October 24, 20223 yr #1 Lets start one for the Nationale Volksarmee, a catch all topic like the one we started for the Bundeswehr and the Post War to Current Austrian Bundesheer. This is from sometime in the 70s,Leutnant? has no Pips as we see. also, not sure on the shoulder straps, lot of Green in it, anyone know Arm?
October 24, 20223 yr #2 Good call, Patches! I'd say the shoulder boards are Volkspolizei Unterwachtmeister.
November 10, 20223 yr #4 Yes, Fallschirmjaeger (paratroopers), the only NVA soldiers I´m aware of who wore berets. The (later) Luftsturmregiment 40 had an interesting history. It was disbanded one year after reunification in 1991. Great photo!
November 12, 20223 yr #5 Here is an interesting photo of Volkspolizei dog handler training. Notice some are wearing collar tabs while some are not.
November 15, 20223 yr #7 The pic is a little fuzzy but it looks green for Volkspolizei. Female wreath insignia on caps were the larger Officer style like this.
November 15, 20223 yr #8 I checked my files again. Obviously I was wrong in my last post (#4). Beside Airborne troops femal NVA personnel wore berets (NVA term: "Baskenmuetzen") as well. Attached a scan of the corresponding NVA uniform manual´s page. So referring to the visible shoulder board my guess would be that the last photo shows a femal NVA NCO.
June 19, 20233 yr #14 Aha! Look closely at this Air Force Sergeant and you will see she is wearing a pair of Officer shoulder boards under her NCO boards. So this shot was taken at her Officer course graduation ceremony. At the end of the ceremony the newly minted officers remove their former rank insignia. No wonder she is smiling. Nice photo!
June 19, 20233 yr #15 Sarge, you are spot-on. So she´s most likely an "Offizierschueler 4. Studienjahr" (officer candidate, 4th academic year), wearing a "S" on her shoulder boards. Faehnrichschueler (Warrant officer candidate) boards were marked by a "F". Attached an image from the corresponding chapter of the NVA uniform manual.
June 28, 20233 yr #17 And... here is an example of the Winter version of the white foul weather coat for the Volkspolizei traffic cop. BTW, the photo above was also used for the cover of a DDR coffee table book about the Volkspolizei.
July 6, 20233 yr #19 On 2023/7/5 at 午後1時7分, patches said: VoPo ポスター、今回は 70 年代のもの。 Very interesting picture! I've seen very few good pictures of VoPo NCOs from the 70's. The peaked cap insignia in this photo looks like an early model. Also, the lapel insignia is an early one similar to those used in WWII. I'm curious as to what kind of uniform these insignias were used in combination with. I thought I would be able to fasten the first button of the jacket, but unfortunately the buttonhole was hidden by the bouquet.
July 6, 20233 yr #20 It looks like this fellow has dark green backing on his collar tabs and shoulder boards which makes him a Meister der VP, or regular policeman. Therefore he would wear an open collar tunic as shown. If he had light green backing on his collar tabs and shoulder boards he would be a Meister der Kasernierten Einheit des Mdi. or a barracked policeman. Then he would wear a tunic that could be worn with an open or a closed collar. Barracked policemen could also wear some military insignia such as marksmanship cords and collar Tresse.
July 7, 20233 yr #21 Sarge, thanks for the additional post. There are fewer books on NVA, and even fewer on VoPo. I learned a lot from your explanation.
August 3, 20232 yr Author #24 A 1957 photo of Ho Chi Minh posing with Sailors of the Volksmarine during a visit to East Germany.
August 3, 20232 yr #25 7 hours ago, patches said: A 1957 photo of Ho Chi Minh posing with Sailors of the Volksmarine during a visit to East Germany. Interesting photo taken shortly after Volksmarine activation. I would have mistaken it for VP-See without your note.
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