Afrika Edelweiss, help needed.

[sander vw]

Nice patch! I'm also missing this one... I have over 50 diffrent examples now but I never bumped into one like these...

[Ralph Heinz]

Tropical Windjacke

It took me awhile to find a photo of the Tropical Gebirgsjager Windjacke I mentioned but finally found one. Ironically, the owner of this gem told me he got it for a song because no one thought it was any good. He'd never noticed the maker's ink stamp and date inside till I set it up to photograph.

[Ralph Heinz]

Wartime photo of a GB patch being worn

I'm going to include just a cropped section of a wartime photo in a friend's collection but which I have here. I hate to tease anyone but you'll have to wait awhile to see the entire photo when it is published.

It will sufice to say that it's a Gebirgsjager NCO in a tan tunic with the green backed GB patch; an AFRIKAKORPS sleeve band; a marksmanship lanyard; a tan or faded olive M40 tropical field cap with a soutache and a metal Edelweiss; leather GB boots; and tan LW tropical trousers. It's in a remembrance album with a religious inscription that makes me think the man was KIA and there are dried Edelweiss flowers in the small album next to the photo.

[Tim O'Keefe]

Ralph

Great photos. Notice the AKCT is the olive one, not the tan one. Any idea on the date of this picture ?

Tim

[NZMark]

Ralph,
Always wonderful to see you adding such informative postings.
The tan-backed eidelweiss on the GBJR jacket is VERY interesting, while the photo of the chemically bleached tunic is certainly a tease...I look forward to seeing the whole image!
Mark

[MilitaryCollect]

Afrika Edelweiss, help needed.

Spectacular!

[Lemm]

Ralph any chance of a better pic of that windjacket with the patch. I know its hard to tell from this picture but the color of that patch looks to me to be the same light sandy type coloring of the fake patch whereas the original patch shown at the start of this thread looks more the color of the jacket. Maybe just a bad pic.

[PBR]

I agree with Phil, IMHO that one is the sand cloured fake.

[tropenmilitaria]

the grouping is on Bruce Herman's site, looks to be a worn and removed one in that set. Matt

Here it is for closer inspection. It is being posted for collector reference only and not to bash anyone. Bruce has been notified of its repro status (thanks to a fellow WAF member for verifying it as a repro) and I am sure this information will be passed on to any potential buyer of the grouping. The rest of the grouping looks 100% good except the shoulder straps don't seem to match the wear of the tunic at all?.....compare the bright NCO strap tress to the dirty NCO collar tress...but the soldier could have replaced the straps at a later date I guess. Anyway, here is the front:

[tropenmilitaria]

Reverse:

[NickG]

This recreation from a European reference book...
Does not mean anything but just wanted to share it...
Represents a sniper in the Italian theatre...

[Tim O'Keefe]

Hi Nick

You think this is the repro patch then ? The one posted that began this thread is much darker background than the repro version at least from the photos.
Also agree the one Ralph posted also appears to be the lighter background version from the photo...

Also thanks Andy for the great pics of the bad one...

[NickG]

Hi Nick

You think this is the repro patch then ? The one posted that began this thread is much darker background than the repro version at least from the photos.

Yes...Post 1 = good, post #17 is 100% crap and post #39 also has issues in my book.
Note non shiny piton and overal lack of detail on edelweiss!!

[Jody]

Tropical Edelweiss

Hello folks,
First off I love the edelweiss that started the thread and that example is 100% good. These tropical Edelweiss patches were probably never awarded, but they are still good.

The term rare is thrown about in this hobby, but these patches are certainly very rare.

Only one of these have ever come my way and that was in 1984 when I was 19 years old (I am 45 now). Instead of chasing girls in college I was chasing 3rd Reich militaria (I guess things will never change).

It was actually sold through Manions (back when Manion's was good). In that year Ron sold off his cloth collection of 1,816 pieces. One of these was available and I place a bid of $150+ on it (along with a similar bid an Army Ski Jaeger sleeve patch). I did not get either of them. If I knew now, I would have placed a higher bid on both pieces.

Here is the Manion's from 26 years ago. Check out those prices (the good ole days). As you can see it matches the 1st example posted.

Regards,
Jody

[Jody]

Manion's

BTW, here is the cover in case anyone sees one for sale; it is still a great reference for cloth and I still use it to look stuff up (I am old school).