Original German WWII Heer Pioneer Combat Engineer Leutnant Officer’s M36 Field Uniform Tunic with Trousers Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice early pattern German WWII Heer Army M-36 Tunic, showing moderate wear from service and in very good display condition. The exterior is made from lovely “whipcord weave” feldgrau wool, which has a lovely texture. 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 pleated pockets with scalloped flaps and pebbled aluminum buttons, and has a six button front closure, with a single “hook and loop” fastener for the collar. The buttons on the tunic are sewn directly to the fabric, not attached with metal circlips, and all are maker marked on the back, showing light wear to the olive green finish.

The interior is lined with golden brown rayon twill, with lightweight light brown rayon lining for the arms. There is an internal slash pocket on the inner left side, as is standard, and there is a hanger clip for a dagger attached to the bottom of the left sleeve. This ends just above the large “eyelet” that opens into the left waist pocket, used to hang the dagger.

The tunic 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 dark bottle green background, and is very neatly hand stitched to the chest in a fashion typical of wartime German tailor work. It is only stitched to the outer layer of fabric, indicating installation when the uniform was made, so it has never been replaced.

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 badge cloth background. The colored stripes on each are Schwarz (Black) bullion, the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) for the Pioniere (Combat engineers), as well as Assault, Armored, Fortress, and Railway engineers. The collar is in good shape, showing moderate wear from service. This is typical, as the collar is a high wear area, and one of the first areas to show damage from use.

The button-retained 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 black felt covering on the belt and edges. There are no rank “pips” installed, indicating the lowest officer rank of Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant). There is some wear to the Russia braid, and there is also mothing to the black bases, which are unfortunately very vulnerable to moth damage.

Overall condition is very good, with just a bit of light wear and staining consistent with service. There are a few small holes, as well as some minor mothing, confined to the fuzzy “nap” of the fabric.

The included trousers are the straight-legged variety, and are made using the same field gray “whipcord” weave type wool fabric. We cannot see any maker markings on the interior, so they are definitely a bespoke pair. They feature a 4 button fly with a hook and loop at the top, and are out fitted for use with suspenders, as most German WWII uniform trousers were. There are two vertical slash waist pockets, and a single slanted pocket on the rear set with a scalloped flap and button. All of the buttons look to be black or brown bakelite, and most are fully intact. Overall the trousers are in excellent condition, showing very little wear.

A lovely German WWII Pioneer Officers uniform set that saw only light service, and overall it displays very nicely. Ready to out fit with additional medals and display!

Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 10.5″
Shoulder to sleeve: 27.5”
Shoulder to shoulder: 15.5”
Chest width: 18.5″
Waist width: 18″
Hip width: 22″
Front length: 30″

Pants:
Waist: 33.5″
Inseam: 15.5″

Field Tunic (Feldbluse) Model 1936
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.

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.

SS field uniforms were of similar appearance externally but to fit their larger patches had a wider, feldgrau collar, and the lower pockets were of an angled slash type similar to the black or grey SS service-dress. The second button of an SS Feldbluse was positioned somewhat lower, so that it could be worn open-collar with a necktie. Due to supply problems the SS were often issued army uniforms.