Original German WWII Heer 19th Artillery Regiment Oberleutnant’s M36 Uniform Tunic with Bullion Breast Eagle and Awards

Original Items: Only One Set Available. This is a great German WWII Heer Army Artillery Oberleutnant Officer's M-36 Tunic with a lovely early pattern bullion breast eagle and some great awards. The tunic shows light wear from service and is in very good display condition. We checked the interior, and there are no maker markings we can see, and there is no tag in the pocket. Almost certainly a bespoke example made at a local tailor for an officer.

The tunic is made from lovely "whipcord weave" wool gabardine, in the standard Heer feldgrau (field gray) color. It features four pockets with scalloped flaps and pebbled magnetic buttons, which look to be made from pebbled nickel-plated stamped steel with aluminum backings and eyelets. The front closure features five of the same buttons on the right breast flap meeting an equal number of reinforced buttonholes on the left flap. The buttons on the tunic are sewn directly to the fabric, not attached with metal circlips, and all are maker marked on the back, showing light wear. There are also two hook and loop collar securing fasteners, which are fully functional.

The interior is lined with with a very nice olive green colored rayon cotton blend twill fabric, while the sleeves are lined with striped rayon. There is some light staining in areas, but no tears or other major damage. There is no hanger strap for an officer's dagger on the left side, but the tunic still has the large eyelet that opens into the left side waist pocket for a dagger hanger. It also features horizontal slash pockets on the inner left side.

The tunic is adorned with the usual rank and branch insignia used on German tunics. The attractive Army breast eagle is the correct early pattern officer's silver bullion hand embroidered type on a dark bottle green background, and is stitched to the outer layer of fabric only. The eagle does not show any major wear or fraying, however it looks like real silver was used in the bullion, as it has now tarnished blue on the wings and other areas.

The collar is wrapped in flaschengrün (dark bottle-green) wool, and has the correct officer's litzen on each side of the collar opening, which are on the correct early war dark green backgrounds for the field uniform version. The piped central stripes are Hochrot (Deep Red), which was the Waffenfarbe (corps color) during WWII for Artillery, as well as General Level Officers. The two litzen themselves are woven from a fine silver flatware thread. As this is a company grade officer tunic, this is definitely for artillery, and Generals also did not use the Litzen collar insignia, instead using red and gold "Arabesque" insignia.

The sew-in style shoulderboards each have two rows of fine silver flatware "Russia Braid" double piping and have the correct deep red base material on the bottom and the edges. Each features a single silver "pip", which denotes the rank of Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant), and they also have gold 19 cyphers, which would most likely be for the 19th Artillery Regiment.

The tunic has four thread loops over the left breast pocket for attachment of a medal ribbon bar, which is not included, however there is the ribbon from an Iron Cross 2nd Class 1939 on the second to top button hole, indicating that they received that award. There are also three sets of threads loops on the pocket itself, which have the following awards attached:

- German WWII 3rd Class Black Wound Badge for 1-2 Wounds
- German WWII Silver Grade Infantry Assault Badge
- German WWII Gold Grade SA Defense Team Sports Training Badge

Overall condition is outstanding, with a small amount of wear consistent with service. There is some staining in spots across the uniform, as well as wear to the insignia and awards. We did not notice any major mothing, tears, or other damage to the fabric.

An outstanding German Artillery Officer’s tunic with some great awards, ready to display!

Approximate Measurements:-
Collar to shoulder: 9"
Shoulder to sleeve: 26”
Shoulder to shoulder: 13"
Chest width: 17.5”
Waist: 16.5"
Hip: 18.5"
Front length: 30"

Field Tunic (Feldbluse) Model 1936
Terms such as M40 and M43 were never designated by the Wehrmacht, but are names given to the different versions of the Model 1936 field tunic by modern collectors, to discern between variations, as the M36 was steadily simplified and tweaked due to production time problems and combat experience.

When the NSDAP came to power in early 1933 the Reichswehr, the armed forces of the Weimar Republic, were near the end of a two-year project to redesign the Army Feldbluse (field-blouse). Beginning in that year the new tunic was issued to the Reichsheer and then the rapidly growing Wehrmacht Heer, although minor design changes continued to be made until the appearance of the standardized Heeres Dienstanzug Modell 1936. The M36 tunic still retained the traditional Imperial and Reichswehr uniform color of grey-green "field gray" (feldgrau) wool, but incorporated four front patch pockets with scalloped flaps and pleats (on Reichswehr tunics the lower pockets were internal and angled). The front was closed with five buttons rather than the previous eight, and the collar and shoulder straps were of a dark bottle-green instead of the Reichswehr grey. Compared to the Weimar-era uniforms the skirt of the feldbluse was shorter and the tailoring was more form-fitting due to Germany's adoption of mechanized warfare: soldiers now spent much time in the confined space of a vehicle and a shorter jacket was less likely to pick up dirt from the seats. It also included an internal suspension system, whereby a soldier could hang an equipment belt on a series of hooks outside of the tunic. These hooks were connected to two straps inside the lining, which spread the weight of equipment without having to use external equipment suspenders. The M36 was produced and issued until the very end of the war, though successive patterns became predominant.