History

The headgear, uniforms, and insignia worn by members of the Kriegsmarine were based upon the designs utilized by the Kaiserliche Marine and the Reichsmarine. The official regulations governing the uniforms of the Reichsmarine were issued on April 5, 1921, and they were embraced, with a few alterations, as the Kriegsmarine uniforms in 1935.

Within the Kriegsmarine only certain groups of personnel wore collar tabs, including all personnel who wore the field-grey uniform, chaplains, and enlisted personnel and junior NCOs.

The Kriegsmarine enlisted personnel and junior NCOs (Obermaat, Maat, and Matrose) wore collar tabs on the peacoat of the blue service uniform.

The tabs of Matrose (seamen) were plain and solely composed of a blue cloth backing, but the tabs of Petty Officer ranks (Obermaat and Maat) feature additional golden-yellow tress stripes. The colour of the cloth backing varied from cornflower blue to dark navy blue, and prior to mid-October 1939, the tress stripes were silver-coloured.

The Matrose Collar Tabs feature no gold-coloured tress stripes.