Original Item: Only One Available. This is a fantastic excellent condition example of a rare German WWII Gebirgsjäger (Mountain Trooper) M42 Wind Anorak, only the second that we have ever had! We previously have also had one of the wind breakers with a front closure, but this is a "pullover" style anorak, which is also reversible, with the interior made from white printed field gray material. Like the wind breaker, the anorak was intended to wear over the regular service uniform to block the wind, which unfortunately could easily infiltrate wool uniforms. By providing a solid relatively non-permeable layer, these were very effective at blocking the wind and other weather.

The wind anorak features two waist pockets, and three pockets across the chest, with an equal number on the inner side. The waist pockets can be pushed through to use with the other side. There is also a strap to go through between the pant legs to keep the anorak from being blown upwards.

This example shows little to no signs of having been used, and is possibly unissued, with only wear from long storage and being turned inside out multiple times. It still has fully legible markings on the white side left inner collar flap, which read:

9/0850/0241
44      96
    94          66
F 43

This gives the "National Business Number" or RBNr. for the maker, which we have not been able to identify, as well as the measurements of the anorak or possibly the intended wearer. The last line indicates that it was processed through the Frankfurt clothing depot in 1943.

Condition is excellent, with some deterioration of the white side, which is printed or sprayed onto the fabric, making it a bit stiff and prone to wear and cracking. It looks like this example has been mostly stored in the "winter" configuration, as there is some staining and dirt from storage wear.

A great example of a hard to find piece of German Mountain Trooper gear, ready to research and display!

Gebirgsjäger material is among the most popular of all German WWII items. They were the light infantry part of the alpine or mountain troops (Gebirgstruppe) of Germany and Austria. The word Jäger (meaning "hunter" or "huntsman") is a characteristic term used for light-infantry or light-infantryman in German-speaking military context.

The mountain infantry of Austria have their roots in the three Landesschützen regiments of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The mountain infantry of Germany carry on certain traditions of the Alpenkorps (Alpine corps) of World War I. Both countries' mountain infantry share the Edelweiß insignia. It was established in 1907 as a symbol of the Austro-Hungarian Landesschützen regiments by Emperor Franz Joseph I. These troops wore their edelweiss on the collar of their uniforms. When the Alpenkorps came to aid the Landesschützen in defending Austria-Hungary's southern frontier against the Italian attack in May 1915, the grateful Landesschützen honored the men of the Alpenkorps by awarding them their own insignia: the edelweiss. Together with the Fallschirmjäger (Paratroopers) they are perceived as the elite infantry units of the German Army.

Reichsbetriebsnummer or RB number (also represented as RB Nr or Rbnr). Before the war, the Germans set up a system for registering and recording the factory information, the Reichsbetriebskartei. This was to help enable machine tabulation of facts and figures. It was from this that the Reichsbetriebsnummer came into being. The Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion (Ministry for Armaments and War Production) files survive today in the Bundesarchiv, however, these are only fragmentary. There is a holding file from the working group created by the Office of Machine Reporting in the Armament Office of the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production - their main focus was the operations of the industry group for which an economic interest was Armour production. This index provides information on the most important data of the companies covered by it, production profile, operating area, number of employees and the responsible operator.

As a prerequisite for the intended use of the punch-card method in the armaments industry, it was this system which gave rise to the Rbnr. The operating numbers were assigned by the competent local district offices of Machine reporting. (Bezirksstellen des Maschinellen Berichtswesens.) The index is in the form of index cards that are accessible numerically (approximately 14 meters of index cards!). Access to this register is only possible through the naming of this company, stating the place of production. The Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion files have multiple entries on the introduction of the factory and also the lot no.

The Rbnr code was used from 1943 onwards and replaced the makers name and address (or company logo) on government contract uniforms, caps and field equipment and knives. It is either rubber ink stamped on cloth or die stamped onto leather & metal items. It has been written countless times that this numeric code system was introduced as a security measure to help mask production locations. This was not the case but it was perhaps, a helpful by- product of the system. It is not unknown to find the Rbnr together with the maker’s info. Had it been a security measure, clearly this practise would have been banned.

So what was the Rbnr? It was a nine digit number and was normally represented thus: RB Nr: 0/000/0000.

The first prefix number could range from 0 through to 9. This number determined the membership of the various groups in the realm of Trade and Industry (Reichsgruppenleitzahl)

• 0 Industry
• 1 Crafts
• 2 Commercial wholesale trading companies
• 3 Banking
• 4 Insurance Companies
• 5 Energy (Electrical companies and such)
• 6 Tourism (Including Hotels, Wine and Mineral Water companies)
• 7 Traffic
• 8 Food Industry
• 9 Not otherwise mentioned groups