Strange Y-straps

[Klaus1989]

There are several of these y-straps on ebay claiming to be West German or Austrian. They do not match anything I have seen, even in photos. I am not even sure they are West German, but leather is like West German. Also the clips identical to those for pistol holster on my Westberlin Schupo tunic. Any ideas?

Rear view (from ebay auction):


Front clips (from same auction as above):

[Guardian 5]

Klaus - Intriguing indeed. I used to have a similar set; but I think I traded them off at some point.

Maybe these mystery Y-straps were used to hold up this mystery ammo pouch. Most likely of West German manufacture; yet no maker marks or pictorial evidence of use.

If these were TR Y- straps, there would be shortage of information available. Hopefully, we'll start to develop that body of knowledge on this forum.


TJ

[Klaus1989]

One of these ammo pouches was on ebay.de recently. The seller claimed it was probably Wachbataillon parade pouch for G21 (K98k) from his uncle. I am not sure I believe that - Wachbataillon wear white belts.

Maybe Bereitschaftspolizei from one of the Bundesländer?

regards
Klaus

[uscob]

One of these ammo pouches was on ebay.de recently. The seller claimed it was probably Wachbataillon parade pouch for G21 (K98k) from his uncle. I am not sure I believe that - Wachbataillon wear white belts.

Maybe Bereitschaftspolizei from one of the Bundesländer?

regards
Klaus

Not everytime, in the old day's they had them in black. I sold some with 12-NSN Number.
Nico

[uscob]

There are several of these y-straps on ebay claiming to be West German or Austrian. They do not match anything I have seen, even in photos. I am not even sure they are West German, but leather is like West German. Also the clips identical to those for pistol holster on my Westberlin Schupo tunic. Any ideas?

Rear view (from ebay auction):


Front clips (from same auction as above):

With no D-Rings for Backpack? Must be Fire Dept.
Nico

[Gordon Craig]

Klaus,

They are defintely not post war Austrian military. They had a much different triangular metal arrangement to hold the leather together at the back.

Regards,

Gordon

[uscob]

Klaus,

They are defintely not post war Austrian military. They had a much different triangular metal arrangement to hold the leather together at the back.

Regards,

Gordon

And don't forget the sewn on shoulderpadding on them.

[Gordon Craig]

Nico,

Yes of course. The Austrian post war Y-straps are well padded.

Regards,

Gordon

[Klaus1989]

I am familiar with Austrian y-straps. I never said they were Austrian - the ebay sellers claim they are "West German or Austrian." I only quoted them.

regards
Klaus

btw there are also versions of these with D-rings for sale but it is unclear from words in auction whether they were added later or not. Also Feuerwehr I guess? Normally do I not think of Feuerwehr with y-straps but they did use them in 1950s-60s DDR, so BRD too I guess. Learned something new!

[michelwijnand]

Could the pouch be early BGS? they had some strange black leather pouches which you almost never see for the G1/FN FAL in the early stages, o maybe for the K98K too?

[Klaus1989]

Could the pouch be early BGS? they had some strange black leather pouches which you almost never see for the G1/FN FAL in the early stages, o maybe for the K98K too?

Very unlikely. BGS used WWII style pouches for K98k (sometimes even re-issued wartime ones). They are probably Wachbataillon pouches.

And early BGS G1 pouches were canvas, not leather and are very rare. The leather ones are not rare and were used from 1957-1970s, so I would not call them "early stages".

regards
Klaus

[michelwijnand]

Ok, I know which leather ones you mean, last year I saw them literally by the hundreds in Bastogne for 2 Euro a pair
But I meant a different pouch, one that I saw on Ebay.de advertised as a early BGS G1 pouch and was made completely of leather, and in the photograph it was laying next to the "mystery pouch" in this thread.
It had a name inside (Gutberler) and it had the "magpul"-like straps that the other leather BGS pouches had.
I could try to find where I saved the picture if you would like to see it, and then maybe you can tell me what it is, and then I would have learned something again since I'm not really an expert at BW-things

btw in my first post I meant to type canvas instead of leather, I was thinking too much about black leather:P

[Klaus1989]

I would be interested to see photo. There is also possibility it could be Bereitschaftspolizei but I am not as familiar with them.

regards
Klaus

[michelwijnand]

Ok, here they are. I saw that the 3-cell pouch was ID-d as Wachbattalion in another thread btw, maybe this is too.

http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/j...5.jpg&newest=1

http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/j...4.jpg&newest=1

[Klaus1989]

Those photos were from TJ's collection in the BGS thread. The pouch is not for G1 but for M1 Carbine, which was issued to BGS and Polizei in 1950s. I think he writes that in the post.

regards
Klaus