Original Item: Only One Available. During World War Two German officers and certain senior NCO's were allowed to purchase their own jackets and were allotted a clothing allowance. Generally speaking officers bought nice quality, private purchase, uniform items but they could also choose to buy their uniforms directly from the military clothing depots. Besides the standard issue garments Panzer personnel also utilized a wide variety of private purchase leather jackets in contradiction of regulations. These private purchase jackets appear to have been quite popular as they can be commonly seen in period photographs.

This example is a very high quality, German made private purchase, non-regulation, single breasted, black leather construction fully lined with wool, hip length jacket with ring collar. Has large Bakelite buttons and owner's initials HL stitched to the inner lining. The jacket has one horizontal breast pocket with flap as well as two waist pockets also with flaps. The straight cut sleeves have a single button closure to the cuffs.

Slip on loops and buttons for shoulder boards, complete with two matching Lieutenant's epaulets with fine silver/aluminum wire over pink wool bases.

The jacket is roughly size 42-44" chest; a nice size for Panzer WW2 officer. The sleeves measure 24 inches from seam to cuff, and measures 19 1/2 inches across the shoulders.

The first panzer divisions (1st through 5th) were composed of two tank regiments, one motorized infantry regiment of two battalions each, and supporting troops. Some of these panzer divisions had quite a large proportion of Panzerkampfwagen I in them, a tank that was never intended for combat. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the old divisions were partially reorganized (adding a third battalion to some infantry regiments or alternatively adding a second regiment of two battalions). Around this time, the newly organized divisions (6th through 10th) diverged in organization, each on average with one tank regiment, one separate tank battalion, one or two infantry regiments (three to four battalions per division).

By the start of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the 21 panzer divisions had undergone further reorganization to now consist of one tank regiment (of two or three battalions) and two motorized regiments (of two battalions each). Until the winter of 1941/42, the organic component of these divisions consisted of a motorized artillery regiment (of one heavy and two light battalions) and the following battalions: reconnaissance, motorcycle, anti-tank, pioneer, field replacement, and communications. The number of tanks in the 1941-style divisions was relatively small, compared to their predecessors' composition. All other units in these formations were fully motorized (trucks, half-tracks, specialized combat vehicles) to match the speed of the tanks.

During the winter of 1941/42, the divisions underwent another reorganization, with a tank regiment comprising from one to three battalions, depending on location (generally three for Army Group South, one for Army Group Centre, other commands usually two battalions). Throughout 1942, the reconnaissance battalions were merged into the motorcycle battalions.

By the summer of 1943, the Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS also had panzer divisions. A renewed standardization of the tank regiments was attempted. Each was now supposed to consist of two battalions, one with Panzer IV and one with Panzer V. In reality, the organization continued to vary from division to division. The first infantry battalion of the first infantry regiment of each panzer division was now supposed to be fully mechanized (mounted on armored half-tracks (Sd.Kfz. 251). The first battalion of the artillery regiment replaced its former light-towed howitzers with a mix of heavy and light self-propelled guns (Hummel, Wespe). The anti-tank battalion now included assault guns, tank destroyers, and towed anti-tank guns. Generally, the mechanization of these divisions increased compared to their previous organization.

Since the Heer and the SS used their own ordinal systems, there were duplicate numbers (i.e. there was both a 9th Panzerdivision and a 9th SS-Panzerdivision).