"Prussian officers greatcoat" Topic

I have been painting Prussian officers great coats (Uberocks) Prussian blue. I noticed some officers of reserve battalions, on the Calpe site, in gray great coats.

Does anyone know any more?

IIRC, officers of the reserve wore regulation line dress. No need for a different uniform.

Reminds me of French Middle Guard infantry. Their officers, NCOs, and other cadre were Old Guard and continued to wear their OG uniforms.

According to Osprey #152 page 31: Prussian Line Infantry.

Officers greatcoats were dark grey, and came down to just above the knee. Collars were high and open until 1814. There were two rows of flat buttons.
This was a notably popular garment; but officers could also wear a blue grey greatcoat with a single row of six domed buttons and a dark blue lined collar in the provincial color.

Infantry had grey greatcoats as well.

When they say "Its cape reached down below tarms to cover the fingers" are they referring to the dark blue garment?

In that Osprey you have plate C with an 1806 officer in a Prussian blue greatcoat with two rows of buttons. Your text (thank you, because I missed it) is in the 1808-1815 section. So I guess that regulations changed or the earlier example was a privately made up garment.

"Its cape reached down below the arms to cover the fingers"

Length of sleeve, my guess.

Yes, regulations changed the color. All the uniforms changed a lot.

There are different pieces of clothing:

Überrock (overcoat). It was worn only by officers (and some classes of higher NCOs), its cut and shape were different from the very simple Litewka, which was worn only by the rank and file.

Here a reconstruction of the look of the Überrock:

and the Mantel (greatcoat). The officers' greatcoat had a cape and was to be gray for all arms.

The Überrock of the infantry was gray, with the regimental collar and shoulder straps. Some documentation (in German) here:

link

Thanks for chiming in Oliver, your posts have made those of us who are painting Prussians research much easier!!

Do you have a picture of the Mantel?

Even though of a later date, this is a quite good example, the greatcoat (Mantel) being worn over the overcoat (Überrock):

The greatcoat reaches the ankle, its cape (which often was detachable) ends at the elbows.

The greatcoats of the rank and file did not have capes.

That makes it all clear. I wonder why I saw greatcoats in gray on the Calpe site. Perhaps just thrown in for variety. I had a blue one on my 1st Westphalian Fusiliers and changed it to gray. Oh well.

But if I've read Oliver right the greatcoats were grey. That's the case in all the illustrations I've seen. And the overcoat too. It's the blue ones that are the issue!

Matthew

Yes, grey Überröcke (overcoats) for every officer, including hussars. However officers of cuirassiers, dragoons, lancers and horse artillery had them in the colour of the Litewka worn by their men (dark blue, and middle blue for dragoons).

When these new gray overcoats were introduced in 1808, the king allowed that offciers could wear their existing blue ones until they were used up.

Oli

Seemingly the confusion is due to the terms

Overcoat – or Überrock – which is not a great coat.

The Überrock as Oliver points out was not always grey.

Blücher as General der Kavallerie should also have worn a blue Überrock – but of course a grey great coat ;-))

The generals greatcoat had in 1813 a special collar which was turned down and showed the blue lining, when turned up – one could see the outside red.

You can see it well in the above illustration, the standing up collar is from the Überrock and one can see the rather wide turned down collar of the great coat.

Later then unfortunatly it couldn't be turned down any longer according to the fashion of 1814