SS Tunic and Smock - 1944

[Mike C]

Hello all,

I have an interest in W-SS units that engaged Canadian troops. The image shows what might have been issued a 12th SS-Panzer-Division soldier in the spring of 1944: a mint late-war, blurred edge M42 Type I smock and a M43 tunic in german wool with a mix of RZM and Bevo insignia. Both items are mint - have been tracking the tunic for many years but the smock (unworn with original draw string and a mixture of about five different camo runs and dye lots) came on the market a few months back.

Mike

[Luca Ongaro]

Nice set Mike The M43 seem in Italian wool by these pictures but as you told is not.
Luca

[Ken B.]

Love that smock

[Mike C]

Hi Luca,

Please forgive me - I can only plead a long day at work that has made me more obtuse than normal. I meant to say the opposite (as you have pointed out) and, for some reason, I said German vice Italian. And, of course one could make reference to the Italian HBT lining.

Sigh...

Mike

[Glenn McInnes]

Very nice Mike..




Glenn

[besslein]

yes italian wool tunic,but very nice set

[ibencsik]

l

Hi!
No Question!very nice set!
ibencsik

[Petr]

Wonderful camo smock!!
Best
Petr

[Palmenmuster]

The smock is a real KILLER !!!!!! Beautiful.
Best regards, Tom

[schnellermeyer]

Awesome and congratulations on acquiring the items, I also have a 12th SS fetish

[Doug Kenwright]

For 20 years i have been trying to track down 12thSS related items here in Canada..i can state with some conviction that the men involved took very little in the way of souvenirs, not even a collar tab or award for most...most of the larger items, from Tunics up, were gathered by the powers that be, and were shipped back to Canada for their official collections.

I was even stationed in a garrison town where one of the regiments that fought the 12th was barracked, and knew some of the old boys personally.They all stated the same things..never really bothered, never cared..it was all just more of the same junk...it was laying everywhere...
Had better things to do..

Had a really interesting talk with a man who with his pal, were looking for firewood and were captured by a recce patrol led by a "most severe" looking NCO...When searched, he was mortified to remember that he had a ring and a collar tab he was saving for a friend back home..when the the Germans searched him and found it, the NCO said to him that his men wanted to shoot him on the spot.You have to remember that the 12th and the Canucks had some serious bad blood going on between them by this point, and prisoners were not being taken on both sides..

It was only through the professionalism of the senior NCO and the fact that they could not be discovered that saved their lives..it really could have ended badly..he made a point of mentioning this because he knows the reputation that the 12th has, and said that if people only knew some of what we did to those young lads, they would be shocked! This is the only instance i can recollect of SS insignia being taken, though i am sure at least some was!

I think it was the bitter animosity between these two groups that had their minds on everything else but collecting souvenirs..

[viva_giulio]

could you make detailed photos of tunic and smoke.
it seems very good.

[Fritz]

Very nice set, Mike. The tunic looks familiar to me and if it's the one I think it is it is one of those that I believe to be 100% ok. Nothing to add to the smock, it's a brilliant piece.

Cheers!

Fritz

[besslein]

Very nice set, Mike. The tunic looks familiar to me and if it's the one I think it is it is one of those that I believe to be 100% ok. Nothing to add to the smock, it's a brilliant piece.

Cheers!

Fritz

for me the smock look familiar,I think I have seen this one in real in Hamburg

[Fritz]

for me the smock look familiar,I think I have seen this one in real in Hamburg

....and......?.....

Cheers


Fritz