~ German Officers Tunic From Ulan Regiment With Belt, c.1915 ~
The Ulanka is of a high quality feldgrau ribbed material, similar to twill, with yellow piping. All the buttons are grey of the M1910 raised rim crown pattern.
The tunic is a private purchase piece and has a makers black label on the tsn silk lining which reads ‘Arthur Huck BERLIN 0.112 BOXHAGENERSTR.52’.
The tunic has two pockets outside and one inside (left hand side). They were made of quality cotton.
The cuffs have yellow stripes and a button each.
The belt is silver with silver-grey stripes and a blue lining on the back combined with leather used to adjust size. It has a gilded brass buckle with the Kaiser Wilhelm II cypher on it.
~ Dimensions ~
The tunic is 30 inches (76 cm) long (from the collar to the bottom line of the jacket). The jacket, from armpit to armpit, measures 18.5 inches (47 cm) across. The outside sleeve length is 25 inches (63 cm).
~ Condition ~
The tunic is in good condition with some signs of age wear, it has some small tears inside (on the cloth) towards the lower end. There is some damage to the exterior of the tunic by moths, particularly to the piping.
On the sleeves and on the back near the buttons, the color is faded. The buttons are made of aluminum and they suffered some degree of oxidization as is to be expected.
The belt has also sign of wear and is tarnished. The leather work bears the marks of heavy usage but is still in good order.
~ History ~
In 1914 the Imperial German Army included twenty-six Uhlan regiments. All German Uhlan regiments wore Polish style czapkas and tunics with plastron fronts, both in colored parade uniforms and the field grey service dress introduced in 1910. Because German hussar, dragoon and cuirassier regiments also carried lances in 1914 there was a tendency among their French and British opponents to describe all German cavalry as “uhlans”.
The lance carried by the uhlans (and after 1889 the entire German cavalry branch) consisted of a 318 cm (ten foot and five inch) long tube made of rolled steel-plate, weighing 1.6 kg (three pound and nine ounces). The lance carried below its head a small pennant in differing colors according to the province or state from which the regiment was recruited. The four edged spear-like point of the shaft was 30 cm (12 inches) in length and made of tempered steel. The butt end of the shaft was also pointed so that (in theory) the lance could be wielded as a double ended weapon.
After seeing mounted action during the early weeks of World War I, the Uhlan regiments were either dismounted to serve as “cavalry rifles” in the trenches of the Western Front, or transferred to the Eastern Front where more primitive conditions made it possible for horse cavalry to still play a useful role. All twenty-six German Uhlan regiments were disbanded in 1918 – 1919.