Greatcoats

Hmmm well I know that there were at least 13 styles of German Army Greatcoat and additional variations.

Do you know what style/model you have?

I've only got one good pic (So far) that shows the hem stitching, and it's not on a standard greatcoat lol. No info on the official length of material so far

I'll keep looking through my reference stuff and let you know

No idea, when and if Che's original arrives I will take measurements but I'm not sure if will be here til early next week

Also point to remember is you portray an orifacer, so some discretion on the tailoring would be permissable

Major always told me everything tended ot be 15 cm ....distance of cuff title from sleeve end , dirstacne SS Arm eagle from shoulder etc. I wouldn't be surprised if it cropped up again , 15cm below top of boot ?

....or 15cm above the knee, for that risque look.

Cheers all. 13 different styles, blummin ek! 'Tis an M36
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WW2-GERMAN-M-36-G ... dZViewItem

what length are the cuffs? 15cm = EM, 23cm = Officer

ah from the pics on ebay the cuffs look like 15cm

From pics I have - the EM's could well be 15cm from the ankle(can see quite a bit of the marschstiefel calf)

The officer's version of the great coat seems to have a much short hem length - from pics it appears to fall at the height of the Officer's riding boots

hope this may help? I'll keep digging

I doubt very much wether your greatcoat would be tailored to your own idividual measurments. Don't forget these were army issue. Give them a rough size and make do. if you were an officer then there's obviously the possibillity of private purchase or having some tailoring done. Check out a lot of pics of guys wearing them. the bottoms are normally as rough as hell.
Don't get too hung up on tiny details. Theres simply no way every member of the German army would have been measuring the hem at the bottom of his greatcoat to see if it was 15cm from his knee, the ground or anywhere else for that matter.

individual height not measurements, a greatcoat on one person to the next could look daft, as CW does orifacer he can hardly have a greatcoat trapsing on the floor behind him like a hobo, and if he were (obviously well into the hypothetical now) issued with what was available, due to us all being different shapes and sizes it may not 'fit' correctly. Being an orifacer, he would have at that time had it tailored so he didn't look like a hobo.

I looked at loads of piccies today in books that have greatcoats in, and they vary from being nearly down to the floor or just under the top of the jackboot for the general soldat. Officers mostly were just under top of the jack boot few exceptions, not conclusive, by any stretch of the imagination and is dependant on location (ostfront pics have longer coats for example) but certainly a curious question he's posed

Thank you all. As I understood it, my greatcoat is unhemmed (raw cut edge) exactly so that it could be turned and hemmed to the required length. I have short legs so it does look rather long!

I agree, photos do show legths all over the place. But sewing a hem is hardly tailoring, more a do-it-yourself job (well, give-it-to-the-wife-job in my case) hence the q on what regs said.

I would do it so its just slightly longer than the top of your jackboots, wear your tunic underneath so you get the right length, there are several variations in length on this pic:

Cufftitle is 14 cm. Arm eagle is not really a measurement - it's 1/3 distance from top seam to Elbow. but I digress

Greatcoat, wool, enlisted mans..... There is no "regulation length - IT was made to a reguilation length. They came unhemmed - I haev an original Wachtmantel with a blanket lining and it has the lines of stitching and is quite short (Just below the tops of the marching boots)
I have an original Mantel which is nearly to my ankles...... I also have a good quality copy which is modelled on an original which is what you'd call a good length.......

So to conclude - if youw ant to turn it up - then turn it up to a length that suits you or is comfortable but don't shorten it to above the top of marching boots. My recommendation is you do it to just below the middle of the shaft of your boots..... Look at contemporary photos of men on parade wearing the Mantel and go from there. And remember - the raw edge is there for a reason - not to turn it up but to prevent water collecting in a hem or seam and making the coat heavy - The raw edge allows water to drip off...... so cut the coat and restitch the three or four lines of stitiching...... which actually makes it easier to do (if you can cut straight)

Dunno where the 15cm above comment comes from but its certainly mentioned in all Brian Davis books not saying he's right or indeed that you are wrong, as by his own admission theres lots that could be changed in the books since publication, just wanted to confirm its not a figure grabbed out of the air.

Interesting about the raw edge PD

Ah, that's great! (pun intended ) The purpose of the raw edge that I was told (or assumed, I can't remember ) has led me astray!

Apologies to other forum users appalled at the stitch-counting exercise that I started!

Thanks for the input everyone - I can now sleep at night without the problem niggling at the back of my mind, as they do!

I used Brian L Davis books as a reference point - which indicated the cuff sizes I mentioned,also some others

PD - what's your source? just so i can get that book for reference also

Achtung, halt plans for Sealion and Barbarossa, several regiments appear to have their cuffs too long ..

Achtung, halt plans for Sealion and Barbarossa, several regiments appear to have their cuffs too long ..

...and that's how we won the war.

thats right STEINER we might look a like a sack of spuds, but then Pit Bull's look daft and are very vicious when provoked.

Gliderrider, im sad to say, but it wasn't the Brits that won. Hell, it wasn't even the yanks. It was the Russians. No way could Germany have won a war of attrition against a country like that....

All joking aside mate, I think you are bang on. How can a country with limited natural resourses and a reletivly limited population take on a country that can throu thousands of lives and tons of war matieriel away at a whim, and not eaven notice it, The germans might be better trained and have better kit than russia but sheer numbers wins. Edit, they came dam close tho didnt they? 50 miles from mosco.