Original German WWII Heer Artillery Hauptmann Officer’s M36 Field Uniform Tunic Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice early pattern German WWII Heer Army Artillery Officer’s M-36 Tunic, showing moderate wear from service and in very good display condition. There is no maker mark on the interior, or other markings, so this was most likely custom made for the officer at a local tailor. The tunic features four pockets with scalloped flaps and pebbled magnetic buttons, which look to be made from pebbled stamped aluminum with galvanized steel backings and eyelets. The front closure features 8 of the same buttons on the right breast flap meeting an equal number of reinforced buttonholes on the left flap. The buttons all appear to be marked on the back with the OLC in a diamond trademark of Overhoff & Cie. of Lüdenscheid, who produced numerous clothing accessories, and they are sewn directly to the fabric. There are also two hook and loop collar securing fasteners, which are fully functional, and the collar has a nice lining to prevent the neck from getting caught in the collar.

The interior is lined with with a lovely olive / gray colored lightweight brushed cotton or rayon , while the sleeves are lined with the usual striped white cotton. There are some repairs to the lining near the collar, which also shows some signs of repairs while in service. There is an interior slash pocket inside the left front hip, and there are a few minor tears and some light staining, but the interior is really in great shape aside from the repairs.

It is adorned with the usual rank and branch insignia used on German tunics. The attractive Army breast eagle is the correct officer’s silver bullion hand embroidered type on a green background, and is stitched to the outer layer of fabric only, though it looks to have been re-applied at some point. There is just a bit of fraying on the eagle due to wear.

The collar is wrapped in flaschengrün (dark bottle-green) wool, and has officer’s field litzen collar patches on each side, which are woven from silver bullion thread with a dark bottle green background matching the collar. The colored stripes on each are Hochrot (Deep Red) wool, the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) during WWII for Artillery, as well as General Level Officers. The front closure is also piped with this color. As this is a company grade officer tunic, this is definitely for artillery, and Generals also did not use the Litzen collar insignia, instead using red and gold “Arabesque” insignia. The collar is in good shape, tough there is a bit of wear around the top edge, which is usually one of the first places to show damage from use.

The “sew-in” style company officers schulterklappen (shoulder boards) of this tunic are constructed with two rows of fine silver flatware “Russia Braid” double piping and have the correct red piping around the edges. There are two gold “pips” installed on each, indicating the officer rank of Hauptmann (Head man), equivalent to a U.S. Army captain.

Overall condition is very good, with just a bit of light wear and staining consistent with service. We cannot see any major mothing or other issues with the uniform, just a few nips around the collar insignia. The litzen and shoulderboards also show some light wear. This is a uniform tunic that that saw light to moderate service during the war, and overall it displays very nicely.

A very nice custom made German Artillery Officer’s Tunic, ready to display!

Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 9″
Shoulder to sleeve: 26”
Shoulder to shoulder: 14”
Chest width: 18″
Waist width: 18″
Hip width: 24″
Front length: 33″

Terms such as M40 and M43 were never designated by the Wehrmacht, but are names given to the different versions of the Model 1936 field tunic by modern collectors, to discern between variations, as the M36 was steadily simplified and tweaked due to production time problems and combat experience.

Field Tunic (Feldbluse) Model 1936
When the NSDAP came to power in early 1933 the Reichswehr, the armed forces of the Weimar Republic, were near the end of a two-year project to redesign the Army Feldbluse (field-blouse). Beginning in that year the new tunic was issued to the Reichsheer and then the rapidly growing Wehrmacht Heer, although minor design changes continued to be made until the appearance of the standardized Heeres Dienstanzug Modell 1936. The M36 tunic still retained the traditional Imperial and Reichswehr uniform color of grey-green “field gray” (feldgrau) wool, but incorporated four front patch pockets with scalloped flaps and pleats (on Reichswehr tunics the lower pockets were internal and angled). The front was closed with five buttons rather than the previous eight, and the collar and shoulder straps were of a dark bottle-green instead of the Reichswehr grey. Compared to the Weimar-era uniforms the skirt of the feldbluse was shorter and the tailoring was more form-fitting due to Germany’s adoption of mechanized warfare: soldiers now spent much time in the confined space of a vehicle and a shorter jacket was less likely to pick up dirt from the seats. It also included an internal suspension system, whereby a soldier could hang an equipment belt on a series of hooks outside of the tunic. These hooks were connected to two straps inside the lining, which spread the weight of equipment without having to use external equipment suspenders. The M36 was produced and issued until the very end of the war, though successive patterns became predominant.