A rare item to find in good condition., the luftwaffe survival dinghy. A small inflatable one man lifeboat carried in a packhulle. Worn as an apron behind the parachute, it was to be deployed when the pilot landed in water. It has a, often missing, airbottle to partially inflate the raft. The underside has a large pocket wich fills with water acting as a keel. Equipped with treibanker and kopfbecker for removing water from the craft. Early versions has pockets for spare equipment in the bottom of the craft. More will follow regarding the lw seenotausrustung.
Another AK39 late model compass. Made to be worn at the wrist but often fastenede to the Schwimmweste as the picture of the pilot shows
Estate found M35 helmet in not the best condition. As it is an estatefound helmet the history is known. Taken at a german field artillery camp by children after the war ended. Named in the neck and nicely marked chinstrap. The camp in question was postwar used for the national army and is still in use today. The commander of the camp, a colonel, was a former gardener so the camp is beutifully planted. The M35 was the first version of the iconic Stahlhelm. It featured riveted vent holes, aluminum inner ring and a very shiny finish with 2 decals. It, together with the M40, has folded edges. Due to the shiny paint it was ordered repainted and the national decal was to be removed. This helmet has been repainted and one decal left behind. Market ET62 indicating production by Eisenhuttewerke Thule. These early helmets has the production marking at the left chinstrap, later moved to the back inside neck. ALways interested with names and feldpostnummer, who was this "prochnow"?, did he survive?
Late version of the armbandkompass with contract number: 23235-1. The early version was made in black and had the contract(anforderz) number 23235. An item that saw its civilian use after the war and therefore many has survived. Often found with postwar straps. It was intended to be worn on the wrist, but pilots often fastened it to the lifejacket and other places on their gear.
The Schwimmveste 10-30 b-2 replaced the 10-30 wich again was an replacement for the Kapok west. This lifewest is a design adopted for use for boating today. It is made of cottoncanvas with an inflatable bladder inside. It has a bladder behind the neck preventing the person in the water lying face down. It made the pilot less bulky than with the Kapok west, but the new design was vulnerable to schrapnel and sharp objects. The early version 10-30 had metal fittings. This is an 1030 b-2 with bakelite. It is marked on the back with hersteller, type and "gepruft" stamp. This example was affected by poor storage but it handled handwashing very well and was cleaned up. It is missing the two smal spare O-rings that was attached to the bottle neck. These schwimmweste has been harder to find the latest years.
Late red painted kochgeshirr made from steel. The strap is postwar. Unidentified makers mark. As the war progressed aluminum became scarcer and the industry started to use steel.
Close to perfect condition knitted matching pair gloves as issued to soldiers. The white "sizerings" has faded but otherwise the gloves are in very good condition. The rings indicate the sizes of the gloves. 1:small, 2: medium, 3:Large.
Not a set in its best condition, but nevertheless an interesting object. Both cannister and mask is marked with name and feldpostnumber making a little tracking of history possible. The cannister is datet 1939. The mask is dated 1940 but the lenses are dated 1944 so they have possibly been replaced during the war. This is a socalled household find, never been tampered with by collectors. It was taken from the germans after the surrender and used by a man running his own paintstore when mixing paint. Remnants of paint splatter can be found on the mask. The feltpost nummer '51855' was used from 01.05.1942 until 26.09.1943. First used by the "
Stab, Stabs-, 1.-5. u. Kraftfahr-Ersatz-Batterie leichte Flak-Ausbildungs-Abteilung 92" and then by the "Stab leichte Flak-Ausbildungs-Abteilung 690". LN KP L stands for Luftnachtrichten kompanie.
The first was set up in Vienna and It was used in frabce with 5 batteries until it was disbanded in 1943 at Arras. Maybe herr "Walter STreich" then was transferred to Norway and his gasmask&cannister ended up in a norwegian paint store? The top of the cannister seems to be painted with F.no "25966" belonging to fliegerhorst kommandaur/flugplatz kommando in Norway.