Yugoslavian Mountain pattern oversuit

Little known facts...

1. There are two different colorations; Blue Dominant, Orange Dominant (at least that's what I call 'em!).

2. There are two different cuts of the uniform. Very small differences and I'm not sure it's related to color differences.

BTW, if anybody needs the white snow camo version I just received an extra. It's pretty much identical to the Mountain type in that it consists of top, bottom, gloves, and carry bag. If anybody is interested the can contact me about it.

Cheers,

Steve

It looks GREAT!!!
Pavel.

Great set Mr. Hoeger!

Is the top a rather small size? My set is a normal human size but still I've had to hang my set from the hood and not the shoulders on the hanger, as the shoulders are too wide. The size and design breaks up the human shape very well and I love the pattern.

My set is definately of the 'orange dominant' as no hues of blue are visible.

Steve, (from Maine) can you post pictures of the winter version, please? Me and 200 other people here may be interested!

If I remember right my set is very large it came with the mittens and bag as well .

I usually can get these quite easily, a couple of times per year at military fairs in Slovenia. However, I've never heard referred as "mountain" pattern camo. As far as I know these were developed in the 50's and sometimes sold as "sniper" set as well,which I doubt because people there told me they were issued to all Army. As a matter of interest, in the early 90's there was a bunch of them put on the market with fake SS BW markings and pretending to be Waffen SS camo. So you may find a set with these fake stamps on it.

These uniforms used to be very difficult to get, but you are correct that the value is quite low now. I see them on eBay for less money than the cost of shipping from the Balkans to the US. However, it is still a little hard to get new condition sets with the gloves and bag. At least compared to finding the ones that are in used condition or missing things.

The common term for this uniform in English is "Mountain". I am sure it has nothing to do with what the Yugoslavs called it.

BTW, I love things from Slovenija. Always happy to receive a PM for trade/sale of Slovene items. I also love rarer Italian items

Steve

Hello Steve,
usually those that pop out at military fairs over there are brand new. Sometimes the shade of the single items is not perfectly matching though. I have a set here where the gloves are darker than the rest of the suit.
Slovenian jigsaw uniforms aren't difficult to get as well from here. As for rarer italian items I am a bit out of the business but I'll keep an eye out

Still finding new condition ones? Fun

The colors might be different because there are two different patterns. I don't think I've seen the two types of cloth mixed in a single item, but I have seen sets sold with mixed items. Definitely the "Blue Dominant" type looks darker than the "Orange Dominant" type.

Next time you go to Slovenija, let me know and maybe we can work a trade for some things.

Steve

My idea is that they still had many of these sets in the Army bases as leftover of the JNA days and at a certain point they were sold as surplus. I will look for them next time I go to a fair, but that will probably be next october. For modern stuff it's easier.

Here is a comparison of the two patterns. I only had a quick check of the tailoring differences, but the easiest thing to see is one uses elastics and the other ties for things like cuffs, waist hem, etc. I also noted that the hood on my "blue" variant is of "orange" cloth. Which emphasizes that the color differences are not due to fading. I've seen this consistently in other sets I've owned as well as from pictures.



Steve

Oops! Double post!

Steve

I think you're right but probably the variant exists because of different factories or lots. But it is hard to tell that for sure as well. which buttons do they have yours?

According to my knowledge, there were no "sniper suit" in JNA. All units and all soldiers in their equipment shoud have two camouflage covers:
1. Maskirno odelo letnje MOL (Summer camouflage cover);
2. Maskirno odelo zimsko MOZ (Winter camouflage cover).
In war reserves there were very large number of those camouflage covers. During my service in JNA, in my practice book about storage and packing my equipment, in transport bag was space for camouflage cover. Also there is a great number of those, as you call it "mountain camo". I saw them in use only once, and weared by mortar crew. Also, there are camouflage cover in green tiger pattern, but I saw only few of them, and think that it was only experimental production in small quantities.

Vladimir Ristic wrote:According to my knowledge, there were no "sniper suit" in JNA. All units and all soldiers in their equipment shoud have two camouflage covers:
  1. Maskirno odelo letnje MOL (Summer camouflage cover);
  2. Maskirno odelo zimsko MOZ (Winter camouflage cover).
In war reserves there were very large number of those camouflage covers. During my service in JNA, in my practice book about storage and packing my equipment, in transport bag was space for camouflage cover. Also there is a great number of those, as you call it "mountain camo". I saw them in use only once, and weared by mortar crew. Also, there are camouflage cover in green tiger pattern, but I saw only few of them, and think that it was only experimental production in small quantities.

Hello
Do you speak about this?
Gilles

Yes, yes, yes.

Heh... Gilles beat me too it! I was going to hunt for the thread where he posted this beautiful set!

Vladimir,

First... welcome! Second, thanks for helping us discuss some very interesting and under documented items.

In English we call these suits "sniper" because they are based on a Soviet design, which was designed for snipers and scouts during WW2. It is good to know more about how JNA used these uniforms. It explains why there are so many of them around!

I have some pictures of JNA paratroopers with StG44 rifles wearing these uniforms. I've also got some pictures of Macedonians (I think that's correct) wearing them years after independence from Yugoslavia.

One of my favorite patterns!

Steve