Fictional German Red Army Uniform Designs?

[History_Pintobean]

In my TL Petrograd, The Red Flame Of Russia I'm planning to get into some detail over alternate uniforms for the German Red Army.

A few questions (I'm not pretending to be an expert, so bear with me):

-Should I keep the field-gray color scheme, or should the coloring on the new uniforms be markedly different?

The reason I ask is because I don't want the German Red Army to look too similar to their Russian counterpart, as the German Red Army is going to be its own separate army

-In looking at Soviet Red Army uniforms, would it be a good idea to have red insignia (stars, stripes, etc.) on the German uniforms as well?

Any other advice and/or information for designing a fictional German Red Army uniform will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Michel Van]

In my TL Petrograd, The Red Flame Of Russia I'm planning to get into some detail over alternate uniforms for the German Red Army.

A few questions (I'm not pretending to be an expert, so bear with me):

-Should I keep the field-gray color scheme, or should the coloring on the new uniforms be markedly different?

The reason I ask is because I don't want the German Red Army to look too similar to their Russian counterpart, as the German Red Army is going to be its own separate army

-In looking at Soviet Red Army uniforms, would it be a good idea to have red insignia (stars, stripes, etc.) on the German uniforms as well?

Any other advice and/or information for designing a fictional German Red Army uniform will be greatly appreciated.

I hope this can help you:
The German Army if Imperial, Weimar, Third reich, GFR, GDR, prefer grey/grey-green uniforms.

background Weimar Reichswehr, in front Third Reich Wehrmacht uniform.

Uniforms from military of the German Democratic Republic. (note the middle one with red insignia)

today German federal republic Army uniform.


Here some Picture of Reichswehr of Weimar Repbulic. sadly in W/B

 

[MonAngel]

Why you can take some idea from GDR military uniform. They were after all Communist Germans.

 

[seraphim74]

Originally posted by Michel Van

Uniforms from military of the German Democratic Republic. (note the middle one with red insignia)

I think those are uniforms of various members of the Warsaw Pact. The grey one in the middle is from GDR; the one with the red insignia seems Soviet to me; the forst from the left is Hungarian, I believe, second from the right is Polish.

 

[The Red]

Using the basic NVA design would make sense.

 

[History_Pintobean]

Thanks, everyone for your help.

Why you can take some idea from GDR military uniform. They were after all Communist Germans.

I'll probably stick with gray uniforms adorned with red insignias be they stars or red stripes.

I don't want the uniforms to be modeled too heavily off of the GDR's uniforms as Germany in my TL goes communist roughly 20 years prior to 1945, and so I think it is safe to assume that green-gray uniforms wouldn't be used necessarily.

I like the idea of gray uniforms with red insignias on them, as it still looks like German army uniforms prior to and during WWII while highlighting the communist aspect of the uniforms.

In my TL I'm planning to have Rommel and other German generals provide their expertise to the German Red Army, something which Tsarist generals during the Russian Civil War did.

So IMHO the German Red Army will be led by mostly Imperial and/or Wiemar officers with their troops wearing field gray uniforms with red insignias to set them apart from the Russians.

Does that sound fine?

 

[9 Fanged Hummingbird]

Field gray pretty much is green-gray IIRC. Some uniforms might've faded more than others and ended up looking more gray, but regardless uniform colors back then could vary pretty wildly even if there was just one specified color in use, I mean look at the US Army from WW2 for an example.

 

[Maponus]

This is the uniform of the German Communist Parties "Fighters."

I think it was light brown.

 

[History_Pintobean]

This is the uniform of the German Communist Parties "Fighters."

I think it was light brown.

Are you sure that it is light brown?

So, field gray and green-gray are one and the same?

from Wikipedia:

The word feldgrau means "field grey", and by World War 1 the color was a light grey-green, though there is no specific color, rather a color range of greys to browns

So when describing the uniforms, furthermore what terms should I be familiar with?

 

[Michel Van]

here fotos of Rotfrontkämpfer uniform aka German Communist Parties "Fighters"
source:
http://www.museum-digital.de/san/index.php?t=objekt&oges=13283

shirt

Hat

 

[History_Pintobean]

thanks again.

I'll probably use a modified Rotfrontkampferbund uniform design for the German Red Army and/or field gray/light green-gray with red insignias.

I've yet to decide.

 

[MrHaakwood]

Funny bit: Rotfrontkämpferbund and SA used the same old WW1 uniforms, only partly recolored because they where cheap

 

[Landshark]

I don't want the uniforms to be modeled too heavily off of the GDR's uniforms as Germany in my TL goes communist roughly 20 years prior to 1945, and so I think it is safe to assume that green-gray uniforms wouldn't be used necessarily.

If the POD is after WW1 then a Red Germany would simply modify whatever uniforms are on hand, the feldgrau ones, they're not really going to have the money or resources to do much else.

 

[History_Pintobean]

I'm most likely going to go with field gray/green-gray uniforms with red insignias on the field caps, lapels, etc.

Thanks for your help, everyone.