Original German WWII Heer Army Artillery Enlisted Man’s M40 Combat Tunic with Early Pattern Litzen – Service Used Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice service used early war pattern German WWII Heer Army Artillery Mannschaften (Enlisted Personnel) M-40 Field Tunic, a more rugged and simplified version of the M-36, intended for real combat use. Gone is the “bottle green” collar, and the overall construction is more rugged, using a rougher weave feldgrau wool on the exterior, and canvas on the interior, instead of the earlier rayon.

The tunic features four pockets with scalloped flaps and pebbled non-magnetic buttons, which look to be zinc alloy, and were possibly originally painted green, which is now totally gone. The closure features 5 of the same buttons on the right breast flap meeting an equal number of reinforced buttonholes on the left flap. There is also a hook and loop collar securing fastener, which is oxidized. The buttons do not appear to have maker marks, and are oxidized, with much of the original green paint worn away. The interior of the tunic is lined with olive canvas, which is fairly standard for Depot issued tunics.

It is adorned with the usual rank and branch insignia used on German tunics. The attractive Army breast eagle is an early war pre-1941 BeVO embroidered type, white on a green background, and is very neatly hand stitched to the chest, though the stitching does go through to the interior, so it may have been replaced at some point. The collar is plain feldgrau wool, correct for the M-40 combat pattern. There are EM/NCO litzen collar patches on each side, which are woven from gray thread with a dark green background matching the collar. These are made in the 1935 pattern, and have colored stripes inside the grey devices, which are Hochrot (Deep Red), the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) during WWII for Artillery, Assault Gunners, and Heavy Flak, as well as General Level Officers. As this is an enlisted Tunic, this is definitely for artillery.

The button attached style Enlisted pattern shoulder straps (Mannschaften Schulterklappen) attached to the tunic have a field gray wool base, and are the later style with a field gray top layer. They are plain with red artillery piping around the exterior, which indicates the lowest enlisted rank of Kanonier, an artillery rank equivalent to Soldat, or a U.S. Army Private.

Overall condition is very good, showing moderate wear from service. There is some light mothing and a few repairs, and the collar is a bit worn, which is one of the first places to show wear on all uniforms. It has the great look of a uniform that was “really there”, and probably saw long service during the war.

A very nice and hard to find “salty” service worn Early War German WWII Artillery Kanonier’s M40 combat tunic, ready to outfit with medals and display!

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.

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.