"Cold War Danish Army Uniform Colors?" Topic

I've seen a couple of different colors shown for the Cold War era Danish Army, and their earlier M58 uniform.

From what I've read, this was worn from 1958 (hence the name M58 uniform) until 1983/1984, when the M84 uniform was issued in 1984.

One looks to be a much more brownish, olive drab – reminds me a bit of the British WWII uniforms, in terms of color.

See here:

In other pics, it looks to be a more light colored, faded olive color (hard to tell with b&w pics, but see the color example below for confirmation), very similar to that used by the Bundeswehr, and/or early Cold War Americans. Might even be the same uniform. Not really sure about that.

while others are more brown in color:

Sadly, these aren't in color, so a bit hard to tell, but I did see a very light grayish/olive suit shown on the M55 blog,

Hmmm, can't get these last two to post, but you can see them on the same page, at the link below. One literally is a light, milk chocolate brown, and the other more of a light gray/olive color, similar to that worn by the Bundeswehr troops.

They're literally from the same page of the blog, so I'm not clear if the clothing just faded quickly with use, different colors were issued to reserve/home guard troops (probably unlikely), or the uniforms were changed in color at some point that isn't mentioned on this page of the blog:

link

It does mention that the webbing equipment color was changed from khaki to olive-green in 1961.

Any idea as to which would be more appropriate for the 1960s – 1970s/early 1980s Danes?

I'd love to see some more reference pics for them too, if there are any good websites with reference pics of them.

The top photo with Alexander Haig was taken when he was Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 1974-79. So the Danish troops he's visiting are wearing the M58, which was worn into the late 80s before it was totally replaced. I suspect that the uniforms in the Haig photo are a darker hue because they were brand new issue. You don't let your troops chat with the Supreme Commander in their old worn out gear!

From the top of my head (Having served in the Danish forces since 1991-, but not being an historian)

The M/44 (Effectively UK Battledress) uniform was in use up until the mid-60'ties in some outfits, and not/only rarely worn during exercises. My father served in the mid-60's in the Royal Guards, and has worn this uniform as a recruit.

The M/58 kampuniform, or battleuniform, was the primary field uniform, worn during more 'elaborate' exercises/manouvres, from the late 50's until the late 80's in certain army support services (Signals, Air defence ect.)

The M/84 was issued from the early 80's, and in 1991 this was a well established issue, with the depots having lots of very worn uniform of this kind on the shelves (Believe me, I know ;-))

The one missing in the picture is the M/66 drejlsuniform, or drill uniform. It was less yellow'ish, more green in hue, and was often used during field traning at the individual or small unit level – iot to reduce wear on the 'real' battle uniforms… (Yes, economy has ALWAYS been an issue with the Danish forces)

Concerning carrying gear, the webbing was WW2 vintage up until the mid-90's. Colours varied, from khaki to olive green, with several hues apparent within the same unit right down to squad level.

At the time of the Cold War, the Danish army was supposed to be mobilised from conscripts. It was said (Never officially confirmed) that if ALL reserves were mobilised, the first would be issued M/84 until stocks ran out. Then M/58 would be handed out and the last to be called up were going to be issued green one-piece work overalls normally used by troops during maintenance of vehicles and weapons!! :-D

This pattern is more or less parallel to issue of weapons, with the first units called up being issued with the latest (Leopards, TOW A/T, M/75 (G3) rifles, Carl Gustav ect.), and the last with 'last ditch' equipment like M/50 (Garant) rifles, 106mm RCL on jeeps, older Centurion models (Guns smaller than the L7 105mm) and, wait for it, M/10 Wolverine tank hunters (Unmodifed!!).
These last vehicles were deleted from mobilisation list as late af 1984!! :-D

Yes, we're quite happy the Cold war did not turn hot around 1980!! But looking at eg. the US armoured forces, I think most NATO countries are. Just fire years later the pictures was quite different.

So, do those brown uniforms fade with use, and in the sun, substantially, to resemble the more light, gray-green color, or would the brown color be more appropriate for the front-line troops?

The brownish-green would be the most realistic, from my expirence.

Thank you.

Heck, there was a series of old Danish comedy movies about the military and their uniforms looked quite brown.

PCS – do you remember what they were called? From the 60's or 70's.

Is it me, or does the uniform look very WWII British?

I must admit to not being the best at noticing some differences between uniforms, unless they are side by side.

Perhaps its the color, webbing, and ankle gaiters on the chap in the bottom pic.

The series of movies were called:

"Soldaterkammerater"

There are several of these, the first being filmed in 1958, the last around 1968.

The uniforms used in the initial movie was the M/44 Battledress uniform, which is an almost exact copy of the WW2 British uniform. I think the later movies showed the M/58, with all gear as earlier discussed.

The ankle gaiters are NOT part of the M/58, they were a part of the M/44 (UK Battledress).

The footwear for M/58 were quite heavy, black leather boots. These boots were actually used with the M/84 uniform as well, and as I recall it, we were not issued new footwear before going to Bosnia in the late 90's….

However, many (Most!) professional soldiers supplemented the issued equipment with US ALICE packs, US ammo pounches (The green nylon with sidemounted grenade pounches) and boots from Danner or Matterhorn. It was widely accepted (And in some regiments even regulated) that soldiers serving more than the usual conscription period (9-12 month, depending on speciality) were 'entitled' to wear these variants to the issue equipment in the field. Parades, of course, were a different matter… :-D