Originally Posted By: ORPO
Hi Bill,
These Gendarmerie guys were separate from the Heer Gebrigsjager and the Zollschutz mountain units. They all worked in consort of course but they all had separate chains of command. These Gendarmerie Ski Units were very active in such places as occupied Norway and Austria and had their own training facilities and occupational specialities (MOS).

These uniforms are easy to overlook unless you know what you are looking at.

Here is a photo of some of these Gendarms at a ski training school.

They also wore a distinctive double breasted short coat that I will see if I can get a photo of for you.

George



George, what wonderful pieces you have added to the collection. The Bergrock is very nice, as is the Windjacke. Is the Bergrock the winter version of regular base cloth or the summer weight version of lighweight base cloth material? All of this was part of the Mountain Uniform (Berganzug) for the Gendarmerie created on Jan 13, 1939. The Skil�ufer Uniform was the same as the Winter Mountain Uniform with the change to ski gloves and ski boots. The winter

I don't believe this uniform was intended for combat purposes like the Gebirgsj�ger of the Heer and Polizei. It was designed for Gendarmes on domestic single partrol duty in the mountainous areas of Austria and Bavaria where the local police were renamed the Hochgebirgsgendarmerie in August 1941. Some Gendarmerie may have been posted to Norway, but I am not aware of any specific units other than the occupying police Schupo batallions and later regiments.

"This hobby is a continuing education"
Looking for Walther Model 8 #727649
and Walther PP #975557