Romania Swiss Camo Military Jacket / shirt found in Romania

[Kev in Deva]

Hallo Gents,

I was lucky enough to pick this item up at the local Car Sale in Soimus near Deva:-

Zip up front,

2 breast pockets, each with 2 press-stud fastenings,

left-hand side pocket with internal divider for 5 pens.

Press-stud elasticated sleeve cuffs fastenings.

Left sleeve has a small pocket for field dressing (?)

Waist belt loops with double press stud positions to hold webbing.

Kevin in Deva. :jumping:

Edited March 7, 2011 by Kev in Deva

[Kev in Deva]

Unit 323 slip on.

Button in / slip on Plastic rank / grade?

Kevin in Deva. :cheers:

[Kev in Deva]

Owners name:- BEAT TSCHERFINGER

Manufacturer label in the garment.

There is also a small size label "48" inside the left-hand bottom hem.

Kevin in Deva. :cheers:

Edited March 7, 2011 by Kev in Deva

[Gordon Craig]

Kevin,

Very nice jacket. I have never seen one with the unit badges attached to it before. I need to buy some of these to replace the ones I traded away for Hungarian uniforms when I lived in Budapest. What kind of material is the jacket made of. The 80s issue stuff was of a much lighter material. Earlier stuff was made of a very heavy material.

Regards,

Gordon

[Kev in Deva]

Hallo Gordon,

this one, according to the label is 50% Polyester / 50% Cotton

In a kit bag in my "office" I have the Swiss army camo jacket with integral magazine pouches on the rear, which laces into the pants to form something like a one piece overall, in the heavier material you mention, I also have the camo back pack and 2 camo helmet covers in the same pattern.

As soon as I get 5 minutes I must dig them out and take some pictures to post on here.

Kevin in Deva. :beer:

[Gordon Craig]

Kevin,

Sounds as though this is the mid 80s pattern jacket. I'd be interested in seeing your other swiss camo items. I have a back pack, one helmet cover and a set of coveralls. I'll ppost pictures of my stuff as well.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Kevin,

Here some of the Swidd camo uniforms in my collection. The pattern was a copy of the Wehrmachts last camo scheme the Leibermuster although in a different colour scheme.

First the helmet cover on an M1968 helmet. The cover will also go on an M1918/34 but doesn't fit very well. Perhaps there is a different cover for each hemet. I'll have to ask some helmet collector friends about this.

[Gordon Craig]

Side view.

[Gordon Craig]

Frm the rear. The cover is held on the helmet with metal clips. The ties are then used to tighten the cover onto the helmet.

[Gordon Craig]

Panzer coveralls.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the top of the suit showing the namy zipper pockets clips etc. used on this piece of clothing.

[Gordon Craig]

From the back.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the zipper across the shoulders at the back.

[Gordon Craig]

The zipper open showing the handle used to pull armoured crewmen from their vehicle. The strap is sewn down the back on both sides of the coveralls and is clearly visible in the pictures.

[Gordon Craig]

A small backpack. It attaches to the tunic with metal clips and belts around the waist. It might be for a specific purpose as it has a small central pocket closed with a flap and a large pocket on either side which is open at the top but has elastic arond the exterior of the top.

[Kev in Deva]

If I recall correctly this small pack clips directly to the back of one of the combat-jackets, it seems the Swiss were utilizing a system where the canvass style Yoke and pouches were replaced by an integral system sewn directly to the outside of the combat jacket.

Very nice items by the way.

Kevin in Deva.

[Chris Boonzaier]

I always thought Polyester was avaoided like the plague. If I remember all our uniforms were cotton, with the reasoning flame, flash or burn would turn polyester into a bubbling burning mess on your skin?

Only recently are good flame retardent facrics being used for uniforms..

[Gordon Craig]

If I recall correctly this small pack clips directly to the back of one of the combat-jackets, it seems the Swiss were utilizing a system where the canvass style Yoke and pouches were replaced by an integral system sewn directly to the outside of the combat jacket.

Very nice items by the way.

Kevin in Deva.

Kevin,

Yes they were. They also had a tunic where the back pack was built into the inside of the back of the tunic.

Cheers,

Gordon

Edited March 11, 2011 by Gordon Craig

[Sharkey1807]

@Kevin the rank is Gefreiter. The integral bach pouches was not for ammunition. It was for the Gamelle (mess kit)

@Gordon: the back pach was used as followed, in the big middle pouch came raincoat, the 2 small long pouches on the left and right side was used for grenades, over the middle pouch was hanged the Feldspaten (digging tool) which got secured with its stick in the lower loop.

Can tell you that you drove crazy with that backpack. It all the tears the jacket rearwards. Aside that when you jumped in ditch there was a fair chance the digging tool slipped out of the latch and the whole thing banged into your head. Lucky was the one who had his helmet on ! ;-)

 

Greetings fro  a Swiss in Sibiu

Robert

If you wanna find swiss stuff it's really not difficult.

Look at www.ricardo.ch

Or when you go to Zuerich there is a cool army surplus store with some very old stuff, it is located in Loewenstrasse. Very easy to find cause it pops out from all the other stores, anyway the street is just about 800 meters long.