Flächentarn/Blumentarn Items Early DDR gear

The second camo pattern of the East German Army , possibly used as early as the late 50's into the seventy's.
i have many pieces in this pattern , it is one of the first camos i collected.

Once again, my eyes are drawn towards the Y-Straps. Another bit of kit which is difficult to get a hold of!

Earliest date for this uniform is 1958, latest date is 1967. At least that's what I remember off the top of my head. Strichtarn was produced starting in 1965, but for some reason they kept Blumentarn going in parallel using the same exact cut of uniform. I think there are something like 6-8 different types of Blumentarn uniforms, though most of the changes were made to the jackets and not the trousers.

Steve

The Y-Straps are Marked MDI , It was the luck of the draw , I have seen NVA marked ones , but they have eluded me as of yet .

MDI should be identical to NVA. At least that's true most of the time!

Steve

I call this leaf pattern. I like it, I've got a bunch of it. Got most of it in Berlin after the wall came down.
Is that a real helmet cover or the hood/mesquito netting? I made the mistake of not picking up some of the helmet covers and then they were gone. I got some of the hoods/netting.
Sarge

any helmet covers available in this pattern. I have been looking for one along time.
Scott

I think the only helmet cover is the hood/net, which was also designed to be a helmet cover.

Steve

I have the rain pattern hood/net, but has seen helmets covered with Blumentarn pattern.
Scott

There was a specific helmet cover - w/o the net. As I said above I didn't buy any when I ran across them in Berlin and the next trip there were none to be found. I've never seen one since. Oh well, not my first screw up and undoubtedly not my last!
Sarge

Nice setup there!

I was trying to buy a set of this on E-Bay but I was out bid on it.I'd really like to get a coat ingood condition

Magnificent, congratulations mate, which are rare and expensive to get, I have only cover helmet.

No stamp for this jacket
I know, I have abused on the flächentarn
Gilles

Hey Gilles,
Those are really nice. I'm a real fan of the older stuff.
How do you get the uniforms so flat? It shows off the pattern very well.

Cheers,
Ben.

Great pics Gilles !

I missed this thread until now. Excellent examples, Gilles! You are very lucky to have the 1st Model FJ jacket. These are very, very difficult to find and the prices are quite high.

From my research I have documented the following:

1st Model Airborne 1958-1959
2nd Model Airborne 1960-1964
1st Model Jacket 1965
2nd Model Jacket 1966?

There are only two models of trousers. The 1st Model has triple button flaps over the hand pockets and was used 1958-1964. The 2nd Model is identical to the early Strichtarn type.

These uniforms came in a variety of cloth types, with the early ones commonly heavily waxed. I've seen some other minor production variations, such as leather (or vinyl?) reinforcements for the shoulder brush holders on the 2nd Model Airborne jacket.

Steve

Hold on now, which one is the FJ set?

Just great, another variant I will be forced to spend heavy money on some day..

Hooded ones are FJ, or at least are generally described as FJ only. There was a very short period of overlap between Blumentarn/Flächentarn and Strichtarn. My assumption has been that FJ hung onto their own pattern for a couple of years before moving onto Strichtarn (with their own special cut, of course).

Steve

Heh... well, just after posting this I found one of the "FJ" jackets for sale with a MdI stamp in it. So it seems it wasn't limited to FJ after all! No idea if the 1958/59 type was specific to FJ or not.

Steve

Steve, I think there is no specialized FJ version in this camo, there are simply different cuts as the uniform evolved over the years. The early jackets, starting in 1958/1959 are all hooded with face nets and roughly similar (with small changes to the layout of pockets etc.), and the hood seems to have been omitted in the top ends starting in 1964 and forward I believe.

http://www.flaechentarn.de/index.htm

All that you want to know
Gilles

koalorka wrote:Steve, I think there is no specialized FJ version in this camo, there are simply different cuts as the uniform evolved over the years. The early jackets, starting in 1958/1959 are all hooded with face nets and roughly similar (with small changes to the layout of pockets etc.), and the hood seems to have been omitted in the top ends starting in 1964 and forward I believe.

Yup, that seems to be the case. Most collectors, however, think of the early hooded ones as being FJ issue only. Not that it was specialized per se, just only issued to FJ. Which isn't out of the realm of possibilities as generally airborne forces are the first to be kitted out with the cool stuff. But it does seem this isn't the case here.

Gilles, thanks for that excellent website!!

Steve

Nice collection

2 curiosity





The jacket have pockets added
I think the guy who does that has destroy a pant for retrieve the pockets



this jacket is build with tent material