German Pow's : What Happened To Their Uniforms?

[august winter]

Hi, ive often wondered about the fate of captured german soldiers uniforms.

Ive seen photos of men wearing their standard field gray tunics/trousers minus all rank badges/medals/national symbols etc. But what about camo uniforms?
For example would someone wearing an ss peas pattern tunic been allowed to continue wearing such a distinctive garment?

Same goes for para jump smocks and ss camo smocks, would they have simply been taken off and dumped as the owner of the item was being frisked by his captor?

Were additional uniform items not necessary for wearing all the time (like zeltbahns, greatcoats, winter reversibles, and camo over clothing) allowed to be kept by the prisoner ?

Or was it simply a case that once captured ANY uniform a member of the german armed forces was wearing was simply destroyed and replaced by bog standard prisoners clothing??

regards,

august

[Tom Houlihan]

I've seen discussions elsewhere that indicated that in many cases the uniforms were "converted" for civilian use. Dye a uniform a darker color, remove all the insignia, and you have something wearable. It may not be much, but it beat the hell out of going nekkid!

[mightythor99]

depends on who captured em, and where they were interned. clothing tends to wear out when you wear it outside, every day.............for months and months..............
usually they took off collar tabs, insignia, etc. pins, medals, etc. belt buckles usually had the swastika's ground off. in europe anyway. in africa, they didnt care too much. often, their uniforms were replaced with american uniforms, with POW painted down the legs, and across the backs. if you were captured by the russians, or yugoslavians...............better tear that SS stuff off quick, and learn russian/yugoslavian. many SS vets were beaten to death, as were pilots and tankers by the russians. in pow camps, you wanted to stay in groups,.........NEVER walk around by yourself, and be as quiet as a church mouse. dont draw attention to yourselves. camo was probably taken away, other then a zelt bahn. the yugoslavians were pretty hard on german pow's too. many did not make it home.
i have had pow clothing, blankets, and even seen some wehrpasses or soldbuchs that were taken from prisoners, even over here. (german pow's, from afrika corp, shipped over here, and moved by train to camps). there was a pow camp close to where i live, and my dad even worked with pow's one summer, in a vegetable canning factory. they canned corn together! what fun. he said it was interesting!
there is a chapel there still today, and a few of the barracks. maybe even a little museum type thing. i have been there, but a long time ago. gonna have to go again i guess!!
happy collecting!

[Terje]

I can add a bit here.

Fact: after some time in the field a woolen uniform would be ripped and torn, stink of cordite and sweat and urine and fire smoke and tobacco, be soiled by diarreah and motor oild. worn ragged in places like the neck, be sprinkled with anti-lice powder...you wouldn't want to wear something like that in peace if you could avoid it. Woolen uniforms weren't even made to be washed in hot water, and the 'wool' was so mixed by other substances by the end of the war that there were hardly any natural fibres left. Still it's likely that what could be worn would be worn (out) by the civilians, considering the shortages of material.

Guesswork: The ex soldiers might not be too keen on using those old uniforms, what with vengeful occupant soldiers about everywhere and their own memories of dead friends and horrifying images.

Guesswork: Most camo items were made for wear over woolen uniforms; they had no warmth themselves. Not to mention that those in pow camps wouldn't be allowed gear that would help them during an escape.

Fact: In Norway, vast heaps of german uniforms were left when the pows returned to Germany. This was all burned even though the civilian population were short of warm clothing - because of considerable pressure from England, who were very keen on making norwegian military forces (not that there were much of an army to speak of in the first postwar years) buy and wear british uniforms. Norway was considered an important strategical country what with its border with Russia and close ports, and England was actively competing with USA for military and political influence. So English uniforms (such as we could afford buying) were used here until US gear was given us for free, the Marshall aid be praised, and after that we manufactured identical uniforms and gear ourselves. What WAS kept of german gear was helmets, ammo pouches, Mauser rifles and similar. These stocks were mostly used up during the next couple of decades, then what was left were handed down to the home defense forces, then the remaining helmets were given to the civil defense who eventually also sold off these.

During my service time (1988) we were STILL given wardated american folding shovels, and the mg's were 1940-dated .50 Brownings. But no wardated german gear could be seen.

[Tom Houlihan]

Terje, I'm surprised! When I was in Norway in 1987(?), the officers teaching us were still wearing slightly modified M43 caps. The modification was the removal of the cockade. The whole was still there, but the cockade was gone!

Now, if I could point someone to those 75mm PAKs...

[mightythor99]

here's a couple of pictures, of some camo stuff being checked over.
the last picture, is of a couple of guys, if you look close, the guy with the m1 carbine has his finger in the trigger, ready to go. with 10x magnification, i can almost read the guy's name inside his helmet on teh ground there........gonna try when i get my new scanner, to see what it says! anyway, gotta love the captions sometimes...............

"frisking fritzie
germany...........while a comrade stands by with rifle ready for action, an american soldier searches a german sniper captured by the third army in germany. the sullen prisoner in foreground already has been given the routine frisk and is busy hating the camera and the man behind it. apr.6, '45"

http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/mets1.jpg
http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/mets2.jpg
http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/mets3.jpg
http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/mets4.jpg

[phylo_roadking]

Whatever else, POWs would definitely be left with their heavy field coats - hours of film footage of them wearing them, over a mishmash of uniforms. Because it meant the Allies didn't have to find any winter clothing to issue them!

As for POST-war use....well, anyone trying to get back home into EAST Germany would have raided the nearest clothesline!!! But in the GDR, particularly after their own army uniforms were created to look SO like their predecessors, I'd would have thought any and ALL clothing available would have been worn.

In the BRD - can anyone here say? When did they notice the last greatcoats disaapearing off the backs of farm hands and industrial workers?

Terje, there's not only the issue of the filth of woollen jackets etc and them not being easily washed - even in COLD water woollen or ersatz material is VERY prone to shrinking! Has to be cold washed with VERY little detergent, and very VERY little agitation, and rip-dried....or else the "felt effect" takes over and the woollen fibre compacts.