Streetsoldier: Barents Region, WWII

[CentralFlGal]

The Jan. 2006 issue of Armchair General has a link to http://www.barentsroad.org with an excellent slideshow - uniforms galore so you can get your fix.

Not sure if you get this mag, but they've brought on the site author, Lars Gyllenhaal, as a contributor for upcoming articles on battlefield tourism.

Have you had a chance to see "Downfall" with Bruno Ganz? It's in Blockbuster now. Would love your opinion on its level of authenticity.

[streetsoldier]

Nicely done slideshow, about a little-known theater of WW II; I met one USN veteran, who'd been outside Murmansk awaiting the German pocket battleship Scharnhorst to break out; knowing that if she did, his battle cruiser would have been blown out of the water (she slipped out, undetected, and didn't engage the U.S. ships).

"Downfall" has a fairly decent level of authenticity, except that the uniforms are mostly 1935 pattern and tailored; not at all what would have been seen under those circumstances.

I recall the same thing with "Enemy at the Gates"; the Russians were "dead on", but the Germans depicted were wearing parade-level uniforms. Only Ed Harris, in the character of "Major Koenig" came anywhere close...yet, instead of the Jagers-Windbluse the character should have been wearing, he was actually decked out in a Swedish 1909 greatcoat.

I am constantly amazed that I have never seen M1940s, M1942s or M1943s on German troops, much less the field-made ersatz camouflage Tarnblusen, anoraks or heavy parkas so prevalent in soldiers of that time.

I guess the authenticity people didn't know, or didn't bother to do their research.

Speaking of "authenticity", a one-woman tailor in Wisconsin is making my Reichsheer-variant field tunic, and will be sending a muslin mock-up for me to try on and approve, or make changes. She's the ONLY person online that will craft custom-tailored WW II German uniforms to the customer's preferences.