Dritte Kompagnie Uniform and Equipment Regulations

Welcome to the Uniform and Equipment section of our site. This section is the foundation of our Handbook we provide to our new members looking to put a kit together, as well as Alte Kamerden looking to replace worn-out gear or upgrade to better.

ew1 The German Army was a large and diverse force, and the uniforms and gear varied greatly depending on what state you were from and what branch of service you were in. This became even greater due to the demands of war: the rapidly changing combat conditions evolving due to technology and necessity and Germany's acute shortages of material and manpower for production. While the German soldier that marched into battle in 1914 was superficially not that different than those of 1918, there were actually considerable differences. Therefore, over the long period of IR63's existence, our members have continually researched and developed a set of guidelines to make sure our members are as authentically outfitted as possible for what we do.

The recreated IR63 has centered our impression on soldiers from a standard rifle company (Zug) within the 3rd Kompagnie, and as such, ALL members portray basic rifleman. This narrows the focus on our uniforms and gear selections considerably. By not allowing medics, artilleryman, heavy machine gunners, etc., when we take the field we accurately look like a rifle company as opposed to just a group of German soldiers. IR63 was of course, Prussian, so we will also concentrate on only uniforms and gear of the Prussian Army. Lastly, our reenactments within the GWA take place in the period of the war from very late 1917 through 1918 and we concentrate of uniforms and equipment that would have commonly been found at that time.

Wartime shortages of materials and the desperate need for items to be produced quickly and cheaply resulted in a vast variety of uniforms and gear. The uniforms worn at the beginning of the war were complex and time consuming to produce, so shortly after the war began, uniforms began to be simplified and patterns/appearance changed. This was also the trend with items like bayonets and shovels. Therefore, IR63 lw1a decided that since procurement and distribution occurred on the regimental level, there would have been a certain level of uniformity of all the soldiers in that regiment. Therefore, IR63 has placed certain restrictions of some gear, strong recommendations for other items, and to a small degree allows a wider range for a small selection of items.

It is therefore, very important that members read through the descriptions of all items provided here so that you understand what is expected and why - not because we don't want you to have that nifty ersatz bayonet you saw on ebay, but that we feel that it would be historically incorrect for 15 guys to take the field with 15 different bayonets or 5 different helmets.

In order to relay our requirements, our approach is to try and show what the original stuff looked like as much as possible, and as best as we can we have used both period photos of original soldiers, or modern photos of the original items. Unfortunately, there are many downsides to this approach, namely we are at the mercy of manufacturer's using modern materials and production methods so the colors, materials, etc. will not look like what the pictures we present show, and to add insult to injury, is the fact that the original stuff is 100 years old and is worn, dirty and badly faded. However, we feel showing imperfect reproduction items would mislead you even more.

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As an example, in the photo above, an original M1915 Einheitsmantel to the left, next to a nice reproduction of the same garment on the right. The colors of the fabrics could not be matched 100 percent. If you use your imagination to remove the aging from the original garment, the colors still would probably not be the same. We don't ignore this. Wartime shortages meant that proffered materials for making the fabric and dyes varied wildly, and as a result, there was also a wide range of colors and quality of the final products. Even in this age of computerized production without the complication of wartime shortages, this is still a problem.

On the menu at left, we have broken down the information into a few basic categories: The Minimum Requirements (these are the minimum items required to fall in with IR63 at an immersion event), Complete Soldat (the minimum items plus extra items to have a complete late-war impression), Optional Impressions (non-immersion event impressions you may put together for personal interest or events outside the normal GWA events), Weapons (firearms approved for use in IR63), Appearance (an impressions is more than just uniform and equipment, you must also look like a soldier of the period) and Pocket Trash (the ephemera of a soldier of the period, paperwork, letters from home, and other every-day items a soldier would have had in his pockets) - our guidelines for appearance and personal belongings are included in this section as all of these are used in conjunction for you to form your impression.

It should be understood that any questions regarding the acceptability of any given uniform part or equipment piece rests with the Kompagnieführer and NCOs of JR63. Members with specific questions should check with their sponsor for precise explanation of JR63 policy, especially before buying any piece of equipment that may not meet JR63 standards.