My M40 tunic -

[hochiminhtrail]

it looks like the tunic is OK, but the croatian sleeve tab is a little bit odd,

i mean it s totaly possible to find same tunics, i think in the 80 s they were large quatities of tunic coming out of italy, from red cross warehouses, and second hand cloth dealers, some straped a a lot.
i have seen how a guy found 20 overcoats all identical. All straped together.

so the tunic with the same maker is possible, unusual but possible.

But i do not believe in the croatian sleeve shield.



Alex

[derspiess63]

it looks like the tunic is OK, but the croatian sleeve tab is a little bit odd,

i mean it s totaly possible to find same tunics, i think in the 80 s they were large quatities of tunic coming out of italy, from red cross warehouses, and second hand cloth dealers, some straped a a lot.
i have seen how a guy found 20 overcoats all identical. All straped together.

so the tunic with the same maker is possible, unusual but possible.

But i do not believe in the croatian sleeve shield.



Alex

I'm 101% with Alex on this one, since I had witnessed Italian "miracle-finds",even of "6-packs" of rare WSS camo myself as well,so two or even more tunics with the same stampings and/or paper tag don't surprise me the least....what I think to be 4554% iffy is the array of Croatian shields,Campaign shields,award loops and ribbons on a mint tunic!
Eagle and litzen shown in the pictures look original to the tunic but I wouldn't bet a dick about the other accoutrements!
Nice tunic anyway!
FWIW
Manny

[RobertE]

I'm 101% with Alex on this one, since I had witnessed Italian "miracle-finds",even of "6-packs" of rare WSS camo myself as well,so two or even more tunics with the same stampings and/or paper tag don't surprise me the least....what I think to be 4554% iffy is the array of Croatian shields,Campaign shields,award loops and ribbons on a mint tunic!
Eagle and litzen shown in the pictures look original to the tunic but I wouldn't bet a dick about the other accoutrements!
Nice tunic anyway!
FWIW
Manny

Good points, looks like a real war hero to me as well. Nothing says these were original wartime applied - but nothing says they weren't. The Croatian shield is a known pattern, and the Krim shield is good as far as I can tell. The medal loops are correctly done. Lots of stuff for a basic private, and no story to go with it - guess I'll never know and I'm stuck with it as is.

[Alex Ciavaglia]

Interesting that they're both large sizes, and thanks for identifying the city - so these were made in an occupied country. The rank/collar/insignia are all factory sewn, but I'm not sure the foreign volunteer / campaign shield are original to the tunic. Is your eagle sewn like this? Are your collar tabs backed with green drillich herringbone?

Hi Robert,
i have to say that the insigna of my tunic is completely sewn after the war; looking carefully, i can see some tracks of the original mounted insigna (breast eagle and einheitslitzen). However it remains a very nice and original tunic.
About the collar, it's backed with hbt cloth, and it has the typical reinforce just inside the pointed ends of it.
Greetings,
Alex

[Mauser]

Krim shield fake ?

I think the Krim shield may be bad,it looks very similar in deed to this well known fake which Pascal has done a brillant artical on , the long and short arms of the "4"'s in the date, the eagle head.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ight=fake+krim


It might be an idea to submitt a better pic of the sheild to the "General wehrmacht awards area" for discussion. Its hard to tell for sure from the blury image.

Mark

[bnz. 42]

Are front buttons marked on this tunic?

[RobertE]

Are front buttons marked on this tunic?

Yes, they are marked RSS -

[airborne_steve]

Hi Guys,


The depot stamp, is it "WB" or "WBr"? If it is "WB" (Wurzburg depot) the stamp should have a pair of short, horizontal lines on each side of the center number (chest size) separating the upper numbers from the lower numbers. Like below example:

43 42
- 98 -
73 64

WB 40

In any case this is an unusal depot stamp.

Cool tunic. Steve

[Glenn McInnes]

Here is what Steve is referring to. This is marked WB40,



Glenn

[RobertE]

You folks sure are helpful thanks. Here is a closeup of my markings -

[RobertE]

and the tag - this depot is supposed to be in Czech republic, according to a fellow collector from Italy -

[airborne_steve]

Hi again,


Glenn's "WB" tunic markings are typical of this depot. As far as I know, "WB" is the only stamp that has the two lines separating the upper and lower numbers. By the looks of Roberts tunic the depot is "WBr"? I have never seen this stamp before.

Steve

[lbsr]

Prossnitz(in German), Prostějov (in Czech) is really town in Moravia, cca 50 km form Moravia capital - BRNO. There are (and were ) great textile factories, which made uniforms for Austro-Hungarian, Czechoslovakian armies and probably for WH too. In Brno was the greatest depot of military material in pre-war Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakian uniforms from that depot was used for training purposes by WH after occupation.
From some sources I know Ukrainian Bn "Roland" used old czechoslovakian uniforms from Vienna (W) depot and I think these uniforms were in fact from depot in Brno. From these facts I assume (it is ONLY assumption) the Brno's depot became in war local branch of Vienna military depot. Ithat case "WBr" letters may be for Vienna military depot (W) - local branch Brno (Br).

airborne_steve,
could You tell me from what sources You know that WB is abbrevitation for Wurzburg depot? In Agolia/Schlicht book about Heer uniforms is stated WB is abbrevitation of unknown war military depot.

[RobertE]

Prossnitz(in German), Prostějov (in Czech) is really town in Moravia, cca 50 km form Moravia capital - BRNO. There are (and were ) great textile factories, which made uniforms for Austro-Hungarian, Czechoslovakian armies and probably for WH too. In Brno was the greatest depot of military material in pre-war Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakian uniforms from that depot was used for training purposes by WH after occupation.
From some sources I know Ukrainian Bn "Roland" used old czechoslovakian uniforms from Vienna (W) depot and I think these uniforms were in fact from depot in Brno. From these facts I assume (it is ONLY assumption) the Brno's depot became in war local branch of Vienna military depot. Ithat case "WBr" letters may be for Vienna military depot (W) - local branch Brno (Br).

airborne_steve,
could You tell me from what sources You know that WB is abbrevitation for Wurzburg depot? In Agolia/Schlicht book about Heer uniforms is stated WB is abbrevitation of unknown war military depot.

Ibsr - This is very interesting, thank you for contributing. The Brno role in uniform manufacturing is new to me, and there are some features on this uniform that differ from regular army tunics. For instance, the shade of green is almost a light grey, and the shoulder boards are made from the exact same material. The full name of the city stamped in the liner is not something present in any other tunics I've owned or seen - it looks like it could have been made from in an occupied country.

[Alex Ciavaglia]

Ibsr - This is very interesting, thank you for contributing. The Brno role in uniform manufacturing is new to me, and there are some features on this uniform that differ from regular army tunics. For instance, the shade of green is almost a light grey, and the shoulder boards are made from the exact same material. The full name of the city stamped in the liner is not something present in any other tunics I've owned or seen - it looks like it could have been made from in an occupied country.

Hi Robert,
the light grey shade of the material used to manufactured this tunic, is perfectly regular and in line with the year of production (1941). Infact, in that year begin a progressive alteration of the shade of the Feldgrau used on the 1st part of the war to manufactured the clothes. If you look carefully the internal lining, you can note as it's darker than normal lining you can find on models '36, '40.
About this tunic, don't worry, every feature of it, is very fine (Krim and Croatian badge apart) !
PS: about the 'WBr' marking, great intuition Ibsr!