I decided it would be good to have a dedicated thread for us gebirgsjäger's as the Krauts at Crete thread is mostly FJ related waffle.
So first topic of conversation; Wickelgamaschen! AKA gebirgsjäger puttees.
An item unique to the GJ, Originals are now silly money, Nice repro's complete with the proper buckles are available from Schuster.ru but ordering from them is such a hassle, having to do bank SWIFT transfers to random bank accounts in Latvia etc 
So instead I have opted for a cheap and easy alternative and brought Original ww2 dated Australian Puttees from Battledress&Bayonet for the paultry sum of £5.49 including shipping with payment via Paypal. Simples!
[link]http://www.battledressandbayonet.com/20.html#[/link]
They are a Grey-green colour rather than the Khaki of the British ones so should look ok and you will have to be looking very closely to notice the lack of buckles.
I might have a bash at fabricating some buckles from aluminium myself as they are pretty simple.
“I wanted to come to the Volga at a specific location at a specific city. By chance it carries the name of Stalin himself. So don’t think I marched there for this reason – it could carry another name – but because there is a very important goal... this goal I wanted to take – and you know – we are very modest, we have it already."
Adolf Hitler, November 1942
"Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerrillas! It is on your perseverance, staunchness, fighting skill and readiness to discharge your duty to the country that the defeat of the German-fascist army and the liberation of the Soviet land from the Hitlerite invaders depend! We can and must clear the Soviet land of Hitlerite vermin."
Joseph Stalin, November 1942
Glad I saw this thread...
I've been looking to get Schuster's puttees but I haven't had a reply back regarding payment etc. If payment is a difficult as you suggest I'll get a pair from Battledress&Bayonet. Are the buckles you've posted from furriel.com. I'll order a pair of these and spray them. I'm also going to get furriel's check GJ sweatrag...
Check out German ebay as well. You can find surplus postwar (?) Wickelgamaschen there too. I got a pair and managed to get some buckles off a chap on the panzergrenadier forum. If you get a pattern (I have a pair I can draw up if you want) then you should be able to get a workshop with a lazer cutter to make a load for you for not much.
The German gaiters are almost the same colour as the British / Australian ones, the only noticeable difference from five yards away is the wrapping tape which is grey. The wool though was quite different. The British is very coarse whereas the German is soft and stretchy and frankly makes a much better wrap.
To sum up you can make a very good looking repro by replacing the tape on a British pair with a more field grey tape and getting some buckles.
Cheers Sean, I've been checking on ebay.de on and off for ages and drawn a blank 
If you could do a pattern with measurements that would be brilliant 
For anyone who doesn't want to go the Wickelgamaschen route, grey wool socks rolled down over the tops of the low boots work well and are perfectly acceptable.
Some other thoughts on kit and getting the "Gebirgsjäger look".
Waffenfarbe.
Our's will be a spearhead unit with some gebirgspioniere elements and we will undoubtably have some pioniere tasks to perform, clearing Mines, barbed wire, etc.
So, to make things easier for those that are converting their standard Heer uniforms to Gebirgs, Black pioniere or GJ green shoulderboards are both perfectly acceptable. So to get the GJ look you only really need the sleeve Edelwiess. I have a number of EM pioniere boards which I can lend out to those that only have white infantry boards.
Gebirgsjäger Edelwiss Sleeve patch.
The mark of the Gebirgsjäger, worn on the right sleeve, halfway between shoulder and elbow.
These come with either dark green of Feldgrau backing and are available from a number of UK militaria suppliers, ebay etc for approx £7 to £10
Headgear - Bergmutze
As we will be portaying a unit in combat, and not lounging in the rear, Helmets are the order of the day for headwear.
If you do have or want to get an iconic GJ Bergmutze to hook in your belt to wear during downtime, or for pre/post game and social then by all means please do so.
Boots
The iconic “Bergschuse†with hobnailed soles and cleeted edges and toes. Originals are very expensive as are repros. Many re-enactors use 50’s Swiss or Swedish equivilents but even these are expensive and hard to find these days.
So as with most WW2 airsoft events, foot comfort and safety is more important than authenticity so standard repro Low boot, British “Boots Combat High†etc. are perfectly fine. Jackboots are generally not seen worn by gebirgsjäger until late war so are best avoided if possible.
“I wanted to come to the Volga at a specific location at a specific city. By chance it carries the name of Stalin himself. So don’t think I marched there for this reason – it could carry another name – but because there is a very important goal... this goal I wanted to take – and you know – we are very modest, we have it already."
Adolf Hitler, November 1942
"Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerrillas! It is on your perseverance, staunchness, fighting skill and readiness to discharge your duty to the country that the defeat of the German-fascist army and the liberation of the Soviet land from the Hitlerite invaders depend! We can and must clear the Soviet land of Hitlerite vermin."
Joseph Stalin, November 1942
Glad I saw this thread...
Are the buckles you've posted from furriel.com. I'll order a pair of these and spray them. I'm also going to get furriel's check GJ sweatrag...
I got that image from the PST forums but it does look like it's from the furriel.com site. Have you ordered from them before? Is it simple or a hassle?
“I wanted to come to the Volga at a specific location at a specific city. By chance it carries the name of Stalin himself. So don’t think I marched there for this reason – it could carry another name – but because there is a very important goal... this goal I wanted to take – and you know – we are very modest, we have it already."
Adolf Hitler, November 1942
"Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerrillas! It is on your perseverance, staunchness, fighting skill and readiness to discharge your duty to the country that the defeat of the German-fascist army and the liberation of the Soviet land from the Hitlerite invaders depend! We can and must clear the Soviet land of Hitlerite vermin."
Joseph Stalin, November 1942
I'll dig out the buckles and do a detailed drawing. I work on Autocad so I'll forward that file as well as I believe if you find a workshop with a computerised lazer cutter they can work from that. Not sure though, could be talking rubbish, but worth a go.
The sleeve Edelweiss should be 150mm / 6" from the top of the sleeve to top of badge. Can't remember where I read that, but that is, I understand, correct. It should also be the dark green background at this stage of the war, field grey background was late war (again, somebody correct me if I am wrong). Make sure you don't get the SS version which is different and a heresy.
Jack boots, or marching boots to use the correct term, were issued throughout the war and were used for... marching! There are pictures of gebirgsjaeger in the advance through France in 1940 wearing jack boots (or marching boots 
). However, you may have guessed I'm a Gebirgsjaeger anorak, from all the pictures I have seen of the fighting on Crete, no jack boots worn. Which makes sense, they were there as the mountain specialists on a mountainous island. You wear your mountain boots don't you? The Gebirgsjaeger and indeed the paras ( 
) adapted to the hot climate quite rapidly. Trousers were pulled out of 'wickelgamaschen' to allow flow of air and wickelgamaschen were either hidden or removed. Where they were available British shorts were worn.
British shorts...
http://www.whatpriceglory.com/shopexd.asp?id=1273&bc=no
The Bergmutze was a treasured piece of GJ kit and would have been carried by all GJ into the field to be worn whenever they could, including in combat at times. However, they were going into a serious battle, expecting serious fighting, it is wrong to think they did not wear helmets, they did and the photographic evidence proves it. So Boshman is right in that you should not need one for the event as you should have your helmet on, but they do look damned smart!
Look up 'nagelschuhe' on Swiss ebay for Swiss mountain boots much cheaper than you get them in the UK. I think sizing is the mondopoint system (spelling?) so be careful with sizes. Bear in mind though that once you have a bit of mud on your soles you wouldn't know if you were wearing cleated mountain boots or standard Heer low boots from five yards away, so you don't really need them.
And I'm going to miss this event as it stands...
Glad I saw this thread...
Are the buckles you've posted from furriel.com. I'll order a pair of these and spray them. I'm also going to get furriel's check GJ sweatrag...
I got that image from the PST forums but it does look like it's from the furriel.com site. Have you ordered from them before? Is it simple or a hassle?
I think the buckles must be out of order because there's no way of adding them to the cart
Seanebabes - If you could get dims from your buckles and forward the autocad file on, I'll look into getting some made as you suggest, and possibly do a group buy if anyone else is interested...
Anyway, here's a pic. of my recently finished burgmutze with original Steinnuß buttons 
Thanks Sean, fantastic info, your GJ knowledge is definitely superior to mine
Gutted hear you might not be able to make the even, really hope you can.
Lovely looking Bergmutze Uno
Regarding the puttee's just got this back from battledress&bayonets: 
Dear Neil Boshier,
Battledress and Bayonet just sent you a full refund of £5.49 GBP for your purchase.
If you have any questions about this refund, please contact Battledress and Bayonet.
The refund will go to the card you paid with.
To see all the transaction details, please log in to your PayPal account. It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.
Merchant information
Battledress and Bayonet
marksimmbooks@tiscali.co.uk
Note from merchant
Sorry these have now all sold out. TTFN Mark
Wish these people would keep their websites up to date! Will need to source from elsewhere but there are plenty of Australian ones on ebay for not a lot more!
“I wanted to come to the Volga at a specific location at a specific city. By chance it carries the name of Stalin himself. So don’t think I marched there for this reason – it could carry another name – but because there is a very important goal... this goal I wanted to take – and you know – we are very modest, we have it already."
Adolf Hitler, November 1942
"Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerrillas! It is on your perseverance, staunchness, fighting skill and readiness to discharge your duty to the country that the defeat of the German-fascist army and the liberation of the Soviet land from the Hitlerite invaders depend! We can and must clear the Soviet land of Hitlerite vermin."
Joseph Stalin, November 1942
Dear Neil Boshier,
Battledress and Bayonet just sent you a full refund of £5.49 GBP for your purchase.
If you have any questions about this refund, please contact Battledress and Bayonet.
The refund will go to the card you paid with.
To see all the transaction details, please log in to your PayPal account. It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.
Merchant information
Battledress and Bayonet
marksimmbooks@tiscali.co.uk
Note from merchant
Sorry these have now all sold out. TTFN Mark
Me too
Not sure how authentic these sleeve badges are, but we are Not stitch counters. I have used this company before and they are great and free P&P
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/heer-mountain-troops-edelweiss-sleeve-insignia-early-model-/360519449741?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53f0a23c8d
Hard to tell from the picture as it looks wrong at first, but I think that is just the photo.
For a couple of quid more from your friendly local supplier...
http://militaria-net.co.uk/oscommerce/c ... p-599.html
And he is a decent chap selling top notch kit.
He also has the cap badges in the corrct pattern (postwar is wrong... which I have on my Bergmutze 
so you could even sell it to me after you had finished the event! 
)
Here is the buckle drawing.
I think I just PM'd you the drawing file for fabrication, but let me know if I mucked that up.
Here is the buckle drawing.
I think I just PM'd you the drawing file for fabrication, but let me know if I mucked that up.
Hi
As discussed in PMs, I've now got 20 pairs made up. I'm picking them up on Monday morning so will post pictures and details etc. then.
I've also got a 5th Gebirgs Div. stick-pin. How would this be worn ? Would it be ok to wear over tunic breast pocket ?
Nice one Conrad.
The pin badge you refer to was worn on the Bergmutze, although it was a non issue item so strictly speaking you can wear it where you like, but all the pictures show it on the cap behind the Edelweiss.
Here is a picture, the first one I found on the internet, there are others. Nice tache!
As posted earlier, I've now got 20 pairs of the puttee buckles made up by a local firm of fabricators. They're made of 2mm bright mild steel. If anyone is interested in a pair I can do them for £3.80 per pair inc. postage. If you're interested drop me a PM. Payment by Paypal only...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330688747904? ... 97.c0.m619
I found these on ebay and have ordered a pair, hoping they will do ok. I've ordered a pair of grey socks to tuck over the top of them.
Boots arrived today and I'm very impressed with them. Good quality leather that perked right up with a couple of coats of brown polish. They look like they have been re-soled which is stitched on, and never been worn since. They are date stamped 1982. Hopefully they will look after my feet well for the day.
Excellent, Jimbo.
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
You might want to wear them in a bit before we bail out the FJ's ( ) on Crete!
I've come across people buying the nails to turn these boots into mountain boots. Mind you a quick look on Ebay shows that you would need to spend £100 on nails for a pair of boots, so I can't recommend it. Nice boots though.
Yes you're right about the nails, the grip in the soles seems reasonable so I thought I'd leave them alone. I did think about having some steel clips made for the sides of the soles but once again, I didn't think it was worth it. Sound advice on breaking them in a bit though, may walk the dog wearing them a few times and wear them to skirmish on Sunday to give them a bit of a chance.
