Combat bag

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Late models of the Bundeswehr's large and small combat bags

A combat bag is a container made of fabric that a soldier can use to carry food , toiletries, clothing and the like along with his personal carrying equipment when on a mission. The origin of the combat bags can be derived directly from the knapsacks and bread bags of the 19th and 20th centuries.

description

A combat bag usually has loops on its back with which it can be attached to paddock frames and directly to paddocks . Webbelt loops and metal rings on the outside allow the attachment of other items of equipment such as tent sheets, canteens and cookware. Combat bags are usually closed with flaps that extend over the entire width and length of the bag and are closed with buckle straps. After opening the flap, the soldier can immediately get an overview of the objects being carried. The system of a combat bag is thus identical to that of a knapsack.

Combat bags are carried either as back luggage, with a permanently installed or removable belt carrying frame taking up part of the load, or - in a smaller form - as a bread bag directly on the soldier's belt.

armed forces

Soldiers of the German Armed Forces in splinter- camouflaged combat suits with knobs and large combat bags, 1960. The tarpaulin is carried along in the form of a horseshoe roll, similar to the knapsack. The canteen and the gas mask canister are also derived directly from the German pre-war tradition.

In the course of rearmament, the Bundeswehr introduced a new uniform and equipment that was based on German as well as American and British models. In the form of the small and large combat bag, a bread bag and a knapsack was reintroduced.

Large combat bag

The "large combat bag" was attached to a belt carrying frame, which could be derived directly from the belt carrying frame made of woven belt , which was first manufactured for the German Africa Corps . Its conceptual expansion and capacity was derived from the M34 / 39 knapsack. Like the M34 knapsack, it did not have a solid plywood body and only took small luggage. The back flap, which was previously covered with a calfskin, was made of fabric in the case of the “large combat bag”, which, like the entire back luggage, was colored olive (colloquially “NATO olive”). As a filled march and combat baggage, the "large combat bag" weighed 4.560 kilograms.

Small combat bag

The "small combat bag" replaced the traditional bread bag in the Bundeswehr. However, it could also be used as storm baggage and was then hooked into the belt carrying frame instead of the large combat bag or other equipment. The large and small combat bags were conceptually similar. As a filled march and combat baggage, the “small combat bag” weighed 3.740 kilograms on the soldier.

swell

  • Schnell / Karst / Seidel: "Handbook for Conscripts" 13th edition, Walhalla and Praetoria-Verlag, Regensburg, 1962.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the Wehrmacht's belt support frame variants, see: Gordon Rottman, Ron Volstad: German Combat Equipments 1939–45. (= Men-at-Arms series 234), Osprey, London 1991, ISBN 0-85045-952-4 , pp. 10-11, plates C, H.
  2. ↑ For the models of the Wehrmacht's knapsack see: Gordon Rottman, Ron Volstad: German Combat Equipments 1939–45. (= Men-at-Arms series 234), Osprey, London 1991, ISBN 0-85045-952-4 , p. 17, panels A, D.
  3. ^ A b Wilhelm Albrecht, Georg Finger (ed.): Military service and health, treatises from military medicine, military pharmacy and military veterinary affairs. , Volume 14, 1965, p. 182.