M43 jacket problem

[anmarlodz]

Guys I have some problem concerning my M43 jacket ; I bought last year an M43 army jacket made of italian gabardine ( which I was looking for very long time ). As you may seen it's restored jacket with army insignia reapplied ( only tresse is original untouched wartime applied piece ). At first look ok and it seems to be standart restored jacket with some good restoration job but ...( there is always some but )... after some close inspection it seems that it was used by SS soldier as there are very well visible traces of SS insignia being applied at some point ( and they were there for long time - and definately jacket was used with them for long time ); on the collar liner well imprinted ss collar patches, on sleeve well visible place where cufftitle was and place where sleeve bird was sewn. There are also well visible place were original army eagle was on chest ( reapllied eagle is a bit misplaced with place where original one once was ).
I know that SS was using army jacket when run out own made. Also many WSS soldiers on their own were using army one ( for example made of gabardine - never seen WSS M43 gabardine jackets at all - only some M44). I'm guessing that one may be one of such bought/exchange jackets and used by WSS. I also guessing that previous owner/person who restored the jacket didn't seen those evident traces of SS insignia being applied at some point and as it is standard 3 holes, army cut jacket he restored it with army insignia.
My question is should I remove army insignia which were recently reapllied and restored it to original WSS configuration ?? or maybe leave it as it is right now ?

Below photos of jacket.

[anmarlodz]

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[anmarlodz]

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[anmarlodz]

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[Daniel.S]

If you remove the breasteagle you will have a big ghost of the eagle there....cosmetically speaking..

[anmarlodz]

Maybe but it must been like that before it was restored. The traces of SS insignia being applied looks much older than army insignia. Also the silver color of tresse would match SS as they were ussing it all the time while army was using grey tresse from 43 onwards ( and this jacket definately wasn't walking out jacket - as usually army walking out jackets has silver tresse - but it is combat used jacket - has a lot of wear on botton holes and it's quite dirty ).

[CWP]

I agree, if you remove the breast eagle you are going to have a big obvious breast eagle shadow.

If you apply SS insignia it will likely obscure or destroy the faint traces of the previous SS insignia application.

I would leave it as it is.

[Reggu]

I would leave as is, nothing really screams wss tunic to me after thouse pictures at all to be honest...

More like someone tryed to make it a wss tunic at some point, and the person after that did a good job restoring it back to it's former self!

Regarding the tress, wss also used subdued tress later in the war.

Anyhow a beautiful jacket!

[mikeburch]

M43 Lacket

These "reworked" or "restored" pieces always have a stink.
Who knows what is right or what is faked ?
mikeburch

[viva_giulio]

What is done is done... Leave as this. An m43 3 holes will worth always the price of an heer tunic plus insigna.

[anmarlodz]

I would leave as is, nothing really screams wss tunic to me after thouse pictures at all to be honest...

More like someone tryed to make it a wss tunic at some point, and the person after that did a good job restoring it back to it's former self!

Regarding the tress, wss also used subdued tress later in the war.

Anyhow a beautiful jacket!

In hand the stiching holes on sleeve from cufftitle and eagle are much easier to see than in photos. The collar pacthes were there but much longer than collar tabs and there evident traces that jacket was worn with WSS collar patches for very very long time ( if somebody tried to make it WSS there would be no wear traces but only some stiches holes ).

Another thing ; look at left side collar patch - there are two punched trought holes for rank "stars" - no collector would do such thing as it would destroy jacket , but it was often done that way in period when soldier get promotion and didn't want to/ couldn't remove collar patche to upgrade it.

I was wondering about restoration for WSS because I already have WSS gabardine cap ( which had also insignia removed ) to make it complete gabardine WSS set.

[anmarlodz]

Does anybody could provide me exact size of WSS cufftitle, sleeve eagle and collar pathces ( in both variants - bevo and embroid ) ? I will check the sizes of traces on jacket

[anmarlodz]

What is done is done... Leave as this. An m43 3 holes will worth always the price of an heer tunic plus insigna.

As any restored jacket.

[viva_giulio]

An SS tunic disbadged worth x3 at least.
An beer tunic /3

[Daniel.S]

r - no collector would do such thing .

Ive seen collectors GLUE Ss insignia on original tunics.......collectors do the most stupid things actually, especially with tunics.

There is pratically no Ghost of any ss insignia (exept the collartabs), but the army eagle ghost is very clear, there are no really good traces of cufftitle or armeagle.

Im sure if it was worn wartime in combat the breast-eagle ghost would have faded more and the cufftitle and armeagle traces would be much clearer, now you have the opposit.

Its your tunic so you can do whatever you want, but the eagle is nicely restored , think about it before you remove it