Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 251:
Description
WWII German Luftwaffe Fallschirmjaeger (Paratrooper) M38-Pattern Wool Jump Trousers – Maker-Marked RB-Nr. 0/0251/0206, Depot Stamp F44 (1944), with French Postwar Depot Inspection Marks ‘N.T.C. Bauvin-Nord’ and Oval Date Stamp ‘10.12.46’ Offered here is an apparently unissued pair of German Luftwaffe Fallschirmschuetzenhose, the distinctive feldgrau wool jump trousers worn by Fallschirmjaeger paratroopers throughout the Second World War. Stamped internally with the Reichsbetriebsnummer ‘RB-Nr. 0/0251/0206’ alongside the depot code ‘F44’ and a partially inked size/contract block, the pair is datable to 1944 manufacture, placing it among the last generation of jump trousers produced before Germany’s collapse. No individual soldier’s name or unit assignment appears on the garment, and no separate published biography accompanies the piece; its story is carried entirely by its manufacturing stamps and by the remarkable second layer of documentation added after the war. Fallschirmjaeger trousers were purpose-built for the unique demands of airborne combat: the angled slash pocket and smaller flap pocket at the front are joined by a two-snap thigh pocket sized for the paratrooper’s gravity knife (Kappmesser), while side-seam slits closed with Prym press-studs allowed the trousers to be donned over knee pads. A woven waist-adjustment tab with a metal buckle sits at the front, belt loops and suspender-button tabs line the waistband, and long twill ankle ties survive at both cuffs for lacing tight into jump boots. Following the German capitulation, vast quantities of unissued Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe clothing stockpiled in factories and depots across occupied France fell into French hands; administrators at national textile depots – in this instance N.T.C. Bauvin-Nord in northern France – inventoried and re-stamped this captured materiel in 1945-46 for possible domestic or colonial reissue, a process that here left the original German wartime ink stamps fully intact beneath the French acceptance mark dated 10 December 1946. The trousers are of heavy feldgrau wool with a full, unworn nap and no visible moth damage, fraying, or field wear consistent with jump or combat use. Original hardware survives throughout: the Prym starburst-pattern press-studs at the knee-slit closures and thigh pocket, the nickel waist buckle, suspender-button tabs, and dark composite fly buttons are all firmly attached. Internally, the German stamps – ‘RB-Nr. 0/0251/0206,’ the partially legible size/contract grid, and ‘F44’ – remain crisp, positioned near the French boxed stamp ‘N.T.C. BAUVIN-NORD’ and the oval date stamp ‘10.12.46’; a faint purple ink size notation (’94 x 108′) is also stamped to the interior waistband. No additional garments, insignia, or paperwork accompany this lot; the trousers are offered as a single, complete survivor. Condition is near-mint throughout, with only light overall handling and storage toning to the lining and minor age-darkening to the metal fittings, consistent with long-term depot storage rather than issue or wear. A rare, verifiably unissued 1944 Fallschirmjaeger jump trouser pair whose crisp German depot stamps and dated 1946 French re-inspection mark together preserve an unusually complete paper trail from wartime manufacture through post-war captured-stock disposition.
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