Old type frag vest

Clips on one side, elastic on the other:







Steve

Awesome! I have never seen them wearing this model. But it is great to see more body armor on this site. I will post my Norwegian flak vest when I get home tonight.

I am told that this is long out of service and possibly not even the Home Guard have it lying about. I'd love to see pics of yours. I've only seen the usual hard to decipher field pics.

Steve

Any markings inside?

Yes, there are a total of 5 labels with information, one being in Norwegian (wear/care instructions). It was made by Tetranike Armour Systems, UK. Produced in 1992. NSN 8470-25-134-9510.

It is designed to take a velcro on crotch flap as well, but unfortunately that did not come with my purchase. What did come with it is a reference card, in Norwegian, with engineering specifications for bridges. My guess is a Norwegian engineer wore this in the Balkans.

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:I am told that this is long out of service and possibly not even the Home Guard have it lying about.  I'd love to see pics of yours.  I've only seen the usual hard to decipher field pics.

Steve

Here is mine. It has side velcro openings to tighten. The most interesting thing about it are the belt clips to hold web gear in place and Velcro epaulets to secure web suspenders. I imagine it was probably issued before yours, as yours looks like it has slots for plates.

Would be interesting if someone had any further info on our two vests.

I have never seen anything like it, but when I first saw the picture I guessed early 90's and your Balkan engineer theory is plausable.

I'm familiar with the one pictured by abefroman and used it in 1996-1997 and again in 1999-2001, so I believe this is the most used one.

abefroman wrote:Here is mine. It has side velcro openings to tighten. The most interesting thing about it are the belt clips to hold web gear in place and Velcro epaulets to secure web suspenders. I imagine it was probably issued before yours, as yours looks like it has slots for plates.

Great pictures! Thanks!!

No, mine is not designed to hold plates. What you are seeing is the access to get the soft inserts in/out. And as NorBn followed up with, yours is definitely later issue than mine.

NorBn wrote:I have never seen anything like it, but when I first saw the picture I guessed early 90's and your Balkan engineer theory is plausable.

Many countries, especially ones with relatively small militaries, did not have body armor of any sort in their inventories until the Balkans. Even the Bundeswehr did not adopt a standard issue fragmentation vest until about 1990. Which is why you see so many soldiers in SFOR, IFOR, and even ISAF using body armor from other nations.

From my limited experience I'd say the United Kingdom was the primary source for the early body armor used during the 1990s. Which is why it did not surprise me at all to see that my frag vest was made in the UK.

Steve

We used the older US manufacured camo west in South Lebanon and also a blue one, but they were really bad. The mission in the Balkans in the early 90's came as a shock to most armies going there, including the Norwegian one, so I think you are spot on.

The frag west I remember we used, here from the SFOR Camp at the Zetra Stadium in 1997.

NorBn wrote:I have never seen anything like it, but when I first saw the picture I guessed early 90's and your Balkan engineer theory is plausable.

I'm familiar with the one pictured by abefroman and used it in 1996-1997 and again in 1999-2001, so I believe this is the most used one.

But isn't mine in the M75 pattern, meaning it is older?

Most people use M75 to refer to the camouflage pattern, which gets confusing quick because some people think it means more than that. I don't even know what the designations are for most of my Norwegian stuff

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:Most people use M75 to refer to the camouflage pattern, which gets confusing quick because some people think it means more than that.  I don't even know what the designations are for most of my Norwegian stuff

Steve

That's right, basicly all of the uniforms/ camo equipment used since the mid 1970s has been in the M75 pattern, but there are colour variations of all kinds. There were probably no frag wests around in 1975 in the Norwegian Army, but the pattern on the ones used in the 1990s is still called M75. I can't remember if the frag wests came with a tag (a shield with a two digit number in) like most of the other issued equipment, but this will tell the year of manufacture.

When I was in the army in 1994 - 95, we only used the frag wests once. It was the annual clearing of duds from the excercise field. I don't know what the model is called , but I have some pics. At least the mosquitos didn't bite though them... This was in Finnmark on 70' north, and the mosquitos were huge!!!

I love the Telemark bergen you have on, I used to have the older one made of canvas and leather. Quite unusual now but very good.

James K: The backpack is called M/53, and the last users were the homeguard. We got new backpacks in 2014 if I remember correctly.

NorBn: Actually the older M/75 uniform was olive green. The camo pattern came around 1983.

B.M.F wrote:James K:  The backpack is called M/53, and the last users were the homeguard. We got new backpacks in 2014 if I remember correctly.

NorBn: Actually the older M/75 uniform was olive green. The camo pattern came around 1983.

They were also issued to Royal Marines and attached Commandos until the early 1980's where they were called Telemark Bergens, a classic design and very popular.

NorBn: Actually the older M/75 uniform was olive green. The camo pattern came around 1983.[/quote]


The pattern is known as M75, probably from the year it was developed

Hi
It's the field uniform that's called M/75. The camo pattern was introduced in 1984:
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A6rens_uniformer

I have a book with pics. of the original M/75 uniform and the trialuniform that led to it.
I'll be back.....

Please make a new thread then, this one was originally about an old type of fram west

I found this pic. of the blue west, on the armed forces museum page.