M38 army collar tabs ‘Einheitskragenspiegel’

Description

Unissued and MINT 2 left sided standard M38 army collar tabs for all branches of the German army (Heer).

From 1933 until approximately 1938 army units got their ‘waffenfarbe’ or weapon color shown on their collar tabs. Because many soldiers kept changing units, it was decided that the collar tabs would not bear any specific color anymore. Therefore the M38 generic collar tabs were introduced with no weapon color, so only the piping on the shoulder boards would indicate the branch of the soldier. The tabs had a white/grey background and three dark green colored stripes. Because the white background of the M38 tabs was lighting up in the dark, the brown/grey colored M40 generic collar tabs were introduced in the late 1940’s.