German Uniforms and Equipment

Belt & Buckle (Leibriemen mit Koppelschloss)

The standard Belt (Koppel) was made of leather (blackened on the outside and natural colour on the inside),and is 4.4 cm wide.

On the left end side there is a smaller piece of belt (3.5 cm wide with a length of 8 cm) which holds
the metal (aluminium for early war examples, steel for mid / late war examples) hook.

Often the manufacturer of the belt can be found here. In this case :

WITTKOPP & C^o
BIELEVELD
1940

Below: Detail shots of belt hook

On the right side a leather flap of 3,5 cm by 20 cm with 7 pairs of holes, is sewn on the belt so the belt buckle can be adjusted.

Most of the time the length of the belt (in centimeters) is stamped on this side as well

On the left an example with 105 and on the right a 110 cm  

Late war examples like the one below did not have the leather strap anymore

Back side of the 100 cm late war belt.

In stead of 7 pairs of holes this example only has 5 pairs of hole for buckle adjustment

Left: Detail picture of the length stamp of 100 cm

The painted letter probably are the owners initials.

Below:

Maker mark (Reichs Betriebs Nummer) and date of manufacturing

RB Nr 0/0890/0069  -  1944

The Belt Buckle (Koppelschloss) comes in many variations. 

The one shown here is an Aluminium one, painted field grey.with a leather piece sewn on.

On the following picture you can see the buckle attached to the belt. Remains of the field grey paint are visible, but most is worn off

The following 4 pictures show the loose aluminium buckle from the front and the back

The maker mark on the leather tab is also shown.

Detail of maker mark

W. ASSMANN & SOHNE
LÜDENSCHEID

1938

Below: Steel buckle with leather tab. (green paint has mostly worn off)

 

Maker mark on leather tab:

G.H. OSANG
     1940
 DRESDEN

Below:

Steel buckles without tab

( leather tabs were eliminated somewhere around 1942 )

Top example has a dull field grey finish which was introduced in 1936

Bottom example is a late war Einheits buckle and has a dark blue-grey finish

 

Back side of field grey buckle

 

Back side of dark blue-grey buckle

Maker mark is J.F.S which stands for

Josef Feix & Söhne
Gablonz.

 

Below

For tropical use the webbing belts were introduced.

These belts of course were not only for tropical use, but were seen until the end of the war

Note the different colour shades (from khaki to green)

 

On the left: different types of tongues to secure the buckle.

Both leather and webbing were used.

 

Different kind of steel hooks.

Also, on the top one, the ink maker mark can be seen.
Unfortunately it can't be read.

 

As with the leather belts, often the size is also found on the webbing belts.

Below a matching green belt with GB (Gustav Brehmer) buckle and webbing tab

 

Gustav Brehmer buckle dated 41

Maker mark GB not present, but it's most definately a GB