This mag pouch is the least common of all of the East German pouches. It holds 2, 30 round AK mags, and is made in the old "Blumentarn" camo pattern.
This pattern of camouflage is officially known as the Flachtarnmuster pattern that was produced and used from 1956 until 1967. It had a "phase out period" that lasted into the 1970's, so it is sometimes seen being worn with the later "rain pattern" camo in later photos.
Even though this camo pattern was officially known as Flachtarnmuster, it was more commonly called Blumentarn (flower camouflage), or Kartoffelmuster (potato camouflage).
These old Blumentarn pouches came in two sizes. The first was the two mag pouch, and the second was the three mag pouch. The two compartment pouches were for "technical troops", like engineers, radio operators, etc. The three compartment pouches were for the "regular soldiers". The two mag pouches are the toughest to find these days as much fewer were originally produced. Mine is the smaller, two mag size.
These early pouches used a stud and button hole type of flap fastener, unlike the later strap and "D" ring fastening system. This early stud style is a carry over from the old mag pouches of the WW1 and WW2 era.
My pouch is in extremely good condition, and is marked "NVA" inside the pouch with a small inked stamping. As far as I know, none of these early pouches are marked with a date, however they were all made between 1956 and 1967.
You can see the "side-by-side" comparison of the the old Blumentarn pouch with the later "rain pattern" pouch in this photo. I will be featuring the later "rain pattern" AK pouch in my next blog posting.
http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2017/02/east-german-nva-ak47-mpi-4-magazine.html
Here is a historic photo showing these pouches in use.
Now let's take a closer look at this seldom seen, 2 mag, ammo pouch.
Very nice pouch, clean and complete. I have the three cell version, it is obviously used and dirty. Blumentarn stuff seems to be arriving on the market all of a sudden, driving the value of my stuff down but giving more opportunity to DDR collectors. Nice pouch, thanks for sharing!
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