August 11, 1959 - Introduction of the dreaded "Filzlaus"

[Guardian 5]

Interior shot.

[Guardian 5]

Fake stamps.

[Guardian 5]

Finally, a close-up of the collar. I hope no one opended this thread on a full stomach!

With deepest apologies,
TJ

[Nachrichten]

Team - A rear view.

While some will say that my ignorance of TR unifroms is exceeded only by my ignorance of BW uniforms, what uniform is this designed to emulate?

All the best - TJ

The short waisted, so-called 'pattern '44' tunic.

The colour is actually pretty close (a greenish brown), but the cut is all wrong.

N

[PASSAUER8884]

Wow, the use of soldbuch stamps with a 1939 date on a "late war"(?) jacket....damn sexy.

[Asbjoern]

...- Has anyone ever attempted to retro-fit an airsoft G3 with wooden furniture from an actual rifle to get the early look conveyed by this image? I know some folks have built "dummy guns" using wooden furniture parts sets with mixed results.
- Has anyone ever come across the unique webbing used to attach the rifle grenade canisters to the medium assault pack?
...

Quite a nice picture for sure ! I wish that more people - including the official photographers - had the money to take coloured pictures back then ...

TJ, I never tried to outfit a dummy/airsoft G3 with the wooden parts ... but the look very nice on my G3 clone .

Are you interested in the basket like things ? Some apeared on german ebay the lest weeks ...

Jens

[Guardian 5]

Hi Jens - By basket do you mean the carrying / attachment straps for the rifle grenades as seen in this picture from an old Reibert?

I am indeed seeking these straps, as well as the rectangular container for the grenade itself.

As an aside, Numrich's Gun Parts catalog has the training version of the Panzerfaust 44 rocket container in bright blue, which is also occasionally seen being carried on the assault packs of Heeresstruktur 3 era Panzergrenadiers.

On another note, it would appear as though the Y riemen in this photo are of the riveted type, making the riveted type the older version of these straps. Can anyone confirm?

Thanks - TJ

[hoover]

Yes, I think that the riveted hooks are the older ones. I have some pics of them in 1962 pics.

[Asbjoern]

TJ, yes, exactely this set of straps ... actually I´m in diskussion with a guy who has some in spare...

The container will be hard to find as the old Hispano grenade is phased out long ago and all that packing stuff is long recycled ...

Regards,

JEns

[Guardian 5]

Good Day Gents - Last night I was surfing away when I stumbled across this image on the German web forum "Multi-board.com".

I was pretty excited to find it as it is the first picture I've seen of a parachutist badge (in this case the 1958-1966 style) being worn on a Filzlaus uniform.

I couldn't find any dates or units in the accompanying text; perhaps one of our German members could contact the individual for more information. The link to the German site is found below.

The whole thread is pretty cool; it's definitely worth while to peruse the whole thing.

All the best,
TJ

http://www.multi-board.com/board/ind...1056&pageNo=13

[Guardian 5]

Here we see another photgraph of the parachutist badge worn on the Filzlaus, this time the 1966-1983 model.

Years have gone by as I searched in vain for evidence of the parachutist badge being worn on the Filzlaus, and suddenly I stumble across two images offering historic evidence of two (!) styles of badge being worn.

Is anyone else as ecstatic as I am?

All the best - TJ

[Guardian 5]

Gents - Here's another.

Note the dark schiffen; the man on the left seems to adorned his with (unauthorized?) crossed swords. His belt seems rather unusual too.

Comments?

TJ

[Guardian 5]

Gents - I was wondering; how long do you think it will be before newly badged-up Filzlaus start hitting e-bay?

All the best - TJ

[Gordon Craig]

TJ,

A great thread from the Multiboard. Lote of interesting pictures for the field gear guys as well as uniform buffs. Page 13 seems to be the most interesting. The picture of the BW soldiers resting with their Lee Enfield rifles really caught my eye.

Regards,

Gordon

[Guardian 5]

Gordon - I agree absolutely.

I never get tired of looking at pictures of Bundeswehr personnel using the Lee-Enfield No. 4 Rifle.

According to the authors of Moderne Handwaffen der Bundeswehr, the British supplied 18,000 of these caliber .303 rifles to the Bundeswehr. The Bundeswehr in turn supplied most of these to the Luftwaffe.

With the Heer using the .30 caliber M-1 rifle and carbine, I guess this makes sense from a logisitcal standpoint. You'll be happy to know that the the Enfields were of Canadian manufacture (Long Branch Arsenal?).

The below scan from Der Deutscher Soldat magazine shows Luftwaffe personnel carrying the No. 4 Rifle during a military competition.
Luckily for them, it looks as though they didn't have to compete wearing Filzlaus!

All the best - TJ