Germany, Luftwaffe. A Service Tunic for a Flight Personnel/Fallschirmjäger Hauptmann, Restored Example, by Wilhelm Welhausen

(Luftwaffe Dienstrock für einen Hauptmann der Fliegertruppe/Fallschirmjäger). A Luftwaffe service tunic for a Flight Personnel/Fallschirmjäger Hauptmann, constructed of dark blue-grey wool/rayon blended cloth. It features a turned down collar which is trimmed with twisted and rolled silver aluminum wire piping and flanked by tabs. The latter are constructed of golden-yellow wool with buckram cores, trimmed with silver aluminum wire piping, bear two silver aluminum wire gulls above an oak wreath of identical construction, and measure 45 mm (w) x 60 mm (l). The shoulders are topped by boards which are constructed of golden-yellow wool with rigid card stock cores and bearing four bands of silver aluminum wire piping. Each measuring 35 mm (w) x 105 mm (l), the boards are secured in place with machine stitching at the seam of the shoulder and with pebbled metal buttons on the inner edge. The cuff of each sleeve is rolled up to a depth of 15 cm and is held in place with two pieces of stitching. The breasts feature four pockets, pleated at the top, all closing with scalloped flaps perforated with reinforced buttonholes, in turn meeting pebbled metal buttons. Stitched onto the upper right breast just above the corresponding pocket is a restored or post-war replaced insignia consisting of a Luftwaffe eagle clutching a mobile swastika, measuring 95 mm (w) x 45 mm (h). The tunic closes with four pebbled metal buttons on the right flap meeting an equal number of reinforced buttonholes on the left. The interior is fully encompassed by a multi-piece slate-grey rayon liner which transitions into a pinstripe design through the arms. A single interior pocket is set into the upper left breast, and is overlaid by a tailor’s label reading “WILHELM WELHAUSEN, HANNOVER-KASSEL”. Otherwise unmarked, the tunic measures approximately 44 cm across the shoulders, with an arm length of 60 cm, and an overall length of 72 cm. Issues consistent with age, wear, and restoration are evident, and include some fatigue and mothing to the base material, removal of pips from the shoulders board to align rank with collar tabs which also show evidence of later addition, and the restoration or replacement of the breast eagle which shows UV reactivity to the swastika. This partially restored tunic remains in a very fine condition.