamonds, elongated diamonds that form parallelograms are also correct. Attached is a scan of a strip of original tress at the top over a section of an original Uffz. tropical strap from a hard used 1942 dated tunic with matching tress on the collar (note that the diamonds sort of run together in the middle [as though they have a midrif]); and at the bottom is a strip of reproduction tropical tress.

Repro tropical tress has been with us for a few years and I have one other small sample that was sent to me 5 years ago that is actually a bit better and more of the copper color.

[Ralph Heinz]

More tropical tress

Here is a scan of more tropical tress on Heer Gefreiter and Obergefreiter chevrons.

[Ralph Heinz]

Another strap

Here is a scan of a tropical overcoat strap for an Oberfeldwebel and I'm posting it to show tress with those elongated diamonds with the "midrif" I mentioned earlier. To keep the file small I haven't shown the tongue of the strap or its mate as this is one of a pair.

One thing I've noticed on Heer tropical tress is that there is less variation in color than there is on LW tropical tress -- some of which differs quite a bit and perhaps John could show examples for his collection that would illustrate this.

[Ralph Heinz]

Tress on a tunic

When the tress gets worn and washed on a well used tunic it looks like the attached photo showing a collar detail of a late 1942 period "second model" tropical army tunic. It also shows a type of collar tab that is rarely seen -- not the usual rayon type but one which appears to be made of cotton and which shows a lot of wear. I've only seen this type collar tab on a couple other tropical tunics.

With over 900 licensed makers of insignia during the period of the 3rd Reich, there are legitimate variations just as there are variations in badges, daggers, etc.

[John Hodgin]

Thanks for posting Ralph, great to hear from you. All those chevrons are impressive! Have been searching for years for Luft. tropical chevrons and have found very few, they are very rare. Good you didn't detail what is wrong with the straps on ebay, as I think this eventually gets back to the evil fakers. Must run, swamped at work. Will post some Luft tropical tresse details by this weekend.

Best,
John

[Jos L C]

Hi guys,
A while ago I've bought a yard of tropical Luft tresse from Diane Schreiber.(Brandenburg-Historica)
I was glad to find some and she promised me it was 100 % original.
She also sent some more samples of other tresse she had,also original.

See for yourself and watch the nylon thread seam all the way running at the lowerside of the tresse !!

Samples are from the same source.

Jos.

[Jos L C]

Samples.