Authentic Yugoslavian Partisan uniform

[Sock Monkey VC]

OK, so I've got friends who have always told me their Dad was with the partisans during the war. They lived in Slovenia. He is said to have worked for the Slovene railway until such time as all those employees too had to pick up arms. He is also said to have disappeared at the end of the war and was never seen again. Partisan. I was visiting them recently and asked if they had a picture of good ole Dad. "Oh sure, here he is." Partisan. Now, unless I'm mistaken the Yugoslav Partisan's uniform looked a whole lot like the German Army uniform wouldn't you say?

I was wondering if anybody could tell me anything further like what unit he might have belonged to. etc. The waffenadler is pretty common faire and of course you really can't tell the color of the collar tabs. I know nothing about these uniforms but perhaps somebody can shine a light.

Anybody that has a German database they could look at would be extremely helpful as I do know the chap's name. Frederich [Freidrich, Fredric??] Spanring from Maribor in Slovenia.

Thanks,

Sock Monkey.

[David191]

I would have thought this bloke was with the other side & an anti-partisan fighter going by this uniform? Whilst partisans would have no doubt utilised captured German uniforms & equipment, I can't see them retaining their insignia with the old crooked cross & collar litzens too?

Best regards,
David

[Sock Monkey VC]

You just missed my sarcasm in my first post. Of course he was in the German Army. When one side loses, the families sometimes chose the other side for their stories. Ending up on the wrong side of the heroics could cost you dearly in Yugoslavia after the war.

[Just]

Hello

some informations:

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=4671

cordially
Didier

[Sock Monkey VC]

Thanks for that reference Didier. Coincidentally I found that thread this morning and read it. The family I mentioned has talked a good deal about themselves and what they remember. A common thread through all the stories is how much lying and evasion the stories contain. Many things just don't add up like saying Dad was in the Partisans and then whipping out a picture like the one above. Much depended who you were, and who you said you were after the war. If the Germans had won, well Papa was in the Panzer Grenadiers. When the Allies won, Papa fought with the Partizans. The thing is, Slovenes had not long since been Austro Hungarians, often speaking German as a first language so joining the German army would have been a perfectly normal thing to do when the war broke out. One chap told me about the immediate post war era in then Yugoslavia. Some people had betrayed each other during the war. They had stolen from each other. Some had been conscripted, volunteered or scarpered. Many people were in peril and food was in short supply during and after the war so you did what you had to to keep yourself and your family alive. Immediately after the war the Christmas time tradition of having Father Christmas and Krampus walk around the neighbourhood and knock on doors to see if the kids had been good could be perilous. There were a lot of scores to settle. On a few occasions that he remembered the residents opened the door and either Santa or Krampus gave somebody one or two shots in the chest with whatever handgun the combatants had left behind. Blammo, slate wiped clean.
This man said his playthings after the war were a huge Russian revolver and various belts and loose cartridges of rifle ammo. During the war his older brother had blown himself to death with a German grenade he was playing with at the kitchen table. This all took place in the country just out of Maribor.

With loyalties shifting all the time, all the silence and lying, it makes it nearly impossible to get a clear picture of what actually happened during the war in some of these occupied countries. That's why I was hoping somebody might know of a German data base that might have this Spanring chap's name on it but I can also well imagine the Germans not even bothering keeping track of the local lads they conscripted.

I have no vested interest in sorting this stuff out for these folks as they have been spoon fed cultured tales about the war but it would be interesting to know a bit more about him.