M 55 Shoulder board question ???

[Jeffrey Meffert]

Perhaps so...but still would be curious to see pictures

[vvadim]

Originally Posted by Will

On a "Zhukov" style tunic the shoulder boards are:
1. Narrow width;
2. Silver; with
3. Red stripe and piping.

There is, of course, no branch of service insignia on the boards.
Anyone able to tell me what branch, of branches, of the Soviet Army used this pattern of shoulder board in 1955?

Thanks !

These are administrative service shoulder boards. They were abolished in 1958.

[Will]

Thank you, Vadim !
I am grateful.
The boards on the tunic are shown in your post in the bottom row, second from the left: red and silver with no branch insignia.

Would you agree with Jess that they would not be on a dress tunic?
Or would they have been worn since it seems from your post that the shoulder boards were abolished in 1958, the same year that the new uniforms were introduced?

[Jeffrey Meffert]

These boards would go on an M43 mundir or kitel (until 1955 for the mundir and as late as 1958 for the kitel in some branches) with some carryover in a field form to the m43 pullover (gymnistorka) which lasted until the sixties I think. You have the corps device on the boards in these uniforms because there isn't the collar tab to put them on. Starting with the M55 parade uniform, there was the rhomboidal collar tab that had a corps device on that so there was no need to put it on the boards. Air force and Tankers moved to collar tabs with corps devices and sewn down epaulets 1948/49 for both parade and service dress uniforms. As they did that, the corps device came off the epaulets. Other army corps followed much later.
Even with that, the narrow boards went out completely in 1958 as VVADIM says.

[Will]

Well then, we're left with only unprovable theories about why they ended up on a dress tunic where they don't officially belong.

Such is the collecting of militaria sometimes !

[Jeffrey Meffert]

There are some mighty odd pieces out there. Sometimes it's unscrupulous/uninformed sellers just trying to jazz things up. (Like the hysterical "general epaulets" I got on an overcoat once where someone carefully sewed navy sleeve stars on the boards). Sometimes it's "non-regulation" modifactions done at the time because that's all they had. (I have a pullover with pockets and epaulets backed by german zeltbahn material). I think veteran mix and matching may be a bigger factor than we'll ever know. Part of what makes collecting fun...the mysteries.

[vvadim]

Originally Posted by Will

Thank you, Vadim !
I am grateful.
The boards on the tunic are shown in your post in the bottom row, second from the left: red and silver with no branch insignia.

Would you agree with Jess that they would not be on a dress tunic?
Or would they have been worn since it seems from your post that the shoulder boards were abolished in 1958, the same year that the new uniforms were introduced?

Of course they were there in 1955 - 1958. Here is the snapshot from 1956 movie and you can clearly see the shoulder boards. The same goes for dress tunic. I believe you can read Russian. This is from 1955 regulations regarding shoulder boards. If you read it you will see that for dress tunic, […] and summer coat were the same type of shoulder boards. Branch insignia went to collar tabs. Guy on the snapshot is a medic, but medics, veterinarian and administrative had exactly the same uniforms except branch insignia. (Please see branch insignia on collar tabs).

[vvadim]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Meffert

Sorry to hear that about the boards. They may have been there a long time but I'm pretty sure they aren't the ones that are supposed to be there. With the M55, I believe they were all a standard width with a diagonal cut at the neck.

They were like that, not standard width.
Slip-on type was also used due to lack of other ones.

[Jeffrey Meffert]

I like the metal background and old-style stars on the LtCol. Didn't know they made skinny sew-downs. Live and learn

[Will]

Well, I finally got around to taking some photos, in case anyone might still be interested.
Sorry for the delay.