Book - Waffen SS-Soldier

This week I picked up a copy of Waffen SS-Soldier by Bruce Quarrie, covering this unit between 1940 – 45. Initially I just grabbed he book because of its aesthetical benefits but on taking a read I discovered that it is actually very informative.



The book goes in to relatively fine detail about the uniforms that these soldiers would have war, ranging through the ranks within the unit. Opening with a section of appearance it is goes even down the point of telling me what materials some of the clothing would have been composed of and how it would have reacted to certain conditions. For instance, trousers being made from a wool and rayon mixture result in an extremely hard wearing material, and that the standard edition German helmet was known as the M35. Information that sometimes wouldn’t be necessary but is defiantly handy to know when doing research.



Learning that Smartness took as much of a priority as practicality, you can tell that (most) of these men were proud to wear there well maintained uniforms. Individual tailoring on some of the higher ranked men wouldn’t be uncommon, specific cutting of the material and other individual markings. This is something I find highlight interesting and will be taken into consideration when moving to FMPA2, this could possibly add uniqueness to my game. Since it’s not going to be an all out gun blazing play style the player would indeed get the chance to observe uniform, and possibly use it too. So little details like this would be something an agent might consider when attempting and infiltration.



The next beneficial in the book was the illustrated drawings of field tools, things hat the soldiers would be carrying around. Again this sort of information can all be taken into consideration when developing my characters in FMPA2, creating believable unique designs.





I experienced one of my turning points when looking at this book, the character you get from the photography is marvellous. So many ideas spring to mind with regard to dress, posture and character. It’s strange because I somewhat feel bad for saying it but there is an element of style in this dress code, defiantly continuity and something unique.





I wish to further my research into photography from now on into this, along with illustration. I like the idea of capturing mood and emotion within an image. In essence I want to contain this inside my final work in FMPA2 work.