giorgios68 wrote:
for some reason the other ranks tunic is the most rare piece of the greek 1940 uniform...you dont see one not even to museums..!!! aparently they are all lost in the 1941 retreat & original surviving samples run for thousands of euros nowdays...the officers service tunics of the 1940 are fairly easy to find because they kept by the officers families after the war so they are still around for very logical money
Few years ago these uniforms could be found for few drachmas in Monastiraki. Typically our families did not see any value in "old junk full of dirt and lice". My grandma literaly burned many valuable stuff this way, including my grandfather's demob uniform, my fathers's Cyprus expedition battledress, but only kept my uncle's dentist reserve officer, because it was brand new from the 70s.
You will be surprised to know then that I got my tunic for nothing! or to be precise just a big dinner and lots of wine in a taverna. My tunic had been in a friend of my fathers' family for 70 years and when they learned that I collect they said
"oh are you interested in that old uniform we have burried in mothballs in the basement?". The story he could remember
was that the father of this gentleman while serving his National service he got "postponement" in 1939 for long sickness, just before the war and when the war broke and his postponement ended he was made auxilliary in the HQ of II Division. This tunic was never used in the front probably explains why it still has the pre-war badges, including a '3' on the shoulders, which I guess is a unit mark or something. It is unclear if he was demobed in this in 1941 or went on leave in 1939. He might have got some details wrong, but the guy had no reason to lie - especially since his father saw no action on the front and had nothing to brag about.