"German boots were brown??" Topic

I've come across a company that makes repro German footwear. Their website maintains that German boots, both jack- and ankle- variety, were supplied in natural brown hide:

During WW2, the Germans issued their ankle boots in brown or unfinished natural leather. It was up to the troops themselves to blacken the boots. Orders forbidding the blackening of boots were issued in late 1943 and boot black was no longer issued.

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I've never heard that before. Can anyone confirm from other sources?

Read that in many books and websites on German uniforms, still paint my LW with black boots though!

Same info on this guys site. He also has a large section about the evils of "khaki". ( what was and was not )

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Interesting, suggests one should weather and highlight German boots with brown rather than grey.

Not in MY movie!

Shhhhhhhhhhh! someone may hear you. :)

Who knew? My Germans sport black boots and always will.

It's also interesting that the boots tended to be wide – I wonder if that may also have had something to do with whether people tended to walk quite a bit more in the 1930s and 1940s than they do now, so that their feet were wider?

From what I understand, it was pretty common for the troops to blacken theirs. A tin of blackboot was easy to come by and probably not hard for a recruit to do himself. I have heard though that the low boots were more commonly left brown as it was later in the war and things were more desperate. I would imagine after some time in the field they became pretty dark with dirt and grime anyway.

I commonly paint my late war low boots in leather brown and do a black wash which makes them very dark but keeps the brownish tone.

Lots of pictures have them in black boots, and for parade dress they probably were black, but in the field they were typically brown.

Well that's a revelation, learn something new every day!.

Same info on this guys site. He also has a large section about the evils of "khaki". ( what was and was not )

Rollin Curtis… a very entertaining fellow!

I had a similar experience AFTER completing painting my WW1 germans with black boots. Turn to osprey….. DOH!!! brown!

Rollin Curtis… a very entertaining fellow!

I check his site regularly for his rants.

Rollin is THE MAN!

German boots are BLACK! Lowboots are brown.

His rants are great! and spot on!

Bob

The information on khaki is very interesting and useful for painting – Thanks for the additional pointer

James

I don't have it on hand near by but IIRC in the book Deutsche Soldaten much of the footwear, particularly the later stuff, is all brown. Still have black boots on my figs though! :)

Ah, the great re-enactors debate….

You can't really go wrong with black jackboots in WW2 (unlike WW1) although you could weather them, but ankle boots could be brown, weathered brown, weathered black or black depending on the inclinations of the troops concerned.