GERMAN WWII RUSSIAN FRONT WINTER REVERSIBLE PARKA ORIGINAL

This is an original German WW2 Mouse Grey, reversible to white, winter parka (Tarnungs Jacke für Winter) with original whitewash camouflage.  The white side of these jackets were often camouflaged with white chalk paint because of the muddy circumstances on the eastern front often rendered the white base colour useless. It also doubles as an insulating windproof layer and is rare to encounter intact!

Mostly likely worn on the Russian front or the Battle of the Bulge.

The parka is water repellant, heavy, ribbed cotton twill and cotton/rayon blend construction, double breasted style parka with green (faded) on one side, reversible to white.

Buttons are white on one side and grey on the other.  The original internal belts is still present. The parka has an un-padded, dual-ply, integral, hood, which is large enough to accommodate a helmet. The hood has a tunnel loop to the forward edge and the original drawstring. The parka is fully reversible to white with all the same features as on the mouse grey side. The parka has an internal, heat retaining padding through-out.

The parkas were designed large enough to fit over the standard service uniform and this example is roughly size 46" chest.

BACKGROUND: The development of camouflage clothing and equipment had began in the German army in WWI, and continued through the Weimar Reichswehr era.

Further camouflage pattern development continued through-out the war and additional subtly different patterns were created with the intent to equip all personnel with the same camouflage pattern but this was never achieved. After the devastating winter of 1941-1942 on the Russian front the German army found that it was drastically under equipped with cold weather garments to withstand the severe cold and a wide variety of improvised garments including a broad assortment of donated civilian garments were utilized as a temporary solution.

To rectify the situation the OKH, Oberkommando des Heeres, (High Command of the Army), began testing heavier winter clothing in the spring of 1942 to develop suitable garments for the Russian front. In April 1942 Hitler approved the chosen designs and the first models were issued in the autumn of that year, in the reversible blue/mouse grey/white colorations, which was modified to camouflage pattern/white combinations in 1943. Included with these new garments were heavy, padded, reversible winter suits which consisted of a parka, pants and separate hoods and mittens.

Of Note: These garments were also produced in non-reversible models.

The winter parkas were a standard issue item and were distributed to all EM/NCO’s for the winter season, with other winter garments and were to be returned to the units clothing depot in April for storage, repair and cleaning to be reissued the following September. Although the suits proved quite effective they were very difficult to keep clean and launder which resulted in regulations dictating that the white side was only to be worn on the exterior when absolutely necessary.