Need help identifying straight shovel

[MP44_tom]

Hi guys

Got this shovel a long time ago....

I'm in the middle of stripping the paint (it was entirely green)

but, the million dollar question ofcourse .... what is it... Austrian ?? Czechoslowakian ? German ?

It's marked MARS 1935 and KZT in a circle.... my own guess would be Austrian....

#1


any help would be most welcome.....

Tom
www.mp44.nl

[MP44_tom]

#2

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[MP44_tom]

#7 last one

[Michael Kuligowski]

MARS was Polish makers mark as far as I can recall !!!
99.9% Polish shovel

I am not sure about cover.. I believe Polish pre war covers had different construction

[MP44_tom]

Thanks Michael....

according to the previous owner this was used by his father who served in the wehrmacht. maybe "Beutematerial" ?

as far as I can see the carrier and shovel belong to each other
I see what you mean with the carrier... the only picture I could find was in the Osprey german combat equipment... but according to this drawing, it had a single belt loop in the middle....
btw, the construction looks very similar....

So no positive ID yet.

Tom
www.mp44.nl

[Wolfy]

I see what you mean with the carrier... the only picture I could find was in the Osprey german combat equipment... but according to this drawing, it had a single belt loop in the middle....

Tom! There`re a lot of Polish shovels (as Russian pre-Revolution type ones) in Wehrmacht and it wasn`t neither fortuitous trophies nor supplements... It`s concerned with occupation of Poland (and their storage facilities & munitions factories). There were Polish 98k ammo pouches by the way (brown leather).
Cases were different, I know at least 4...

[afrika]

All relevant points concerning foreign materiel in German use, however, I think in this case the shovel was used by the Norwegian army, possibly postwar (maybe from captured German stocks) as the green paint is synonymous with Norwegian practise to repaint their euipment green, something that the Germans did not widely do. See the repainted original German folding klappspaten on At the Front site.

I would agree that it is Polish in origin, but could be third hand in use ! Polish captured by Germans captured by Norwegians !
Steve

[FestungSpanien]

And now captured by Tom!
Yes,I do agree, 100% Polish shovel.But as many other times I remember having seen a period picture of a german soldat with polish captured equipment,shovel included,but as always I cannot remember where.So many pictures of my mind.
Anyway,and excellent shovel,Tom
Regards
Ace