Original German WWII Afrika Korps DAK Tan Tropical Straight Leg Uniform Trousers - Size and RBNr. Marked

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a lovely pair of rare World War II Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK) Tropical Uniform Trousers, which look to be made of a cotton denim-like weave. They are in a lovely tropical olive green color, which was used by all branches in the North African and Mediterranean theater during WWII. The trousers are "straight leg", intended for field use, and are in very good service used condition. They feature a six button front fly closure as well as an internal web belt with a three prong claw belt on the left side. There are also buttons on the interior for attachment to suspenders if needed. The buttons are all non-magnetic, and seem to be zinc or aluminum. The trousers feature diagonal slash waist pockets on both sides, as well as the small "pocket watch" horizontal slash pocket on the right side of the fly. There is also a horizontal slash pocket on the right seat, which has a button closure on the top. 

The trousers do not have any maker marking, but are still faintly stamped with the sizes and RBNr. information on the front right lining. We were able to read most of the letters, but some are too faint to read, as the paints have definitely been laundered post war. Please note that due to post-war laundering with phosphate containing detergent, the white lining will now fluoresce under UV Light.

74      86

107    100

0/0850/0??2

Condition of the trousers is very nice, showing wear commensurate with age and moderate service. There is some wear around the bottom of the legs, and also some stitch pulling and past repairs in the crotch area. There is wear to the fabric overall, which shows light fading, but there is no major damage such as tears, and we cannot see any large repairs.

This would make a great addition to any DAK collection!

The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (Deutsches Afrikakorps or DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of their African colonies, the formation fought on in Africa, under various appellations, from March 1941 until its surrender in May 1943. The term "Afrika Korps" is pseudo-German (so-called "cod-German"), deriving from an incomplete German title. The German term referred solely to the initial formation, the Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK), which formed part of the Axis command of the German and Italian forces in North Africa. The name stuck, with both news media and Allied soldiers, as the name for all subsequent German units in North Africa. The unit is known for having been commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Reichsbetriebsnummer or RB number (also represented as RB Nr or Rbnr). Before the war, the Germans set up a system for registering and recording the factory information, the Reichsbetriebskartei. This was to help enable machine tabulation of facts and figures. It was from this that the Reichsbetriebsnummer came into being. The Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion (Ministry for Armaments and War Production) files survive today in the Bundesarchiv, however, these are only fragmentary. There is a holding file from the working group created by the Office of Machine Reporting in the Armament Office of the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production - their main focus was the operations of the industry group for which an economic interest was Armour production. This index provides information on the most important data of the companies covered by it, production profile, operating area, number of employees and the responsible operator.

As a prerequisite for the intended use of the punch-card method in the armaments industry, it was this system which gave rise to the Rbnr. The operating numbers were assigned by the competent local district offices of Machine reporting. (Bezirksstellen des Maschinellen Berichtswesens.) The index is in the form of index cards that are accessible numerically (approximately 14 meters of index cards!). Access to this register is only possible through the naming of this company, stating the place of production. The Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion files have multiple entries on the introduction of the factory and also the lot no.

The Rbnr code was used from 1943 onwards and replaced the makers name and address (or company logo) on government contract uniforms, caps and field equipment and knives. It is either rubber ink stamped on cloth or die stamped onto leather & metal items. It has been written countless times that this numeric code system was introduced as a security measure to help mask production locations. This was not the case but it was perhaps, a helpful by- product of the system. It is not unknown to find the Rbnr together with the maker’s info. Had it been a security measure, clearly this practise would have been banned.

So what was the Rbnr? It was a nine digit number and was normally represented thus: RB Nr: 0/000/0000.

The first prefix number could range from 0 through to 9. This number determined the membership of the various groups in the realm of Trade and Industry (Reichsgruppenleitzahl)

• 0 Industry
• 1 Crafts
• 2 Commercial wholesale trading companies
• 3 Banking
• 4 Insurance Companies
• 5 Energy (Electrical companies and such)
• 6 Tourism (Including Hotels, Wine and Mineral Water companies)
• 7 Traffic
• 8 Food Industry
• 9 Not otherwise mentioned groups