bundeswehr snow camo

Just to share this early tunic dated 1962 ,the trousers 1990 ,ive placed a bw cold weather cap under the first pattern liner m60(non perforated tongues) ,the mp5 is purely for display purposes   this trooper has also managed to source a pair of US snow goggles while on joint exercise training

Nice job! At first I was going to say "those boots are too old for that suit" and then I noticed this is the first model with buttons instead of snaps. Which means ya dungood

Steve

Many thanks steve ,ive always believed the earlier the suit the lighter green the camo yet this poncho shows light green but dated 1984

Very nice as always,superb displays.

Was the smock on Ebay recently by any chance?

Hi richard and thanks for the nice comments ,no mate it must of been another example

thunderchild wrote:Hi richard and thanks for the nice comments ,no mate it must of been another example

My apologies,mistook it for another on my watch list.

Was tempted to start buying the snow gear myself but seriously have to draw a line and stick to it!!

i totally agree things really do get out of hand ,i forgot to compliment you on the gentex flight helmet ,would it be for fast jet or helicopter

thunderchild wrote:i totally agree things really do get out of hand ,i forgot to compliment you on the gentex flight helmet ,would it be for fast jet or helicopter

Thank you James,like all of the helmets I have purchased lately they were all impulse buys and none of them that I had hunted down,just saw them,price was right so thought why not.

No idea really as not into the aviation side of things but think it may be Vietnam era(one of my main interests) so thought it would fit in. Being white,USN maybe?

very nice all the same , a whole new area of collecting and an expensive one too mate

Having said Im not into the aviation side of things,do have a few flying helmets,would be rude not to I guess.

Loving the snow cammo more and more and just done a search and there are some early pattern suits on Ebay but all Miltec ones and brand new and also a very very nice looking(non issue) m43 type ski cap in snow pattern.

The color of the needles isn't a great indicator of age as there was a lot of variation over the years. But yes, generally the very light green is older and the almost black is newer. But what you need to look for are the tags or stamps. Every item has them. The jacket has it inside one of the chest pockets, the trousers inside the fly. For the cape it's found along the edging in small black print.

Roughly speaking from memory the 1st model snow suit was made 1960 to mid 1960s (1963??). If it has buttons that's all the ID you need to know the timeframe. If it has snaps and zippers, it's the 2nd model. I think all the capes were made early 1960s, but I could be mistaken about that.

Steve

Many thanks steve ,here are the labels ,firstly the cape dated what i believe to be 1984 but hard to decipher so could be wrong ,the jacket 1962 and the trousers at 1990

Have recently picked up another snow cape /poncho and was pleasantly surprised to see a 1963 date most likely not an uncommon item to find but still good to have a closer matching cape ( time wise) for the tunic

Nice. RAKA produced a bunch of stuff for the BW in the early days, but also produced tons of uniforms for the Belgians in the 1950s. Presumably as part of war reparations.

Steve

Thanks Steve ,to be honest i never realised the cape's were issued so early on along side the two part suit ,do you know off hand when the first were issued
thanks ,James

A nice set just arrived now,well happy.

Jacket dated 1964,Trs 1962.

Notice that the jacket has no hood,was there a hood for it as there are buttons around the inside of the collar for the attachment maybe of a hood?

Nice score Richard ,Yes there should be a removable hood which in my case is unfortunately missing but have a spare snow cape so will manufacture one to suit from this

May do the same if I stumble on a cheap cape.

There are two types, which are easily distinguished from each other. The first exclusively uses buttons and the second exclusively snaps and zippers. Other differences abound as the first type is far more complex to produce than the second type. I forget the exact change in production, but 1964 sounds about right.

There are also variations in the darkness and density of the needles. Some think it's possible to date items this way, but IMHO it is production variations. Though the darker/denser type does seem to be more recent than the lighter/sparser type.

Steve