Army and Navy Uniforms and Insignia / How to Know Rank, Corps and Service in the Military and Naval Forces of the United States and Foreign Countries

by Dion Williams

Uniforms of the German Army

The peace time uniforms of the various corps and arms of the German Army present a great variety, the traditions of the services of the former separate kingdoms and political divisions that are now united to form the German Empire being preserved in many instances in the color and design of the uniform or in the bright metal decorations and insignia.

Many of these uniforms are gaudy in color and richly decorated with gold, silver and colored cloth and braid ornaments.

The facings colors worn upon the collars and cuffs and as pipings on the coats and trousers often vary with the individual regiments, and the headdress is in many shapes and colors.

The Line Infantry wear a black helmet with brass spike, Prussian eagle and scale chin strap; a blue single-breasted tunic with gilt buttons, and dark gray trousers; the facings and piping being red, but the infantry regiments of Saxony, Bavaria, Wurttemburg and some other states have variations from this in both color and design.

The Uhlans wear the Czapka helmet; a blue double-breasted tunic with a red plastron front and red facings; and dark gray trousers; the Prussian Hussars wear a black fur busby with heavy gilt decorations and a bag of the distinctive color of the facings, a single-breasted blue tunic heavily decorated with white braid, loops and frogs; a blue pelisse with white braid decorations slung from the left shoulder; dark gray tight fitting breeches with white braid decorations, and black Hessian boots with embroidered tops.

The Prussian Cuirassiers wear white uniforms with black hip boots and cuirasses of brass or iron, the iron being black for some regiments and bright for others.

The Saxon Jager regiments wear uniforms of green cloth and a cap with a feather plume.

The Prussian Dragoon regiments wear helmets with drooping white plumes, light blue jackets, dark gray breeches.

The Field Artillery regiments usually wear black helmets with a spike ending in a brass ball; dark blue coats with gilt buttons, dark gray breeches and black boots.

There are many other distinctive uniforms and the varied colors, bright trappings and decorations and waving plumes made a peace time assemblage of German troops of all arms a most imposing sight; but early in the present century the leaders realized that while all this gaudy panoply and pomp added to the attractiveness of the service, kept alive the traditions of the past, and aided in holding the esprit de corps, it would not do for service on the modern battlefield, where the troops must be as inconspicuous as possible to avoid annihilation under the drum fire of artillery and the rapid fire of machine guns.

As a result a field service uniform of a dull gray color was adopted for all arms but it was not generally issued to the troops until just before the opening of the present world war.

The German officer’s field service uniform consists of a gray single breasted sack coat with a standing turn-over collar; breeches of the same color and black or tan leather boots. With this uniform the old bright helmets are worn with a gray cover to make them less conspicuous, or in many cases a gray cap with sloping visor is worn. The buttons are of gilt allowed to become dull in the field, in some cases of leather or bone, and in other cases the coat is closed by buttons concealed beneath a fly.

The corps and regimental colors are worn in small patches on the collar at each side of the neck opening and also as cuff stripes in some corps. In some corps the distinctive color is also worn around the cap band.

The rank of the German officer is indicated by the braid and insignia on flat shoulder straps covered with braided cord. The shoulder strap for Field Marshal and for General officers is covered with a plaited knot made up of five loops of sets of three cords, the two outer cords being gold and the central cord being silver interwoven with the imperial colors in silk. The shoulder straps for Field officers (Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels and Majors) are of the same design except that the cords are in sets of two, both of silver interwoven with the silk colors. The shoulder straps of the company officers are covered with parallel rows of silver cord interwoven with the silk colors.

The insignia of rank worn upon the shoulder straps on top of the cord decorations are diamond shaped ornaments of gilt metal, and although they do not have the conventional shape of a star they are called stars in the German service.

These insignias are as follows for the various grades of rank:—

Field Marshal	Two gold batons crossed.
Colonel General	Three stars.
General	Two stars.
Lieutenant General	One star.
Major General	No insignia, the shoulder strap knot being plain.
Colonel	Two stars.
Lieutenant Colonel	One star.
Major	No insignia.
Captain	Two stars.
First Lieutenant	One star.
Second Lieutenant	No insignia.

There is no corresponding rank in the armies of other nations for the German rank of Colonel General, and in the German Army there is no rank of Brigadier General.

In the German Army a Feldwebel is an officer between the commissioned officers and the enlisted men, his rank corresponds to that of the Warrant Officers in the United States Navy and Marine Corps. He wears a double cord upon the shoulders and his rank insignia is a circular medallion with a Prussian eagle on each side of the collar.

The German officer’s overcoat is a heavy ulster of the same gray color as the field uniform; it is double-breasted and the rank of the wearer is indicated by the shoulder straps as in the case of the service coat.

German Army. Officers’ shoulder strap insignia indicating rank

1. Field Marshal	6. Colonel
2. Colonel General	7. Lieutenant Colonel
3. General	8. Major
4. Lieutenant General	9. Captain
5. Major General	10. First Lieutenant
	11. Second Lieutenant

Photo. Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C.

Roumanian Army. Officers’ service uniform

The enlisted men of the German Army wear a service uniform of the same color and general design as that of the officers. The ordinary field cap is a round loose crowned cap without visor, the coat is a single breasted sack with a standing turn-over collar, and the trousers are of the same gray cloth as the coat. Boots of black or tan leather are worn.

Noncommissioned officers wear a stripe of braid around the cuff and the front edges of the collar at the neck opening and for a short distance along the top of the collar back from the neck opening. A Sergeant Major wears a stripe of narrow braid above the noncommissioned officer’s sleeve stripe.

The enlisted men’s overcoat is a heavy ulster buttoning to the neck with a standing-falling collar, the rank of noncommissioned officers being indicated by the sleeve braid as for the service coat and by patches of color at the front of the collar.

Steel trench helmets are worn in the trenches by both officers and men, this helmet being larger than that worn by the American, British and French troops and having a flaring extension at the rear for the protection of the neck.