Tropical insignia

[mario33]

Typical tropical uniform consisted of tan or olive jacket and trousers or shorts.

For the purpose, specially developed litzen were used - with generic orange waffenfarbe. However, I also met suggestions that light blue waffenfarbe was also used but no photo material to confirm this was given.

As far as epaulettes are concerned, those were made of tan drillich material with appropriate waffenfarbe piping (not generic one), eg. 'Sonderverbande 288' used light green waffenfarbe for jagers. Whether tan ones were also used for olive uniforms remains an open question.

Breast insignia were made out of tan/brown bevo with grey/white eagle.

Chevrons, obergrenadier pips were made on tan or brown backing.

Any comments would be appreciated.

[Obergefreiter Hansch]

Nearly correct Mario- copper waffenfarbe was the colour on the blue/ grey litzen- not quite as bright as orange. I have also heard of pale blue as per the breast eagles but not ever seen an example- it seems to be rare!

The shoulderboards were cotton twill in the same weave as the tunic. Mostly they were in olive twill. Piping was synthetic rather than wool...but continental wool boards were VERY common.

The breast eagles were pale blue on tan BeVo- no embroidered were issued unless they were private purchase officers items and then they were continental issue, besides, officers mostly used the issue EMs tunics and eagles. A point to note here is that most i have handled have been hand senw on! I think this was a factory thing.

Chevrons and pips were predominately olive twill- tan was rare, but did appear. I have an original tan panzergrenadier signal blitz but its the only tan backed insignia I have seen for a number of years.

See the pionere tunic pictured below for the most common coloured insignia- this can be considered "textbook" Note this is a later issue M43 style tunic but the insignia is representative of the earlier M41's.

Stefan.

[Obergefreiter Hansch]

and a mint BeVo cap eagle followed by an unattached breast eagle

Again, pale blue on tan;

[Hannibal Brooks]

I recently bought a pair of repro shoulder boards that are more tan than green - will these be ok do you think? I know they don't really match the tunic. I've seen a picture of a (possible) mountain trooper in Tunisia with what looks like woolen shoulder boards (they are very dark compared to the tunic), so I think I might change to this sort. Any thoughts?

[mario33]

Dont worry, any of the following are ok:
- olive
- tan
- dark green
- feldgrau.

Assume the last two might have been 'transferred' from the wool feldbluse... Happened on numerous occassions. See:

[mario33]

I'm comparing here three sets of shoulder pads copies of various producers for you to see and, possibly, comment.

Starting from up: pirschen (Ant-Z on ebay); militaria.net; At the Front.

[Hannibal Brooks]

I've got the Militaria-Net ones, but with hindsight would have preferred a darker set like those from ATF. I'll stick with what I have unless the verdict is too critical!

[Obergefreiter Hansch]

The Ant-Z boards look good, the wool underside should really be olive. Other than that they look good- same material as the tunic.

The Militaria net boards look like the old ATF boards with that camel coloured wool on the underside- if so then they will fade out like...

ATF boards will fade to white in about a week of wear in bright sunlight- they are good if thats the look you want to achieve, but not if you want to retain the olive colour. I have no experience with the others, only ATF. They are as white as my M41 in my avatar! When you take them off, the spot where the button was is very distinctively olive and round! Quite cool, but the fading is too quick!

[mario33]

Looking for reference on insignia of Sonderverbande 288 plus contact to producers/dealers of appropriate replicas.

[Obergefreiter Hansch]

Nicholas Morigi does a nice BeVo Svb288 arm badge. As for reference, only what I have read in the books listed in this section.

[mario33]

Looking for photo evidence confirming examples of 'tropical' gefreiter chevrons being put directly on sleeves, w/o any backing. Right or wrong ?

[SchnellMeyer]

Mario33 and Obf. Hansch , great to see guys working together like this , what a wealth of information we have on this forum.