"Did the Germans recycle captured uniforms?" Topic

I've read that the Germans frequently reused, recycled and even "remanufactured" uniforms in WW2. I'm not sure what the latter term means, but there are extant SS tunics stamped with words to the effect of "Made in Ravensbrueck". Did the Germans re-use looted / expropriated civilian or captured military clothing and turn it into some sort of quasi-German Beute uniform? Is this why there are extant brown late-war tunics – they turned some death camp victim's overcoat into a combat jacket?

I know that some U-Boat crews were issued, faute de mieux, with captured British battledress. Are there any examples of Germany taking (eg) a French tunic, or a Polish one, then dyeing and retailoring it to make it look more German?

It would be interesting if so. They retailored Napoleonic uniforms…I was wondering though to what extent later uniforms were created based on what could be adapted from captured stock?

I would think that "Made in Ravensbruck" means that it was manufactured with slave labor.
Oskar Schindler, of Schindler's List fame, manufactured enamel mess kits with his slave labor, so it's not as if the Wehrmacht or SS were averse to using slave labor manufactured goods.

As part of Speer's production miracle, there was an enormous drive to recycle almost anything, including clothing of any sort.

My understanding of the late war uniform colour is that it was more to do with a reduction in quality control to "good enough". If you mix up a whole load of recycled threads you will get a gungy brown colour; die that with a grey/green, or green/grey die and it is not likely to meet pre war standards.

I have never heard of specific re tailoring, but the Germans were not overly fussy about uniforms so it wouldnt surprise me.

A term you hear often is "ersatz". Sometimes meaning inferior, or substitute. You would hear of ersatz coffee which wasn't just coffee.

But referring to your inquiry to the uniforms. Late in the war the German manufacturers of wool would add wood pulp to the fabric. This to make up for materials. And as you said they did use captured equipment, but they also made their own versions of those garments.

The Germans certainly did reuse captured uniforms and uniform cloth. Dutch uniform stocks captured in 1940 were handed out to Axis allies in Yugoslavia for example. I have a couple of books with several photos showing Slovene and Croatian auxiliaries wearing Dutch uniforms and caps, but with modifications to make them look more German.

The Germans themselves used Italian uniforms confiscated during the late war period. The Italian tunics would have the buttons replaced so the tunic had a more 'German' appearance. Most of these uniforms were used on the Italian Front of course, but odds and ends made it to other fronts. A good example of this is the 12th S.S. using Italian camoflage material in Normandy.

The Germans recycled everything they could – Hiwis often wore Russian uniformw with an armband, while as noted the Germans used a lot of Italian camo cloth – they also re-cycled blue-grey French uniform material to make uniforms for the Russian Liberation Army

Is this why there are extant brown late-war tunics ?

Some German tropical or summer uniforms were brown. For instance:
picture

The Kriegsmarine made use of British Battledress captured in 1940. It was widely issued to U Boat crews with their own insignia sown on. The practice continued until stocks ran out and the items were worn until they could be replaced. I have heard anecdotally that some crew dyed the khaki grey, but this seems to me fairly difficult. Lots of British underwear was also issued including socks and boots. Some German units in France received British boots and even some short gaiters.

The Germans also issued greatcoats captured in Norway and Denmark to make up shortages.

British clothing captured in North Africa was also issued. The quality of British shirts and trousers were appreciated because they withstood the conditions better and did not fade so much. You can always tell an Afrika Korps soldier who had been there for some time by the way his trousers and particularly the feldmutz had faded to almost white. They could not do much about the feldmutz, but where ever possible they used captured khaki drill shirts and trousers.
It can however be misleading in some photographs, because there was a tendency to wear the feldgrau tunic,(Which was warmer at night in the desert chill) which made the khaki items look very pale.

The French army stores were stripped of anything useful, so I have no doubt it would have included any clothing they could reuse. Much of the heavy artillery issued to the Afrika Korps came from French stocks, so perhaps the colonial pale khaki clothing was used as well.

In General the principle was that if it could be made lot look 'German' enough by the addition of the correct badges and insignia then it was used. It did not of course extend to headgear other than individuals who used fur hats.

Some German tropical or summer uniforms were brown. For instance:

That traces back to the German colonial uniform of WW1. At the end of that war there were still stocks of that clothing and a lot of cloth for it in Germany. These were seized and used by the 'Brown shirts'. Later it was put back into production to match the size of that body as it grew.

When the Brown shirts were disbanded large amounts of cloth and uniforms remained. It was therefore only natural that they would make use of that and the Afrika Korps was the natural way to do that.

Even later the colour was changed to pale khaki drill which continued to be issued in Italy. This was mostly due to the shortage of dye. But both colonial brown and pale khaki continued to be worn if soldiers had clothing such as that.

The brown had nothing to do with death camp uniforms. It was used because it existed.

and the alleged use of captures stocks of WWI French horizon blue cloth issued to Osttruppen

The longer the war went the browner the German uniform..and shoddier..

They recycled everything. Reports from Auschwitz-Birkenau, for example, refer to use being made of "human material". Teeth, hair and ashes, as well as personal property, such prosthetic limbs, spectacles, shoes, clothes etc. This work was done by the Sonderkommando.

I was wondering really about exactly what a Ravensbruck SS uniform would have been made from, in the sense of did they retailor, rebadge and redye, or was there some other process to convert finished garments back into raw material so they could be remanufactured?

IIRC socks were made from human hair.

I knowp that the Germans used confiscated cloth from Poland to make SS smocks. This lead to some petty crazy colours with brown turning to purple and green to pink.

Cheers,

Burkhard

The longer the war went the browner the German uniform..and shoddier..

picture

The longer the war went the browner the German uniform..and shoddier

The variances in colour were due to the shortage of dye. All nations had problems of some sort due to the massive demand.

Even in the days of Frederick the Great he had to arrange for uniforms to be issued to regiments based on which region they were dyed. It was the only way to keep the troops of each unit looking uniform.

This has been a common problem in all wars. In WW1 for example the Ottoman Army put out contracts to villages all over their empire with the only stipulation being that the colour had to be 'blanket brown'. The resulting uniforms relied on what each village considered that colour to be. Even the cloth varied from blanket quality to almost hessian bag.

The Soviets had massive problems supplying uniforms of standard shades despite getting help from the Allies.

It is therefore no surprise that Germany would also have great difficulty as they had to contend with a blockade in both world wars.

If I recall, the story I heard re-French horizon blue was that the Germans used some for shirts and added a grey dye to the rest. That sounds fairly practicable. But I've certainly never heard of them issuing uniforms in horizon blue.

Of course Reich Marshall Goering was kind of fond of pale blue uniforms!!!!

This lead to some petty crazy colours with brown turning to purple and green to pink.

Some WW2 Australian army uniforms took on a purple tone after exposure to the hot sun, due to poor quality dye.

Sure it wasnt some gay inclusion policy?

"A term you hear often is "ersatz". Sometimes meaning inferior, or substitute."

The "inferior" meaning is only in English, in German it just means replacement without an inherent connotation of poor quality.

Tuscaloosa is correct in literal German. But I think in 1945 (and probably 1918) most Germans had a rather Pavlovian response to the word.

Possibly after tasting ersatz coffee?

An observation that I have made around the world is that breakfast, when your mind is slow and your blood sugar low, is one of the most culturally non diverse meals of the day.

People who would think nothing of sharing each other's cuisine with gusto at lunch, dinner or in between snacks, tend to squat at the corner of the table and eat their fricase, bacon and eggs, croissant, sea urchins guts, dried rotten fish, or whatever with no interest in cross cultural pollination.

Imagine, therefore, the effect on a palate tailored for a cup of fine coffe, of a brew of roasted acorns, and one can see why ersatz has certain connotations not imagined by the black forest gnomes who constructed modern German.

In answer to the original question; Yes. The Germans recycled/re-used everything. That's what makes them so interesting!

Actually I had a couple paragraphs in mind when I wrote it….

- A Landser who had been guarding a lonely section of the Channel Coast for a long time was driven to suicide. First he tries to hang himself with a Zeltbahn rope but because it was made from spun paper it broke and he fell to the ground, still alive. Throwing off the ersatz noose he wades out into the Channel to drown himself but the wood fiber woven into the ersatz cloth of his uniform keeps him afloat. Deciding that he was meant to live, the man dies of starvation two weeks later from the diet of ersatz Army rations.

More found here…..

link

Ho yussss!

NVA belts were made of cardboard.