Uniforms and Insignia of The Schutzstaffel - Special SS Uniforms

Special SS Uniforms

SS officers had the option of purchasing formal-dress and mess-dress uniforms. The formal uniform was not unlike U.S. or UK dinner-dress uniforms, cut like a civilian tailcoat without the tails, and worn with white or black bowtie and waistcoat. This uniform also featured silk-faced lapels, SS shoulderboards and collar patches, a Totenkopf breast pin, and white piping (broad silver-grey trouser stripes for general officers). Mess dress resembled a double-breasted tuxedo, with collar tabs and white piping.

Officers could also wear a white cotton walking-out blouse, cut like the black service blouse, between April and September. Members were also permitted to wear a white SS visored service cap with the uniform.

A waist-length white "waiter's jacket" with collar tabs was issued to those SS men who served as Hitler's domestic staff.

For use in hot weather climates like Southern Europe and North Africa, a tropical uniform of tan cotton was developed. This consisted of a Sahariana-style tunic with shoulder yokes based on Italian tropical uniforms, long-sleeved field shirt, and trousers. Headgear could be a pith helmet, sidecap, or an M40 tropical cap based on that of the Afrika Korps. Insignia was similar to that of standard SS-uniforms but in tan thread on black backing. Police units deployed to tropical climates wore an identical uniform with police insignia.

Waffen-SS troops were also pioneering among the German forces in the use of camouflage clothing and wore it extensively during the war. Waffen-SS used a variety of original spring and autumn designs in many patterns. Usually, camouflage was worn on overall parkas or helmet covers, and only late in the war were camouflaged tunics introduced.