ww2

German POW rucksack made from Zeltbahn material in good condition. After world war two a lot of German POW’s lost most if not all of their posessions. Items such as rucksacks became rare for the POW’s returning home. These men are known as Heimkehrer. With no means of buying new clothing or equipment everything that was stocked in the POW camps was utilised creating a miriad of rucksacks in all kinds of material, mostly tent material. I have seen many different variants, none of them are exactly the same. My guess is that every POW camp designed their own pattern with the materials available. This example fits right in this area. A genuine Heimkehrer Rucksack in good condition. Although most people would sell this as a ‘field made’ item, one could never prove that and I firmly believe that most of these were made in the POW camps. Nice piece!

M44 rucksack in blue canvas with webbing straps. Not to be confused with a Luftwaffe issue rucksack; this one was meant to be issued to the Heer, Waffen-SS, Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. Nice late war variant in used condition!

Small rucksack marked H. Kruge 1940 in good used condition. Complete with its two webbing carrying straps.

Late war M44 rucksack straps from captured material. These straps would be issued with the M44 rucksack so it could also be worn without Y-straps.

Unissued riveted Heer tornister marked Kritzler K.G. Rebbelroth 1942. This is a hard to find mid war variant without straps and all leather attatchment attached with means of riveting. There is a modern made plywood filler inside which I will leave inside because it makes the rucksack pop out perfectly. Hard to find example in unissued condition!

Late war M31 breadbag strap named Krebs in excellent condition. Nice variant with a central in stead of two side seams.

Late war M31 breadbag strap marked RB-Nr. 0/0850/0345 indicating it was produced in Stadt- u. Landkreis München. The strap is unissued condition.

Early M31 breadbag strap dated 1936 with unit markings to 1. Abteilung, 6. Batterie Artillerie Regiment 50. This unit first served in Poland with Artillerie Regiment 105 and then was attached to the IV. Armeekorps. From 12 to 14.5.40 it was with the 4. Panzerdivision in the Dutch, Belgian and French campaign. Nice example!

Pre war Dutch breadbag strap in good used condition. Typical pre war ‘buitenmodel’ broodzak strap.

Rare M31 breadbag made with captured Czech leather in unissued condition. Nice and rare collectible variant!

Rare late war transitional tropical breadbag made utilising leather and webbing in the construction. Nice collectible variant, hard to find!

Textbook Heer tropical breadbag in very good, unissued condition.

Late war breadbag with canvas D-ring loops marked F Kurz stighelm 1942. This is a rare variant with the top two D-rings sewn with canvas, not webbing or leather.

Textbook late war M44 breadbag in unissued condition!

Unissued M31 tropical breadbag with matching strap in excellent condition.

Very nice “tropical” M31 breadbag in good condition. This breadbag is most likely made in the Ghetto of Lodz, Poland which the Germans renamed into “Litzmannstadt”. They are made using parts of captured British equipment items. These British equipment items where left in 1940 when the (BEF) British Expeditionary Force evacuated to the United Kingdom. The Germans sent this British equipment to Litzmannstadt for recycling and a lot of work was put in disassembling every British equipment piece and recycling the individual parts into German army equipment. Y-straps, A-frames and rucksacks are a few of the items made in Litzmannstadt. Very nice original M31 breadbag!

Unissued M31 Heer breadbag marked RB-Nr. 0/0671/00185 indicating production by J. Heinrich Köster jun. City: Bad Homburg