DAK NCO and sanitats?

[jacquesf]

I have two questions, firstly did DAK nco's wear NCO shoulderstraps with tress, while there were no tress on the tunic collars? I have seen this on period pics of late war pattern m44 tunics.

How difficult is it to find DAK sanitats em/nco straps? J

[jacquesf]

I know it happened with shirts , where straps with tress were worn. Did the same happened with tunics? J

[John Hodgin]

HI Jacques,

Loops would have been added to the shirt so straps could have been worn, done in this case because the soldier was an NCO. Do not remember seeing tunics without collar tresse in period photos from Africa.

Best,
John

[Mark Gibson]

Jacques,

I recall seeing at least one photo of a tunic without tress being worn with NCO straps but this certainly wasn't the norm. I have also seen at least one photo of a tunic with about 10cm of tress just at the very front of the collar (both sides). Once again a very unusual occurrence. I've also had to look very closely at a number of photos that appeared to be of NCO tunics without collar tress but the close inspection revealed that they actually did have tress but B&W photos do sometimes make it difficult to clearly see.

Sanitats straps do turn up but you may be looking for a while unless someone offers you a pair.

Thank you for helping me out earlier.

Regards

Mark

[afrikasandman]

In my experience it's pretty uncommon to see tress on the collars of NCOs. I have a few photos of it but buy and large it seems to be the oddity and not the norm. Matt

[OSS]

In my experience it's pretty uncommon to see tress on the collars of NCOs. I have a few photos of it but buy and large it seems to be the oddity and not the norm. Matt

I'm sure you meant "it's pretty uncommon" not "to see tress on the collars of NCOs."

[Tim O'Keefe]

Agree tresse on the collar would be the norm. But have seen a photo of an NCO without any tresse. Or in 1942 as MarkG mentions just a bit of tresse at the front of the collar but not all the way around. Also have seen LW tresse used on Herr tropical tunics and even the "short" tresse not all the way around, but using LW tresse..

In mid to late '42 the troops had to improvise much more on insignia then prior when it was readily available.

[jacquesf]

Thanx guys, very informative. I have seen many period pics of officers, even senior ones, where only the shoulder boards were replaced on the standard em issue tunics. J

[afrikasandman]

I'm sure you meant "it's pretty uncommon" not "to see tress on the collars of NCOs."

In tropical photos (since we are talking about tropical stuff) it's much less common to see any NCO tress on the collars. My experience with tropics photos, show NCOs with NCO shoulder boards but no collar tress. I think out of the hundreds of tropical photos I have I maybe have 10 with NCOs wearing tress on their tropical jackets. Not sure if it was a supply issue or what not.

Continental tunics are the opposite and I would expect to see tress on the collars of those tunics.

Matt

[NickG]

You see both but lacking the tresse on the collar was probably more prevalent due to frequent uniform changes and lack of proper materials!

[NickG]

Some more examples...

[NickG]

Here an interesting mix! Bottom line, anything is possible but lacking tropical tresse on the
DAK uniform collar was pretty standard because of the theatre conditions!!

[Johnny R]

I knew there would be colored arrows involved .

Tresse was used but not as common as with wool tunics etc. As mentioned and illustrated they used the chevron shaped collar trese like Drill tunics as Mark and Tim described on the edges of the collars and the full tresse as well.

[OSS]

In tropical photos (since we are talking about tropical stuff) it's much less common to see any NCO tress on the collars. My experience with tropics photos, show NCOs with NCO shoulder boards but no collar tress. I think out of the hundreds of tropical photos I have I maybe have 10 with NCOs wearing tress on their tropical jackets. Not sure if it was a supply issue or what not.

Continental tunics are the opposite and I would expect to see tress on the collars of those tunics.

Matt

Sorry, I misunderstood as my experience has been the opposite of yours because I believe the majority of tropical Heer NCOs wore collar tress (though very few tropical Luftwaffe NCOs wore collar tress).

[afrikasandman]

Sorry, I misunderstood as my experience has been the opposite of yours because I believe the majority of tropical Heer NCOs wore collar tress (though very few tropical Luftwaffe NCOs wore collar tress).

Ramsey,

Interesting! I'll dive through some of my photos when they arrive next week. Matt