"The New German Field Service Uniform"

[leigh kitchen]

A strange thread title for the "British Empire & Commonwealth Militaria" forum perhaps (I've posted a link in the Imperial Germany: Other Militaria section), but this thread features a British publication for miltary use.

Printed under authority of His Majesty's Stationary Office, the text on the cover of this booklet refers to the German uniform it describes as not yet having been definitely identified "on the front" as of December 1915.

First printed in January 1916, this printng is of July 1916, & mention of that month of that year can't help but put you in mind of the events on The Somme of 1st July, 1916.

This particular copy has been issued to the Machine Gun Officer of an unknown unit.

Edited May 17, 2010 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

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[leigh kitchen]

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[Mervyn Mitton]

You've done it again ! Where do you find these incredible ref. booklets Leigh?

[leigh kitchen]

The usual place I'm afraid - the garage

[ChrisW]

Very interesting, thanks for posting!

Two questions come to mind:

1) Since this seems to be a description of a newly-issued uniform, how did the British military obtain so much information on it, so quickly?

2) Similar intelligence documents from WWII and later often would be classified ("restricted," "confidential," etc). This isn't. Does that mean it's based on open-source, unclassified information? Or did the UK routinely classify these sort of documents in WWI?

Thanks!

[Chip]

This material was also included in another period publication, the "Handbook of the German Army in War, 1917", which was then republished in 1973 by EP Publishing Limited. It appears again in the 1918 edition of the same publication "Handbook of the German Army, April 1918" and this was also republished in 1977 by Arms and Armour Press, London.

Chip