Austrian KAZ 59 "Patchwork" Parka

Found this Austrian KAZ 59 "Patchwork" Parka with name tag inside. I hope the Austrian experts have more information about this jacket  

I like that, with the slightly less pink shades I find it very reminiscent of the later Australian pattern. I really don't understand why the Austrians ditched it in favour of plan green

Interesting piece! This is what I've called the 57/59 Transitional uniform. It has some features of M57, but also some of M59. It was made in significant numbers, mostly in 1959 (I've only seen one piece made in 1958). Looks like they removed the sleeves so they could add longer ones for a specific soldier. My guess is the modifications are original to its time in service.

The name tape is very interesting! It could be the same type that was very rarely worn on the front of the uniform over the left breast pocket (IIRC). I've never seen one sewn inside a jacket before.

Steve

Austrian  parkas were recycled over and over again..

As Steve says , very likely the original sleeves were modified to longer sleeves ; these parkas originally had notoriously short sleeves ...

Perhaps they were meant to be worn with long gauntlets.. Infantry trousers are often found with short legs as well..



S

ripcord wrote:Austrian  parkas were recycled over and over again..

Yup, right up through the 1980s! They were worn by opposing forces (OPFOR) in wargames. Even some mention of reservists using it for a while.

As Steve says , very likely the original sleeves were modified to longer sleeves ; these parkas originally had notoriously short sleeves ...

Perhaps they were meant  to be worn with long gauntlets.. Infantry trousers are often found with short legs as well..

Actually, the likely answer is the side effect of these uniforms being designed to be worn over a bulky wool uniform and/or winter liner. To make that work you need more girth, not length. The same is true for the Splittertarn, Belgian, and Swiss for the same reason. Either that or Europeans went through a phase of looking rather disproportional

This might indicate that the parka's arms were lengthened later on when a light cotton or cotton/poly (depending on timeframe) was worn underneath. You know, when the average sized person would look silly in a larger jacket with the correct arm length.

Hmmmm... this gets me thinking. The Swiss rebuilt lots of sleeves of 1960s jackets to the 1970s/80s specifications (which were very minor changes). I thought it was to bring them up to current standards, but now I'm wondering if it was to lengthen them so they would be usable by soldiers of the 1970s and 1980s. Yeah, that sounds pretty likely.

Steve

I'm pretty sure the sleeves are taken from a KAZ 69 jacket.Because of the color and fabric.And usually the name were smaller on the frontside and not that big like on the inner side of this one.They use this stuff still today for OPFOR and sometimes by snipers.And yes it was first ment to be worn of the wool uniform with tie! Later they alowed to wear this stuff with the grey Drillich shirt and pants alone in summer.

http://www.bundesheer.at/misc/image_popup/ImageTool.php?strAdresse=/archiv/a2014/schutz_2014/galerie/vollbild/20140613_051123.jpg&intSeite=1680&intHoehe=1050&intMaxSeite=1680&intMaxHoehe=995&blnFremd=0


Often the name was writen on the inside of the jacket with a  ballpen or something similar.The usuall size of the frontside nametapes looked like this one:

many thanks friends for information