help with id-ing date of low ankle boots

[josip.broz]

hello all,

i recently acquired these boots on ebay.fr -- they had been advertised as french brodequins.

when i received them, it turned out that they are german wehrmacht boots, as i found a faded stamp on the inside of the shaft:

top - wehrmachtadler
bottom - wba* 640

* (wehrmacht-beschaffungsamt)

could anybody tell me if "640" stands for june 1940 or if it's some sort of code?

no other stamps / markings that i could discern or notice.

any further info and reference is appreciated, thanks a lot,
j.

[Grubhy]

I would rather start looking after German textbook pair, if I were You. These from pics looks very French (cut of soles and shalpe of hobnails) and are not even close to wartime patterns produced there.

[me6_130]

I would rather start looking after German textbook pair, if I were You. These from pics looks very French (cut of soles and shalpe of hobnails) and are not even close to wartime patterns produced there.

I totally agree, not German pattern nor hardware.

Carles

[Svenpanzer]

Always nice to know, if it has a waffenambt, it is original german

[Gran Sasso]

Always nice to know, if it has a waffenambt, it is original german

As you can throw them at the enemy they were classified as weapons, therefore the Waffenamt!

[josip.broz]

thanks for the reply, guys -- and apologies if i hadn't been clear enough:

i didn't ask if the boots were genuine or not -- they are.
my question was rather if they can be dated, and if the "640" stands for a calendar date or a chapter code or whatever.

even if they had technically been manufactured by a french cobbler / factory, being issued by the wehrmacht-beschaffungsamt (wba) makes them an official piece of a german uniform.

"wehrmacht-beschaffungsamt" stands for "wehrmacht procurement office" -- it coordinated the sourcing, procurement and distribution of clothing, uniforms and field equipment, both in nazi germany and abroad in the occupied territories (a paris office was established in june, 1940, for instance).

there is a stellar book that focuses on shoe production in fascist germany:
der schuh im nationalsozialismus (by anne sudrow)

it was her doctoral dissertation and it received a prize in 2010 from the german society of historians.

personal site with bio and bibliography:
http://zzf-pdm.de/site/745/default.aspx

as to "textbook" variations -- i only trust textbooks that i have written myself.

thanks again, cheers!

[GAMS1]

Typical civilian pattern french boots pre war , used mainly by NCO or OFF .
Double row of nails on the heels is typical for mountain use in the french army .
German eagle inside ? Strange ...
Nick

[Grubhy]

So You stamped them "WBA" by You own? That's only true "texbook" for You as I understood yours words.

thanks for the reply, guys -- and apologies if i hadn't been clear enough:

i didn't ask if the boots were genuine or not -- they are.
my question was rather if they can be dated, and if the "640" stands for a calendar date or a chapter code or whatever.

even if they had technically been manufactured by a french cobbler / factory, being issued by the wehrmacht-beschaffungsamt (wba) makes them an official piece of a german uniform.

"wehrmacht-beschaffungsamt" stands for "wehrmacht procurement office" -- it coordinated the sourcing, procurement and distribution of clothing, uniforms and field equipment, both in nazi germany and abroad in the occupied territories (a paris office was established in june, 1940, for instance).

there is a stellar book that focuses on shoe production in fascist germany:
der schuh im nationalsozialismus (by anne sudrow)

it was her doctoral dissertation and it received a prize in 2010 from the german society of historians.

personal site with bio and bibliography:
http://zzf-pdm.de/site/745/default.aspx

as to "textbook" variations -- i only trust textbooks that i have written myself.

thanks again, cheers!