BACKGROUND: In late 1940, with the impending German entrance into the North African campaign, tropical uniforms and equipment were quickly developed and issued in time for DAK, Deutsches Afrika Korps, (German Africa Corps), personnel’s arrival in Tripoli in February 1941. Eventually these tropical uniforms would be issued to personnel serving in southern areas of continental Europe. The design of the tropical issued uniforms essentially adhered to the pattern of the field-grey continental uniforms, although in a different color and material, and also followed the same basic war time modifications. Officers and certain senior NCO ranks were responsible for purchasing their own uniforms and as a result were allotted a clothing allowance through the army’s Kleiderkasse, (Clothing Account), system. The Officers and certain senior NCO’s could choose to purchase their uniforms from the armed forces clothing depots or to privately purchase garments of higher quality. Although enlisted personnel were issued their uniforms from government supplies they were also permitted to purchase privately tailored uniforms although the price may have been restrictive. Although Officer’s were responsible for purchasing their own uniforms it seems the majority of the tropical field blouses were issued from the military clothing depots as opposed to private purchase and as a result Officers quite often wore the same field blouses as the EM/NCO’s with the addition of Officer’s insignia. This example is the second tropical model field blouse which would be comparable to the field-grey M42 continental field blouse with non-pleated, pockets with scalloped button down flaps.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Light weight, ribbed, khaki/olive, cotton twill construction field blouse features a vertical, five button front closure with small, opened, fold back, peak lapels and a lay down collar. The field blouse has four, non-pleated, front pockets with scalloped tipped, button down flaps. The breast pockets are the basic patch type while the hip pockets are the saddlebag type with expanding side panels. The right breast has a machine woven, tropical pattern, breast eagle with out-stretched wings, clutching a wreathed, canted, swastika in it’s talons, in light blue/grey rayon threads on a cut-out, woven coppery/tan rayon base. The eagle is hand stitched to field blouse, and most likely restored to the tunic. Both the front and the back of the field blouse have dual, vertical, tapering darts and the reverse also has a short, central, vertical tail skirt vent. The side panels each have three, vertically aligned, stitched eyelets situated at the waistline for the belt support hooks. The belt support hooks are absent. The sleeves each have short, vertical, outside seam slashes at the cuffs with dual fit adjustments buttons to each. The slip on shoulder straps pebbled, alloy retaining buttons and fabric loops are intact but the shoulder straps have been removed. The lay down collar has the typical zig-zag reinforcement stitching to the reverse. The collar has the general issue, EM/NCO’s collar tabs as introduced in late 1940, for wear by personnel serving in tropical climates. The machine woven rayon collar tabs feature ribbed, bluish/grey litzen with interwoven, copper toned branch of service and center stripes. The collar tabs are machine stitched directly to the collar with no backing material. The unlined interior has loosely woven, khaki/tan, cotton reinforcement patches to each side panel with a short vertical cotton twill strap to each side, with six stitched eyelets to each for the belt support hooks. The right forward tail skirt panel has a light weight khaki/tan cotton field dressing pocket with a single button closure. The interior of the field blouse is well marked with black size inkstamps, "B43", indicating it passed through the army’s clothing depot in Berlin in 1943, and the faint, black inkstamped manufacturer’s name and location which appears to be, "Bruno Dunemanit Berlin". The field blouse is in overall very good condition with a few small picks and pulls and minor age toning. The front closure, exterior pocket and shoulder strap buttons are a combination of the field-grey painted, pebbled, alloy and magnetic sheet metal types and all but the shoulder strap buttons are the removable type which are secured by metal "S" rings. The buttons all retain over 95% of their field-grey paint. The cuff and internal field dressing pocket buttons are the ersatz, pressed grey cardboard type and appear to have their original stitching. The field blouse is roughly size 36" chest.

GRADE ****                             PRICE $2,735.00