Original German WWII Named Heer Signals Officer Major’s M36 Field Tunic with Bullion Breast Eagle & Signalposten Marking

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice private purchase German WWII Heer Army M-36 Tunic, showing some service wear and in very good display condition. It has no maker’s label we can find, and no name tag either. The only marking we could find is SP 19 in the left armpit, which may denote Signalposten 19, which could mean Signal Post, Signal Guard or Signal Sentry.

The tunic features four pockets with scalloped flaps and pebbled aluminum buttons, and has a five button front closure, with two "hook and loop" fasteners for the collar. It is adorned with the usual rank and branch insignia used on German tunics. The attractive Army breast eagle is the correct officer's silver bullion hand embroidered type on a green background, and is well-stitched, with the stitching going through to the interior as opposed to on the top layer. There is some heavy staining to the jacket especially on the left breast pocket.

The collar is wrapped in flaschengrün (dark bottle-green) wool, and has officer's field litzen collar patches on each side, which are woven from silver bullion thread with dark bottle green backgrounds matching the collar. The colored stripes on the litzen are made from copper bullion type threading, which unfortunately has oxidized to a greenish color, so we cannot tell the branch from the litzen alone.

The button-attached style Stabsoffizier schulterklappen (Field-grade Officer shoulder boards) of this tunic are constructed with two rows of fine silver flatware "Russia Braid" double piping, which are plaited together to form a loop around the buttonhole. There are no rank "pips", indicating the rank of Major, a rank equivalent to a Major in the U.S. Army. They feature Zitronengelb (lemon-yellow) felt backgrounds and straps, the Waffenfarbe (corps color) used by the Heer Army Signal corps, responsible for setting up and maintaining communication equipment. The collar is in good shape, though there definitely is some wear to the nap of the fabric, with some minor fraying and loss of material.

There are five loops over the left breast pocket for the attachment of a large medal/ribbon bar, and three loops on the left breast pocket for attachment of a medal or badge. They appear in good order, so this would be a great uniform for a display with medals in your collection.

Overall condition is very good, though there is some wear and staining consistent with service. Ready to out fit with medals and display!

Approximate Measurements:-
Collar to shoulder: 10"
Shoulder to sleeve: 25”
Shoulder to shoulder: 15.5"
Chest width: 19”
Waist: 19.5"
Hip: 24"
Front length: 29"

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.