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Old 09-30-2011, 05:12 PM
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B.T. B.T. is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Ruhrgebiet, Germany
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The load-out for the normal (West-) German Infantryman in the 80ies was:

Koppel (Belt) with 2 2-cell mag-pouches (made of green plastic) for the G3, a folding E-tool (As far as I can see this is the same item as the US used.).

Maskentasche (= protective mask carrier), that was made from some kind of rubber, with the mask (which was obvious, wasn't it?), a personal decontaminaton kit, and a poncho (intended to be NBC-protective wear)

kleine Kampftasche (about the size of a butt-pack and when worn it was placed at the same location) with messtin set, cleaning kit for small weapons and a small stove for Esbit, to warm your meal. On the outside of the kl. Kampftasche a waterbottle had to be strapped on. It was similar in design to the old US waterbottle, but it was stowed in two metal "cups". Only one of them was actually a cup, the other half was just for transportation.

Belt and beltkit were supposed to be hold by the so called "Koppeltragehilfe" (Belt supporting device. "Hilfe" actually means help. One of those funny military names, that have nothing to do with reality!). This item was sooo ridiculous. It was a y-formed, flimsy peace of crap with to metal "hooks" on the front and one on the back. These "hooks" were so wide, that you really had to keep an eye on them. The belt usually slipped out of them and you could easily loose them.
Before this item had been fielded, the Bundeswehr used a design, that was very similar to the old Wehrmacht belt suspenders (the late war type made from canvas!), these were really good an practical and all our NCOs tried to keep theirs. These were to be fastened with 5 hooks, that had to be slipped over the belt.

Rucksack with shelter-half, shaving kit, parka, toilet things, 1 or 2 towels, a set of underwear. When the kl. Kampftasche was not on the belt, it was usually stowed in the Ruck. Sometimes we had to have a 2nd pair of boots with us, but that was not the norm.
On several occasions, but not normally, a sleeping bag was to be attached to the ruck.

The ruck, properly equipped, had a weight of 7 kg.

All the items were made out of gray-green canvas. The Koppel had a beltbuckle made of brass. These were originally painted olive, but all of the color had been scrapped off (on all beltbuckles I've ever seen). The carrier of the E-tool was a relatively light green plastic carrier.

MGunners were equipped with a small pouch for spares, this was made of black leather. Pistol holsters for the P1 were from black leather, also. Several items as optics for "Snipers", leichte Panzerfaust, the Carl Gustav and similar, were usually made from artificial leather, normally in olive-green. Mag-pouches for the Uzi were of the 3-cell type and were sand-colored (more or less).
Some units were equipped with an older model E-tool. It was a copy from the Wehrmacht-E-tool.

The whole outfit changed, when the new Flecktarn-uniform was fielded, although a lot of the older items were still in use alongside newer items.
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