SS colar tabs without buckram backing

[espenlaub]

As this is also seen on heavy worn Heeres officers tunics, Luft tunics, and normally most part of M 40's etc, where a such bucram is located inside the collar edges ( where the collartabs attached, not only SS) as a reinforcement for keeping the shape of the edges solid.

[espenlaub]

Police diamond, is still with partially keeping glue

[espenlaub]

Or even I have such a worn buckram from a ranktab

[espenlaub]

What could be done with the even harder cardboard inside of officers shoulderstraps, which is based on the very salty Pz tunic

[espenlaub]

Most of the modern peoples, even who came over duty in the army, could not understand the awfullness of the war in the wet trenches in the swamps of the eastern front, where the surmount obstacles being crawled in the mud+ sweat makes the uniforms shabby in 2-3 weeks, I do not speak about the louses, wounds and abrasions, making the body fester and stink. Under the heavy artillery fire, mine fields etc in the frontline and without the clean water, soldiers have not possibility even to wash, even to slake.

[NickG]

Thanks for showing Espenlaub! Yeah I am now totaly convinced that what appears to be unbacked tabs in period images are infact actually tabs exposed to the elements loosing total stiffness...Period images make you think they're modified but its infact glue loss! So unbacked tabs are really not as common as you might believe when studying period images!

Here some images of (stiff) SS tabs with issues...too large and 2nd image NCO tresse stitched on top of the tab inorder to create more space...
an issue with NCO uniforms... NCO tresse application on top of the tab could be facilitated by removing the stiff tab buckram, a scenario I
believe is very plausible ( for easier tailoring).
Anyway tabs would often be modified, (below examples) reshaped, trimmed, possibly buckram removed even, inorder to obtain a better fit!

[Felix]

I would like to chime in before the image is hidden in smoke.
Yes, there are collar tabs without the backing material original sewn on, but that is very rare. It happened but very far from the norm.
Who can tell unless its a removed tab? As stated by several including me is that during combat wear tabs got softened by moisture, rain etc and lost their shape. thats whats usually seen in period photos and looks like wrinkled tabs or very soft. That should not be mistaken for tabs without the buckram. Remember that SS wanted fancy uniforms and in some cases even padded the collar tabs with extra support to make them protrude and look even more fancy. Pictured below is a cut of whole collar from my collection with tabs using extra support to make them looks more neat. Tabs are neatly stuck under the litzen of the collar as well. Ok, thats not the issue here, but just as an example.

Please compare with all vet removed insignias out there. At least + 95 % or probably 99 % still have the stiffener.

[John Pic]

Nice one Felix and I agree with your assessment.