• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Long Shearling coats at the Front

m444uk

Active Member
German soldier WW1 well protected from the cold.
schc3b6nert.jpg


The Bund Archive is a good source of WW2 photos which are often dated.

Russian Front 1941 Orel
Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-287-0872-11_Russland_bei_Orel_Soldat.jpg


Russian Front date unknown
img164.jpg


What looks like a brand new shearling coat Budapest Feb 1945.General Major Heinz Harmel. Possibly of Hungarian manufacture. This is unusual as by this time shearling had been phased out. Note the scull and crossbones of the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf. The following month they were more or less annihilated.
Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-2006-0819-500_Heinz_Harmel_SS-Brigadefuumlhrer_u._Generalmajor.jpg


1943 pattern parka. The last stand in Germany March 1945
GerTroopsMar45.jpg
 

ties70

Well-Known Member
Just a handy shot from the photo album:

leder.jpg


Maternal grandfather on the left, Eastern Front.
 

MikeyB-17

Well-Known Member
These pics have me quite fancying a B-7 now! Trouble is, like the unfinished B-3's, I think they need to be worn in to look good, but when they are, they look grubby. Plus I could never afford one anyway! I know there have been repro B-7's-didn't Aero do one?
 

m444uk

Active Member
Some more pictures from the Bund Archive that caught my eye

Private purchase jacket
Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-346-0808-31_Frankreich_Pilot.jpg


Present for Churchill dropped during the Battle of Britain
Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-342-0615-18_Im_Westen_Flugzeugbombe_1.jpg


Many of the better quality and posed photos were taken by the staff of Signal magazine and the forces magazines Die Wehrmacht and Der Adler.
Here's a rare photo of a newsreel cameraman holding an 35mm Arri 1c movie camera whilst attached to Fallschirmjager (Paratroops) in Italy 1944
Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-581-2072-16A_Italien_Fallschirmjager_einer_mit_Filmkamera.jpg


Paras in the Ardennes 1944 hitching a lift on a King Tiger
e9781783460212_i0007.jpg
 
Last edited:

MikeyB-17

Well-Known Member
Further to this, I was in London yesterday and chanced upon the Real McCoys shop, which I had to have a look at. They had a B-7 on the wall, looked stunning, but considering they wanted £75 for a USN watch cap, I decided not to bother asking the price!
 

m444uk

Active Member
I don't know how they can afford to pay the rent. Even a small shop in that location is thousands a week.
 

MikeyB-17

Well-Known Member
I thought the same, I talked myself out of a Buco helmets mug for £25. Leather newsboy cap, £175. Mind you, American Classics have been there for years (I didn't get a chance to go there, probably just as well), and I don't think they're much cheaper.
 

John Lever

Moderator
The context of the last photo has me stumped. The bloke on the bike looks to be wearing a German jacket but one of the squaddies on the tank is holding a sten.
 

m444uk

Active Member
The context of the last photo has me stumped. The bloke on the bike looks to be wearing a German jacket but one of the squaddies on the tank is holding a sten.

They are German Fallschirmjager. The Sten was probably liberated from the fighting they did against British and Commonwealth forces in the previous campaign in Italy. Perhaps even from the British forces they captured in Crete.
The dispatch rider appears to be wearing leather jacket and trousers. Not sure about the bike though, is it a Zundapp ?
 

m444uk

Active Member
Surprised that a Sten would be preferable to an mp40.

It might be a Mauser Gerät Potsdam. An issued weapon in 1944. A Sten copy making use of the plentiful supply of 9mm ammo and useful for traveling light.
Tank crews liked them for personal protection. In it's silenced form the America 1st Cav and others used Stens for special operations as late as the Vietnam war.

tiger_ii_bulge_9.jpg
 

John Lever

Moderator
Just watched hikock 45 on YouTube pretty sure it's a Sten but apparently the Germans did make something similar very late in the war. The Sten could use most 9 mm rounds so maybe ammo wasn't an issue.
 

Andrew

Well-Known Member
The dispatch rider appears to be wearing leather jacket and trousers. Not sure about the bike though, is it a Zundapp ?

Don't know but after checking this it's not this particular model at least. This is a model kit I made of a Zundapp circa 1976 (I would have been about 13 or 14 and I remember the excitement of opening that box for the first time and going through the million bits and complex instructions...).

604c5b81.jpg


a8ef8948.jpg
 
Top