GERMAN WWII CHEMICAL WARFARE TROOPS PARADE TUNIC AND DOCUMENT GROUPING.

A fabulously rare grouping recently acquired from the owner’s family, this group has never been in the hands of any dealers or collectors. The group comprises, standard army parade tunic with the rare waffenfarbe of the chemical warfare troops (Nebeltruppen). The colour piping surrounds each shoulder board, the full length of the collar, the front two edges of the tunic, the turn back cuffs, the underlay to the collar patches and to the cuff ornaments, also to the Prussian style rear skirt. The tunic is completely free of any moth damage, it has the rank insignia of an army Oberfeldwebel, silver lace to each shoulder board and to the collar, also to the cuffs. The full compliment of buttons are complete and is finished with an originally attached army officers bullion wire breast eagle. We have a photograph of this tunic being worn by the wearer on his wedding day and with careful research with a magnifying glass it is absolutely clear that the eagle is the original eagle to the tunic. To the lower right hand sleeve is the rare trade patch for a smoke projector operator, which is an upright mortar projectile in white surrounded by a wreath of white leaves all on a dark blue green oval background. To the lower left hand sleeve as the tunic is viewed there is a very nice quality yellow embroidery on dark green with silver lace surrounding the patch of an army Schirrmeister, indicating that he was a motor transport nco and took care of the units vehicles. There are two loops to the upper breast for a very short medal ribbon bar and two sets of two each loops to the lower right breast for two awards. The tunic is unit stamped to the lower inside lining material ‘1/NB.2’, which matches the unit stamping of ‘August 1939’ on page 2 of his soldbuch, which reads ‘2./Nebel Abteilung’. Lining perfect. Accompanying the tunic is the owner’s original soldbuch, slightly water stained on the left hand side, complete with photograph of ‘Karl Heide’ wearing a black panzer wrap over tunic, hatless with standard army style collar patches and shoulder boards with one rank pip attached. The soldbuch is complete and runs from the 13th September 1940 and has many entries indicating his service in Nebeltruppe units. On page 8 there is an annotation relating to his trade patch of a schirrmeister. On page 21 of the soldbuch he is clearly awarded the Reich Sports Abzeichen and then further in December 43 the Fuhrer Geschank, which was a presentation to many troops of a box full of items needed to sustain the soldier on the Eastern Front. The original photograph of Karl Heide on his wedding day wearing this tunic, the placement and size of the eagle clearly corresponds to the eagle attached to the tunic, shoulder boards as a lower nco without any rank stars. A large group photograph with Heide as a member of the RAD, his Reich Sports Abzeichen award book. A very interesting and rare wound label that would have been attached to his uniform when he was wounded and evacuated, he is then serving in 1/Nebeltruppen Regiment 3. Two pages of war diaries covering the 13th and 14th June 1941. Various sketches and drawings done by Heide. Newspaper cuttings from newspapers relating to the fighting around Smolensk. Four Russian drop leaflets encouraging German soldiers to surrender. A selection of small format combat photographs presumably taken by Heide at the opening of the Russian campaign, all pasted onto sheets of A4 paper showing life on the Russian front, both in action and at rest, every picture has been pencil annotated. images of captured Russian tanks and prisoners, life in Russian villages, one good photograph of his unit laying smoke, destroyed Russian bridges and bunkers, crossing the rivers, wrecked Russian aircraft, German graves, the unit’s field kitchen at work, an excellent photograph of an officer with the hand annotation ‘Leutnant Breymann our bravest and best officer’, tracked field prime movers in action, a super shot looking at a colleague of his, Hugo, who is tanned with the summer sun of Russia and a combination of dirt, one of the unit vehicles that has run over a Russian mine with the driver standing to the left who had survived, wrecked Russian aircraft. An excellent and rare grouping.

Code: 93665