Gordon Craig

Dan, Yes your uniform is from the special unit and is an enlisted mans uniform. The rank is for Wachmeister. This particular tunic is now bringing about five times what you paid for the whole lot. Cheers, Gordon

Hauptman, Sorry, but I should have been clearer in my remarks about collar tab piping. Lets start with your uniforms, the first one you posted, and go from there. Your first uniform is for the "MdI u. Kompanien der Transportpolizei". This was a special group for rapid deployment for major incidents. They wore the blue piped cloth collar tabs as shown on your uniform. These uniforms are getting much harder to get and have gone up in price considerably lately. It was made in the first quarter of 1980. The flight collar tabs follow air force regs are are silver pipped for officers unpiped for EM. On the regular TRAPO uniforms, with the metal collar tabs, standard police practice is followed. Enlisted men will have collar tabs with a single strand of twisted fibre in the centre while officers will have a double strand of twisted fibre. The rank on the two officers uniforms are for Unterleutnant and Hauptman. I'll have to take a closer look at your ribbon bars before I suggest what you could put on what uniform. Regards, Gordon

Paul R and Hauptman, The piping around the collar tabs was for officers. Very nice to have both an EM and an Officers tunic for the Haubschreiber. You don't need sleeve chevrons to put a long servcie ribbon bar on a TRAPO uniform. The sleeve chevrons were discontinued some time before the demise of the DDR. Regards, Gordon

Kevin, Glad to hear that you are going to be able to display your DDR collection in your own room. It really hurt me to put most of my stuff into storage and we have no room for a display here in Budapest. Looking forward to seeing your room once it is set up. Cheers, Gordon

Gents, Thanks for resolving a question that I have abot a tunic in my colletion. I bought a uniform to a senior member of the DAF Werkscharen at The MAX several years ago. On the wearer's left breast, at the botom of the pocket, there was a set of award loops that fit a WWI wound badge perfectly and above that a buttonhole type hole exactly the same as the one shown in the political tunic in this post. I have always been unable to figure out what type of badge would have been worn there. Now I think that I know. Unfortunately, I can not post a picture of the tunic as I have just put the majority of my colection into storage. Regards, Gordon

Kev, Thanks for all the info on this award. I have never seen such a complete explanation of the bars for this medal before. It is very helpful. Regards, Gordon

Master3477, Thanks for posting the uniform pictures and the info on them. Very useful stuff. Regards, Gordon

Gent, Interesting thread. Two points of view here. What is the rarest medal that one could actually have some hope of adding to their collection versus the rarest medal issued. The Bluecher is certainly one of the rarest and I would like to add one to my collection but they have recently been heavily faked so one needs to tread carefully. As for the medal issued that one could hope to acquire as an authentic one, complete with Urkunde etc, I would vote for the Scharnhorst Orden. I have recently been offered a cased one, complete with Urkunde, for 2000 Euros and am consideriing buying it. I would say $3000.00 for a KMO would be a bit high unless it was for one of the first numbered issued types. A gold content marked KMO, complete with Urkunde etc, should run no more tahn $2000.00 to $2500.00. Regards, Gordon

Grant, I believe the uniforms with the bullion accessories were used for parade purposes. I have a number of this type of uniform but can not post pictures as they are all in storage because I am in the process of moving to Budapest for three years. The regular woven accessories appear to be for regular service use. I look forward to seeing the uniform when the the ribbon bar has been sewn back on. A very nice set. Regards, Gordon

Kevin, The green "waffenfarbe" on the shoulderboards and collar tabs is for the Panzer Grenadiers. The arm shield indicates the wearer is posted to a headquarters unit. The arm shield often indicates quite a lot of info on the assigned unit but that is all I can say at the moment as my reference books haven't been delivered to my new apartment yet. The ribbon bar loops on the left breast indicates the wearer was in the Wehrmacht so the tunic probably dates from the late fifties early 60s. Regards, Gordon