History

The standard field-grey coat with a dark blue-green lay-down collar was worn by all Heer personnel, except for general ranks. The one used in southern Europe and northern Africa is khaki coloured, also referred to as tan or sand-coloured.

It is double breasted, slightly waisted, and reaches down to the middle of the calf. There are two rows of six field-grey metal buttons down the front.

The coat has two side slash pockets with rounded flaps, as well as an inside pocket on the left. The cuffs are of the turn-back variety. It has a half-belt with two buttons in the centre of the back on waist level, and an inverted pleat from the waist down to the tail of the coat, fastened by four horn buttons.

The coat sometimes came with leather shoulder patches.
A fur lined or animal-skin version was used for assignments like sentry duty in very cold weather. These versions greatly varied in colour, size, and shape.
There was also a later version with a larger field-grey collar, introduced in 1943. This version was of lower quality in both production and material.

The coat intended for the Infantry Regiment “Großdeutschland” was similar to the standard one, but with a larger dark blue-green collar that was also piped in white. On top of that it had the same white piping on the cuffs. However, this coat was developed just before the war broke out and then discontinued due to the war. It may not even have been issued at all.

The coats worn by General ranks slightly differed from the ones worn by the lower ranks. First and foremost, the quality was usually much better, with the material most often being doe-skin.
They have an inverted pleat from the lower edge of the collar down to the tail of the coat. The buttons are gold-coloured, and the lapels were worn folded back to reveal bright red colour on the inside.
There was also a non-mandatory, privately purchased grey-green leather version for Officers and Generals for service and field service use.

Heer Clerks wore the same version as Generals, but with dark green lapels instead of red ones.
Heer Clergymen also wore that same version, but with violet lapels.