M40 tunic

[km-spain]

probably french made by linning,

Sorry my mistake, this morning I was a little sleepy. This is a maker from Pforzheim that is found not rarely on KM feldbluse.

[Greg45]

Sorry, I forgot to thank you Eduardo for the information

Cheers,

Greg

[NickG]

Hi Greg,

This one is not a standard German army tunic. It might be a converted foreign tunic. The Wehrmacht did re-work captured tunics, for example Dutch army tunics, and there are plenty of period photos to prove it. The tunic shown here has no external lower pockets, which were a classic feature of German-made tunics. If you look at the seam on the lower pocket flaps, you will see that they are very close to the fold line. If you look at the seam on the upper pocket flaps, you can see that there is a gap – maybe 5 or 6 millimetres – between the seam and the fold line. That makes me think that the upper and lower pocket flaps were not applied at the same time.

The lining of this tunic is completely different to factory-made German examples, which again points to a non-German manufacturer. The lettering of the size stamps is different to the font you usually see in German tunics (the ‘curly’ number 3’s in particular), but that is just my personal impression of them. If you Google ‘Friedrich Schmitz Pforzheim’, you will not find any online examples of WW2 tunics, which is odd, if Fred Smith of Pforzheim was making lots of tunics during World War 2.

With apologies, I have to say that the insignia looks horrible. The eagle looks fake, and badly applied, and the collar patches (probably fake) are poorly applied to backing cloth that is a few shades away from classic German ‘badge cloth’.

To be honest, I would advise you to give this one a miss, and save your money for a tunic with less issues. At best, I think that this one might be a reworked foreign tunic that was stripped of its insignia before having some bad fake insignia re-applied. At worst, it might be a foreign-made tunic, maybe even post-war, that has been worked on to repackage it as a German WW2 tunic.

I could be wrong, but I hear many alarm bells ringing when I look at this one.

Save your money, Greg. Great classic tunics show up on the estand here quite regularly. They might not be cheap, but at least your money is going on a genuine item that you will be able to sell in future if you need to.

All the best,

Mark

No issues whatsoever!!!
It's a text book kreigsmarine cut coastal tunic with typical KM full liner...not a thread of foreign material used...
just bogus Heer insignia...Easy to restore back to a Kriegsmarine green uniform !The only thing lacking I see is belt support hooks...just a variation I guess...

[km-spain]

!The only thing lacking I see is belt support hooks...just a variation I guess...

Nick, Küstenartillerie feldbluses only have belt support hooks on rear, so no holes on the front, never.

[NickG]

Nick, Küstenartillerie feldbluses only have belt support hooks on rear, so no holes on the front, never.

That's true...I remember now! (not at home to view my example...)
I have one and the belt I displayed with it on the front always slipped down...
I remember now... so I added Y straps for that reason!!
it's a text book KM tunic than (as I suspected...and you too)

[Mark_K]

Gentlemen,

A thousand apologies. I appear to have field-grey egg all over my face. I never knew coastal artillerie tunics were so different to standard heer tunics, and they do not feature in a lot of collecting guides and textbooks. That was why I compared this tunic to a standard army tunic and found so many anomalies. Many thanks for putting me right on this. It has really been an education - even if I managed to make myself look a prize plum in he process - and it proves that this forum is a fantastic place to keep learning about this hobby.

I have apologised to Greg via pm for the misleading info I posted. It was well-meaning, but totally wrong.

All the best,

Mark