Original Item. Only One Available. The Sumpftarnmuster or Marsh Camouflage was one of a family of German World War II camouflage patterns, derived from the earlier 1931 Reichswehr design, Splittertarnmuster or more commonly referred to as Splinter Camouflage. The pattern was first issued to Wehrmacht units in 1943 in the form of smocks, helmet covers, and winter overpants. The pattern resembles a saturated version of the Splinter Camouflage with the color dominance switching from beige, to green to better blend into forest environments.

This is a great set of genuine unissued WWII German Sumpftarnmuster Camouflage Reversible Winter Uniform Parka Mittens. These gloves were produced in various camouflage and solid color exteriors and were made to match the various German Army winter parkas, trousers and hood garments. These parka mittens are reversible from camouflage side to white. The securing / neck strap is still intact, and this set is certainly unissued. They do not have “trigger fingers” and just have one thumb hole. One mitten has the markings:

R. Nr. 0/0843/0008 M43

This denotes 1943 processing through the Munich depot. Offered in very good lightly used condition. 100% genuine WWII German manufacture.

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