Your Field Impression
A dialogue on your field impression, camouflage and general authenticity from our unit authenticity officers.
.... from our Spiess and Authenticity Officer
So, you've decided that you want to join our unit and reenact WW2 German. Where do you start?
First off all, you need to have a clear idea of what impression you intend to portray. This is your plan. This is the groundwork that your impression will be built upon. The more thought you put into this step, the easier it is to build a quality impression. This will also save you money down the road as you aren't out there buying things you don't need. Once you have your plan, you need to check with the unit leadership and make sure that your plan and ours are in alignment.
Time to buy gear, right? Not so fast. There are a large number of options available and before you buy anything, ask if anyone has dealt with that vendor before and what their experience was. There is nothing worse than buying something that is not usable and having to buy it again. Trust me, I've been down that road too. The goal here is for you to buy the best gear that you can afford so that you don't have to upgrade later. It is better to take advantage of loaner gear for a while longer and save $$$ to buy better stuff. There are many vendors that lots of us have dealt with for years. They may not be the cheapest but they will have demonstrated that they sell quality gear and will treat you well. It is, after all, your hard earned money and we're here to help you get the most for it. We'd much rather have you take longer to get out in the field correctly outfitted than to have you come out with questionable items.
Most of the people currently in this unit have a certain look that we are trying to portray. Our unit is a mid-war unit made up of a wide variety of soldiers. Old veterans, young recruits, fit and unfit. The thing that we need to have in common is our general appearance. We strongly prefer M40 through M43 feldblusen as that would be typical for the unit we portray. This still gives you the choice of the M40, M41, M42, or M43 jackets. All are perfect for our unit. Pants? M37 or M43s are good. Leather field gear is preferred but tropical stuff would have been used as well, especially after 1944. Another item that we're kinda picky about is the use of camouflage. We discourage the use of camo. Why? because our unit, unlike a more "elite" or "first rate" unit would not have been issued large amounts of camo. The number one most seen item of camouflage would have been the splinter camo zeltbahn followed by the splinter helmet cover. Smocks would have been fairly uncommon. There would have been some but not many. Like anything else, it is your money and should you want to add a smock to your impression, no one is going to stop you but I'd ask that you have the rest of your impression together first.
The best thing that can happen is for you to think about what you want, have a plan, ask lots of questions before buying, and read, read, read. It's awesome when we get out and we're on the same page!
A. Seitz - Der Spiess
