Gents,

 

I recently picked up a 1943 dated tunic that I did not know existed that I thought I would show.  This is a white Summer Police (Pol.) NCO Tunic that was only regulation for a short period of time.  Until I saw this tunic (and period photos of it in wear) I thought the white tunics were only worn by officers... I was proved wrong.  After doing some research I found out that not only Ordnungspolizei NCOs but also Feldgendarmerie NCOs could wear the white Summer (Casino) tunic.  Below is a period photograph of a Feldgendarmerie NCO wearing the Army (HEER) pattern white Summer tunic while on active service as a dog handler.  Notice the metal Army breast eagle and stand & fall collar.

 

Here are some photos of the white Summer Polizei NCO tunic I picked up showing the differences from the Polizei Officer, and other services, tunics.  The Pol. Officer tunic is similar to the NCO tunic but it has a rise and fall collar where the NCO tunic has a standing collar like the KM Officer version. The Pol. Officer tunic has a bullion sleeve eagle, sometimes with bullion collar tabs, most often not.  See also the second period photograph showing the white Pol. Officer tunic in wear by a Police Officer who is also wearing an SS dagger.

 

 

Here is the tunic that I bought.  The white Pol. NCO tunic has a standing collar.  It has a six button front and all buttons are removable.  It does not have French cuffs like many officer tunics.  It has two pleated patch pockets on the breast and two un-pleated pockets at the hips in the standard Ordnungspolizei (ORPO) manner.  It has a distinctive box tail with two belt ramp buttons as seen on other ORPO uniforms.  It has the standard setup for shoulder boards, in this case Pol. Wachtmeister, as opposed to the military style of white coat with slits for specialized shoulder boards fitting into the sleeve seams.  Finally, it is marked as police property with an issue date of "1943" inside the coat.

 

A scarce tunic that shows just because you have not seen something before does not mean that it does not exist.

 

 

Great uniform coat.   Rich A. in Pa.

Thanks Rich.  You know, it is interesting that this tunic has belt ramp buttons in the back but photographs of the white tunic in wear do not show the belt being worn. 

 

Of course odd things do exist such as the Police Officer wearing the dagger in the above photograph is wearing collar tabs, which is unusual.  The bullion collar tabs appear to be the standard Police Officer tabs with a green backing.  The bullion sleeve eagle also appears to have a green backing instead of white.  

 

 

Your white tunic is tailored just about exactly like the Heer Officer Old Style White tunics were, 6-button front, stand up collar, no turn back cuffs, 2 waist buttons in back, all buttons removable.  I have looked and have not been able to distinguish between the Imperial White tunics and the Heer Old Style White tunics except of course for the buttons, KM anchor stamped and Heer silver pebbled.

 

Usually these tunics utilized T-Boards that attached through shoulder seam slits but slip on shoulder boards were occasionally used as well as in your Police tunic.