Tropical Obergefreiter Chevron

[herrgeezer]

I just picked this chevron up form forum member Calvin Hall. The chevron is made of a tan twill material with a meshed fiber backing. Neither Calvin nor I are tropical insignia experts so we can't say if this is an original chevron so all comments welcome. Thanks for looking.

[herrgeezer]

back side

[John Hodgin]

Never saw this backing before, but this is Heer and shoulder straps were often wool backed. I am more familiar with Luft tropical. Aside from the backing, the construction is typical. Looks good to me. Perhaps Ralph Heinz or David Bunch will see this and comment.

Regards,
John

[herrgeezer]

Thanks John. If you pull the backing away from the twill material you can actually see through it. It's not as opaque as landscape paper, but it's alot like that in appearance. Since this is a paper-like substance, would it be fair to conclude that this was made mid-to-late war?

[CSP]

the tresse is a very muted color - unusual - but may just be the "scanography".

Heer tropical tresse is typically very copper colored from what I have seen and collected. I am also with John in having never seen this kind of backing. My experience with tropical items of insignia is that there is no backing at all.

Here are some scans that will allow comparison:

[CSP]

a lottle closer. Excuse that I am too lazy to dismount the chevrons and scan the reverses...but they look just like to obverses pretty much.

[CSP]

could yours be Kriegsmarine? or maybe some kind of para-military organization such as RAD? Just guessing...I have no idea.

[herrgeezer]

Hi Scott, thanks for the reply. Very nice collection that you've got from what I can see. As for this chevron, I will say that the backing has me a bit stymied. I can't say that I have even seen it either. The tresse almost blends with the twill material too which is very tan in appearance. From what I can see of your pieces the base material is more green in appearance.

I hope others with tropical insignia will chime in with commements and opinions too. Thanks again.

[John Hodgin]

Don't forget that the Heer had olive green, sage green, tan, and "coffee brown" tropical uniforms. The olive was just the most produced and the others are more scarce. I have a Heer rank pip backed on tan. The color is close to Luftwaffe tropical, but as far as I know, the Luft didn't use pips.