Not always textbook

[teutonen(Jeff)]

RE: # 6317 (last Pge) Photos Forum

What is interesting here is his collar litzen. He appears to wear white/yellow on his shoulderbds and visor, but his collar tabs have a dark litzen.

[hucks216]

I have a tunic to a Pz Grenadier officer that shows dark green on the collar tabs and white on the epaulettes, as can be confirmed by the two photos of him wearing the tunic. In this case I think it was due to the litzen turning green over a period of time rather then a deliberate use of different colours.

(Photos Courtesy of: God, Honor, Fatherland by Thomas McGuirl and Remy Spezzano - ISBN: 978-0965758406)

[hucks216]

Pic 1...

[hucks216]

Pic 2...

[Johnny R]

This is not really that unusual to see especially later in the War and on field tunics.

[teutonen(Jeff)]

RE: Hucks comments - Yes, I agree, over time,...but I don't think time being such a short span of the war (i.e. six yrs vs 60 yrs)

RE: Johnny = That's my point. There appears numerous times in this forum,.." not textbook",,,,

My point being, "just because things are not textbook should mean you should discount the item as fake. The piece should be taken "in total" when making determination. This is more a learning point for newer collections to the hobby. Know your subject, get plenty of references, study period photod, etc

[jacquesf]

Jeff is this the picture you are talking about. I see three different colors here? White, visor, light color , shoulder straps, dark color tabs. Jacques

[teutonen(Jeff)]

Yes Jacques

[Johnny R]

I also knew a man who was a studio photographer in Germany during the War. He said they had "props" in the studio and took pictures of soldiers with helmets and dummy rifles, dress swords etc. He also had a section of hats, capes etc. He showed me several photos of LW EMs wearing Army visors. He remembered they had overseas caps but prefered the visors etc. Although no way to prove this concerning these studio photos it did happen.

[jacquesf]

I heard the same thing regarding use of Studio caps. I have also seen pics of that practice. Jacques

[GD/LW]

I also knew a man who was a studio photographer in Germany during the War. He said they had "props" in the studio and took pictures of soldiers with helmets and dummy rifles, dress swords etc. He also had a section of hats, capes etc. He showed me several photos of LW EMs wearing Army visors. He remembered they had overseas caps but prefered the visors etc. Although no way to prove this concerning these studio photos it did happen.

I know this was done during the First WW but I'm not aware it was done during the Second. However, everything is possible. I know that on some infantery uniforms the infantery white was sometimes more a very light brown on the colar litzen.

Jan

[teutonen(Jeff)]

Ok,......

so let's explain this guy - arty/eng/med tabs, but inf bds??? Is there any combination of branch insignia to explain this? His visot/bds could be signal or cav.

I have seen white infantry tabs w. GBJR bds - early tunic, muscians wore tabs of units assigned to (e.g. infantry tabs, but musikmeister bds)....

A thought provoking ?

[Johnny R]

Yes, it is one of the lesser known conditions for Versailles that the Germans had to stop doing this.