are these PZ boards??? or are they DDR??

[BROBS]

Any help with these?
I was thinking about purchasing.

1st off, would you say they are WW2?
2nd, would you say Panzer?

Thanks for any input,
-Brian

[BROBS]

pics 2

[GAMS1]

Not DDR for sure ...
More LW IMO ?
Nick

[BROBS]

that was another question I had..

if LW what branch used pink like PZ?
flight engineers?

Also, is the only difference between a PZ board and a Luft board the color of the pip?

[afrikasandman]

Brobs,

the difference between Luft and Heer boards is that Heer boards have a subdued top and Luft boards have the shinny top. To make it even harder, you do see Heer officers wearing Luft boards in period photos all the time. So unless you have solid provenance they could go either way. These are Luft boards though, see how shinny the tops are? Matt

[Waffenreich]

To clarify a little on what Matt said, standard Heer slip-on boards have subdued plaiting. Heer officers did wear shiny boards on their dress uniforms (e.g. Waffenrocks and Piped Field Service Tunics), but by design they were meant to be sew-in.

Slip-on boards with the shiny plaiting are generally associated with the Luftwaffe as they had no uniform that called for the wear of subdued plaiting (neither slip-on nor sew-in) - all uniforms by design called for shiny plaiting.

There are period photos of Heer officer's wearing slip-on boards with shiny plaiting, BUT this was in contradiction to the regs as the uniform calling for a shiny board required a sew-in. Could these have been worn by a Heer Pz officer, yes. But as has been said, without provenance they must be considered Luftwaffe.

[tony james]

one of the manufacturers of early east german shoulderboards from around 1956 to 61/62 did indeed produce a shoulder board like this one . they are rare to find and must have been made in small numbers but I have seen a few since 1989 on some rare early tunics .also in the early years of the east german army war time shoulderboard pips ,collar tress and buttons were used .

[BROBS]

so they are DDR???????

[NickG]

Luftwaffe technical engineering branch

[tony james]

Luftwaffe technical engineering branch

I agree . the east german made ones are slighty longer in length but otherwise pretty much identical.

[Rev462]

I usually post over on the East German forum but I thought a few photos might be of interest in this discussion.

This is a pair of East German Air Force shoulder boards along with screw post attachments, which are sometimes seen on East German tunics. The rank is Hauptmann.

Actually, the gold color of the buttons indicate these boards were originally used by the predecessor of the Air Force, the Volkspolizei-Luft circa 1952 - 1956 although these also would have been used on early Air Force tunics circa 1956 - 1960.

Boards of this style of construction can also be found on early East German Army & Navy tunics circa 1956 - 1960. I have a couple Army tunics with this type of board but didn't wan't to detach them.

[Rev462]

Here's a shot of the back of both boards.

[Shawn Southern]

Heer Summer (White) Tunic

I believe that, in addition to the waffenrock and ornamented (piped) field blouse, the Heer also specified the use of the boards with bright braid on the white tunic. Although most of those are set up to accept t-form boards, but I believe I've seen summer tunics configured to accomodate the "slip-on" type shoulder board.

Best Regards,

Shawn

[RamJet]

Here's a shot of the back of both boards.

Are they magnetic also?

[Homer Hodge]

Luftwaffe technical engineering branch

Nick is right; the pink ones that started this thread are for a Luftwaffe Oberingenieur.