Bulgaria Any Interest In "You Know Who'S Bulgarian Ally?

[RichieC]

A small sample of 1930s and pre-1944 Bulgarian "schtuff"...

IMAGE 1: Copied with permission from my friend in Bulgaria. Great shot of a Bulgarian NCO in training I assume.

IMAGE 2: Lt Col of Mountain Artillery Unit...

IMAGE 3: Parade Tunic for Lt Col of Infantry. It is a VERY small size (it would not fit on my small display torso!).

IMAGE 4 & 5: Perhaps my favourite Bulgarian piece... Cape of a Lt of Infantry and detail of it's collar.

Image 6: Infantry Lt lightweight summer tunic. The stand up collar I thing is pretty darn sharp looking...

IMAGE 7: Medical Second Lt. This is constructed from lightweight wool gabardine...

IMAGE 8: Royal Bulgarian Officer Cadet CDV and his buckle, circa 1880s/90s.

IMAGE 9: Lt of an assault gun/anti tank unit. I believe that yellow piped boards and collar are distinctive to such uniforms worn only by unit personnel of Sturmgeshutz given to Boris' army by their German "ally".

Edited February 13, 2006 by RichieC

[RichieC]

IMAGES 1 & 2

Edited February 11, 2006 by RichieC

[RichieC]

IMAGE 3 & 4

[RichieC]

IMAGE 5

Edited February 11, 2006 by RichieC

[RichieC]

IMAGE 6 & 7

Edited February 11, 2006 by RichieC

[RichieC]

Image 8 & 9

[David Gregory]

Richie,

Sorry to interrupt the flow of images. This stuff looks very interesting and I have seen none of it before.

Can you show a detail image of a Bulgarian button? At a distance, they look rather like Bavarian buttons.

Thanks in advance,

David

[RichieC]

David,

Any interest is fondly appreciated. Images to follow in 24-48 as per your request...

RHC

[RichieC]

Can you show a detail image of a Bulgarian button? At a distance, they look rather like Bavarian buttons.

Thanks in advance,

David

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[Luftmensch]

Striking uniforms...beautiful presentation. Thanks for sharing!!

Rgds

[David Gregory]

Richie,

Thanks for showing the uniform ensembles and the extra details. There are so many aspects of military history and collecting militaria - so much stuff, so little time. I'm glad other collectors show what else there is to collect and learn about.

David

[Pete A]

Richie,

very nice uniforms, and not too often seen, i quess. The mixture of Russian and German influences is quite interesting. Any chance of getting a brief rundown on history of Bulgarian uniforms?

Pete

Edited February 13, 2006 by Pete A

[RichieC]

Thanks Pete...

Regrettably, this stuff is so obscure and has so may individual variations, it is difficult to actually provide a "run down" of it. Every single piece I own has come from a friend in Bulgaria who owns an antique shop. It is either brought into him by pickers or consignors, or is obtained by him at flea markets in Sofia and Varna.

Secondly, there is almost a nil amount of English language reference material available on any of it except what is found in the general publications such as the Andrew Mollo book: "Armed Forces of WWII, Insignia and Organization".

Other than that, publications even in Bulgarian language are very limited, and none that I know of even cover the era of the ensembles I have pictured here.

I have a few more pieces that I will photograph and post as the weeks progress. I'll try to include any bits of factual knowledge that I have gathered about them and include it into the posts...

Richie C

[Pete A]

Thanks, Richie. Looking forward for more of your Bulgarian stuff!

from the site of Bulgarian National Museum of Military History (http://www.md.government.bg/nvim/_en/index.htm) I managed to find some uniform pictures, but they too seem to cover mainly a bit older period than those you have shown.

Pete