Bundeswehr in Action from the Early Days

[RedCatcher1986]

RedCatcher1986 - Here is an excerpt from a monograph I've been preparing on the early BW regarding their opinion of the BAR:

The hard hitting .30 Caliber M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle or “BAR “ was the basic automatic support weapon of the U.S. Army in World War II and Korea. One or two BARs were issued to every Bundeswehr infantry squad. In Bundeswehr service it was criticized for its heavy weight (18. 5 pounds) and limited rate of fire. A retired Bundeswehr Captain who encountered the BAR shortly after being drafted in 1957 described the BAR as a “somewhat strange American MG with magazine” and referred to it as the “Heeresanklopfgerät” (i.e. "army bashing apparatus").

All the best - TJ

Very nice TJ. Rather humorous in all actuality.

[Guardian 5]

TJ,

for you "Equipment-addict" I have another nice quest:
in my collection is a tornister without any stamps (and sadly missing the
carrying straps), with cries in every meaning "early BGS"! It´s in BGS-green canvas, the inner frame is of BGS-green metal, the fitting is black leather....
But nowhere are any pictures or documents to find that the BGS ever used
tornister! No veteran has any rememberance of that, they all only know the
rucksack. Interestingly, in the book "Camouflaged uniforms of the Wehrmacht"
the guy in the first BGS-Tan/Water uniform wears a tornister, but you can´t see
any details....Hey, maybe the BW-Guys in the picture in this thread are former BGS-Guys with this tornisters????

Best regards

Reiner

Reiner - Sounds very interesting; do you have any photos?

I don't know if you have been to this website before, but if you haven't, it is well worth a look. If a picture of a BGS tornister exists, you will find it here:

http://www.beim-alten-bgs.de/index.html

I own Peterson's books, and when they were first published in the 90s, they were the bible of BRD & DDR collectors. Now we know that Peterson was working with very limited information (we all were back then!) and that some of his information is not correct. This is especially true of the post-war equipment featured in the books. Sometimes he used similar equipment if he didn't have the actual piece, and sometimes, he was just plain wrong. While his books still have a place of honor in my shelf, I tend not to trust the equipment he uses in his reconstructions. Nevertheless, Daniel Peterson was a pioneer in the hobby and I respect his work very much.

All the best - TJ

[ReinerMB42]

BGS-Tornister

TJ,

sorry, I didn´t have a digital camera in the moment. Want to buy one for christmas...too much other things to spend money for in the moment.
Yes, I know the BGS-website. But nowhere is some Information about the use
of tornister in the BGS. I think it has been an equipment-trial in the early days. Interestingly are the metal inner frame and smaller carrying straps then
the WH-ones. Too bad the straps are missing, maybe there had been a stamp...
The Peterson books are still a nice thing to have, even if the Informations are
outdated now. Maybe someone came out with a nice picture of an BGS-exercise
with tornister someday? That´ll be a nice thing for us equipment-fans, eh?
Best regards from Bonn

Reiner