Turkish Mauser Ammo Pouch, Three Compartment Leather

I am finishing up some research and documentation on a couple of Turkish Mausers that I have in my collection so that I can get the photos and information posted here on the blog.  Until then, I thought that I ought to start with a  few postings on some the of the accessories that go along with the Turkish Mausers.  So with that in mind, here is the first in that series.

Here is a very "Turkish", ammo pouch.  I say " Very Turkish"" because of the condition.................

One of the first things that you will notice about just about any piece of vintage Turkish firearm equipment, is that they are "hammered"!
The Turkish Army was manned by conscripted soldiers, who apparently were not thrilled with being in the service and took out that frustration on their equipment (this is just speculation, of course).

The Turks were the ultimate recyclers of military surplus.  They obtained rifles, bayonets, pouches, and other assorted gear, from just about any country they could, and then "Turkified" them.  They would modify, disassemble and then mix and match parts, issue and reissue, and then do that again and again.  Once an item was put into service, it was in continuous service until it was surplussed.  For most of the firearms, bayonets and ammo pouches, that meant that they could have been (and often were), put into service back in the early 1900's through the 1940's, and then used continuously.  The equipment was used, abused, bent, broken, repaired, rebuilt, re-invented, for years, until most of the "old gear" was taken out of service and surplussed in the 1970's.

This vintage Turkish ammo pouch is no exception.  This pouch is undated, so there is no way to say for certain what its true age is, but I would estimate it to be from the WW1 era.  The Germans supplied literally tons of weapons and equipment to the Turks during the WW1 era.  The "German Style", three compartment, leather, ammo pouches were the standard Turkish Mauser issue pouches all the way through to the 1970's.  Nearly all of the pouches are unmarked, or have old Imperial German markings on the back.

This ammo pouch has several soldiers names or initials scratched and written on the back.  From the look of them, I am sure they go back many years!  It is fairly common to find old Turkish gear that has had names or initials scratched and written by their original soldier-owners.  It is these personal touches that really appeal to me. 

I will do some very minimal restoration-repairs, to the stitching, using original style thread, and possibly construct a replacement Y-strap D-ring tab for the back, but other than that, the pouch will remain as it is. 
When I do restoration-repairs like this, I look for old, used, leather that has been worn and aged so that it matches the piece that it will be paired with.  After stitching, I "age" the thread with dirt and grime to match the rest of the original stitching.  Stay tuned for a restoration update in a later blog posting!

I will let the pouch speak for itself.  Here is the album of photos.  Enjoy!

 

Swiss Shovel Covers, WW2 Vintage, Rare Metal Type, Schweizer Klappspaten: Entrenching Tool - Spade, Shovel, E-Tool

As promised after my last blog posting on my vintage Swiss entrenching tool, here is the follow-up presenting the new shovel covers.   
http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2015/08/schweizer-klappspaten-swiss-entrenching.html

First off, I would like to thank my mother who retrieved these beauties from a California surplus warehouse, and then transported them all the way up to Washington!  They were the last four covers in the place.

After a quick clean-up and inspection, I selected one for my shovel.  The cover is in amazing condition for its age and looks like it was gently used (the other three are quite a bit more "weathered").  Not bad for a 75 year old piece of field gear that ended its career in a dark and dusty warehouse in the USA.

 There is not much that is known for sure about these metal, Swiss, shovel covers other than that they were produced and used during WW2.  All of these covers seem to have been dated in 1943 and 1944, and were made by various Swiss manufacturers.  The covers that I have are dated 1943 and 1944, by two manufacturers.

In about 1943, Switzerland started feeling the pinch of being isolated in regards to raw materials.  I believe that leather was becoming more scarce, as well as aluminum, and other raw materials in demand by the other countries who were deep in the middle of war.  This would explain why the traditional leather shovel covers were changed to the metal type.

Interestingly, the metal covers are nearly identical to the all leather covers.  The straps, belt hangers, and fastening system is the same.  The large piece of leather that covers the blade, and the "strap" that goes across the back, were substituted with stamped sheet steel.  The leather straps that had been used on the all leather version were merely riveted on to the metal version.  
Two blued spring tensioners are riveted on each side of the metal backing to keep the blade from rattling when it is in the cover.

After the war ended, production ceased on these metal covers and Switzerland went back to the traditional, all leather versions.  
I have been unable to locate any clear photos that show these covers in use, however, based on the wear to the leather and metal on my covers, it is certain that they saw quite a bit of field use.

These shovel covers fit the shovel perfectly, and I now have one "permanently installed" on my shovel.  I am quite surprised that the design was not carried over into the Cold War years.

To finish things up, here are some close-up shots of the covers:

There are two holes on the metal backing plate.  These are "access holes" to allow the riveting of the leather to the metal cross piece on the other side of the cover.

Schweizer Klappspaten, Swiss Entrenching Tool - Spade, Shovel, E-Tool, circa 1940

This beautiful little Swiss entrenching tool, or spade, is the latest addition to my ever growing collection of military shovels.

I picked this shovel up on a trip we made down to San Diego, California last year.  A Saturday trip to the San Diego Swap Meet yielded an entire armload of treasures, and this was one of them!

This shovel is one of the early WW2 models of the fixed blade spade type of entrenching tool that was pretty much standard with all of the European armies during the WW1 and WW2 years.  In fact, the shovels were so similar between all of the countries that is often quite difficult to determine the country of origin!

We can tell that this shovel is Swiss, from a very unique feature that was added to every Swiss entrenching tool produced, both fixed blade and folding blade.  That feature is the addition of a small brass nail in the upper end of the handle.  No other country did this.

As far as I can tell, there is no practical reason to have this brass marker, however the Swiss never do anything randomly, so I am sure there is a reason, unfortunately, it has been lost to time.  The one consistent thing about all these brass nails, is that they are installed exactly half of a meter from the blade tip.  This would make the the entrenching tool a rudimentary measuring stick.  Maybe that was the reason (?).

This shovel is marked "LC 40" on the edge of the blade face.  "LC" is maker mark from the firm that manufactured the shovel and "40" is the year it was produced:  1940.  These early square fixed blade shovels do not have the Swiss Cross stamp like we find on the later folding shovels.  Another interesting feature that distinguishes these early Swiss shovels from the later war and post-war shovels, is the round handle.  The later shovels have the very unique octagon shaped handles.  You can see that feature here, on my previous posting of a post-war folding Swiss shovel:

http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2011/03/schweizer-klappspaten-mit-lederhulle.html

These early Swiss shovels are often modified to pass as a WW2 German shovel by removal of the brass handle nail.  However, the German shovels do not have the same rivet style or the metal collar around the blade-to-handle area.  So, for those of you looking for a "Genuine German" entrenching tool, look closely at that "eBay listing"!

I currently do not have a shovel cover for this entrenching tool, but that should be remedied later this week.  Stay tuned for a future "shovel cover" blog posting!

Here is an album of photos of this early Swiss shovel:

German Wehrmacht Soldier Photo, 90th Infantry Regiment, circa 1930's

Here is another very interesting photo that I recently picked up.  The photo is an original studio photo that was printed on "photo postcard" paper, with scalloped edges.  The photo appears to have been taken before the start of WW2, in the mid to late 1930's.

The photo does not have any notations or writing on the back side, but the photo itself has some vital clues about the date and identity of the military unit the soldier belonged to.

The soldier is wearing the formal "Waffenrock des Deutschen Heeres" uniform tunic, with Nazi breast eagle. 
This version of the Waffenrock tunic was first introduced on June 29th, 1935.  The Waffenrock uniform was suspended in 1940.  The Waffenrock was often worn when soldiers were married, or on other special occasions, even after 1940.  It was an "unofficial tradition" to loan out a Waffenrock uniform from unit stocks to the soldier-groom for his wedding.  Since this is not a "wedding photo", it places the time period as pre-1940.  Normally all medals and awards are worn on the Waffenrock, and in this photo, there are none.  This would also point towards a pre-WW2 date.
 
The breast eagle was added to all uniforms on February 17th, 1934.  The breast eagle in this photo, is the first version.  The eagle is embroidered in white, on a backing cloth of Ash Gray.  This version of the breast eagle was used from 1934-1937.  After 1937, the backing cloth was a dark, emerald green.

The shoulder boards on the uniform are embroidered with the Arabic number "90".  The uniform and shoulder boards are edged with white piping, indicating infantry.  This tells us that the soldier belonged to the 90th Infantry Regiment.  After a bit of research, I located a bit of information on this unit.  

The 90th Regiment belonged to the 1st Battalion of the Wehrmacht.  The first reports that I can find that comment on this unit in combat, are from November of 1941, on the Russian Front, Operation Barbarossa.   The unit came under heavy attack by the Russians and they had to retreat, leaving behind 80 of their soldiers.  After  the Wehrmacht re-took the territory lost, they discovered the 80 soldiers that had been captured.  All were dead.  A German military investigation took place that documented the war crimes that were committed against the captured soldiers by the Russians.

I would assume that the 90th Regiment would have also have participated in the invasion of Poland in 1939 as well, but I am not certain.  The unit history research continues............

The uniform and insignia fall into the 1935-1937 time window.  There is a lack of awards and medals that would seem to indicate pre-war time period as well.  When we add to that, the physical appearance of the soldier:  Calm, Relaxed, Healthy, I think it is very safe to date the photo as mid to late 1930's, before the start of WW2.

There is not much to show on the back of the photo, but for research purposes, here is a photo of the back side.

Swedish Soldiers Photo, circa 1915, Swedish Army Winter Hat and Uniform

Here is a new posting that will double as an addition to my previous post detailing my WW2 vintage, Swedish Army Sheep's Wool Winter Hat.  You can see the original posting here:

http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2015/07/swedish-army-winter-hat-sheeps-wool.html

In my search for original documentation about the old Swedish Wool Winter hats, I ran across this photograph that was listed on eBay.  The photo was listed as a photograph of unknown origin, with no details.  I picked it up for less than the cost of the seller's postage!

The photo is a partial, clipped section, that was cut from an original photo-postcard.  The photo depicts two Swedish soldiers kneeling in front of a group of other soldiers.  The two soldiers are wearing the old, WW1 style uniforms as well as the old Sheep's Wool Winter Hats.  The uniforms show no indication of rank or unit insignia.  There is a partial date on the back of the photo of "1915", as well as what remains of the original address.  Unfortunately there is not enough writing left after the photo was cut down, to determine location, subjects names,  or exact dates, etc.  The 1915 year date is consistent with the uniforms, so I am confident that it is accurate.

World War 1, 75th Anniversary Commemorative Medal, WW1 Veterans Medal

Today we'll be taking a look at a very unique, and virtually unknown and overlooked, WW1 medal.  It is the WW1 75th Anniversary Commemorative Medal.

I picked this medal up in a thrift store down in Fort Bragg, California earlier this summer.  The medal is complete, in its original issue box, and also included a small US American Legion, veteran's pin.

This commemorative medal was awarded to all US veterans of WW1 back in 1993.  The medal was presented and awarded by the US Veteran's Administration, to all qualifying US WW1 Veterans.  The Veterans Administration received and verified all of the requests for the medal and then arranged to have the medals presented.  The award was first distributed on Sept.1, 1993, the 75 year anniversary of the end of WW1.

The Medal was commissioned by the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation of Chicago.  Robert R. McCormick published the Chicago Tribune Newspaper for the the first half of the 20th century, and was a Colonel in the Artillery in WW1.  The medal was designed by the US Army Institute of Heraldry and its distribution was assigned to the US Veterans Administration.  The medal was issued in a presentation box, with a letter from the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.  Whenever possible, the medals were presented in person.  They were intended for every living US WW1 Veteran.

Unfortunately, I do not know who the medal was presented to, but I am very confident that the medal was actually presented to a living WW1 veteran.  An American Legion veteran's pin was included in the box, and I believe it came from the same veteran, but I can never be sure.  This medal is a great addition to my collection of WW1 Victory Medals, and a very unique bit of WW1 history............ the end of an era.  The last US, WW1 veteran has now passed away.

Here are a few photos of the medal, presentation case and American Legion pin: