Some Recent modern Belgian finds

Recently I've found some damn cheap Belgian stuff, figured I'd show it here.

First a Gentex TBH-II helmet, probably not a Belgian contracted one but the Para/Cdo's use them, so I put the relevant cover on it.






Flecktarn parka and a pouch that my vest set didn't have yet, so now I think I have all, and then an older jigsaw hood.




An Arktis advanced chestrig with a severed backstrap (easy fix), Polish made modern armor cover, 2 different ripstop helmet covers (different loops),
and 2 helmet nets which are most likely also Belgian (1 painted over and 1 of different construction).







And a tactical vest for a friend, because I already had one, this one just has a molten zipper, but was the least destroyed one in a crate, most
others had the back adjustment straps and buckles cut.

I also have one of those helmet covers with the black elastic sewn to the outside. The one I have looks hand-improvised. Is yours the same?

I'm also curious about the details of the ripstop helmet covers. I don't have one in my collection yet.

The light weight body armor cover is interesting. Do you know any history about its use?

Pity that the LBVs were in such poor condition. The Cordura material doesn't seem to hold camouflage colors for very long under sun and use conditions. I acquired a brand new one during the first year of issue and I paid a lot of money for it, but I'm happy I did!

Steve

Yeah the black elastic is just badly sewn to the cover. There were also quite a few helmet nets with the same elastic threaded through it.
It seems to be a quite popular material to use, I've also seen it in old photos.

And Steve, there were more ripstop covers there, if you'd like I could take one from there whenever I return, though it may take a while.

I don't know a lot about the lightweight armor, nly that it also exists in Desert color, and that it appears in photos from Afghanistan, and
it seems to be only worn by Para/Cdo.

And yes there might be some more relatively intact vests in the crate, but I found what I needed/wanted so I stopped digging. I just had the
backstrap of the Arktis rig reattached again today, which had been pulled loose from one side, and it works again. Afterwards I noticed someone
might have repaired the vest before, as 1 shoulderstrap is attached inside out

Hello

the body armor , used by belgian navy



Salutations

Ok thanks, learned something again. Navy is not of any interest for me, so I never looked at photos of them, so I never saw this. It makes sense for them so wear such a quite simple vest though

I have found an extra of the ripstop covers again, CollectinSteve, do you still need one?

And some new finds for myself.

2 Basic pouches that both have the ladder buckle attached the wrong way around, shovelpouch which is most likely made of old
British material, modified canteen pouch, Jigsaw camo tentpole pouch.

It seems normal to screw up on making Belgian basic pouches it seems, 3 of my 4 pouches have mistakes.
On my other pouch the tab fastening the ladder buckle to the pouch is entirely sewn down, no downward pass-through for the
brace, so whoever used it had to resort to cutting slits into the pouch body to allow the strap material to go down.

I also have ABL basic pouches with manufacturing errors.
I believe that the shovel carrier is made from WE 37 large packs. Or at least the one I have looks like it used to be part of a large pack.

michelwijnand wrote:I have found an extra of the ripstop covers again, CollectinSteve, do you still need one?

Quite possibly! I'll have a look at my covers and let you know sometime this year

Steve

ok sure!

I dug out my helmet cover box (thankfully they pack better than winter coats) and found that I have an unissued ripstop helmet cover already. This is the problem with my collection... so many things that I not only forgot I have one, I forgot I've seen one before! That's not a good sign about either the size of my collection or my memory

Steve

Oh well, it was very cheap, so I'll put it for sale on some pages here
And I know that problem, at some point I just started taking photos of every new item coming in, so I wouldn't get duplicates.

And I found some stuff again, the tent halve to match the tentpole pouch from before. I'll just put the poles etc. from the brushstroke
pouch into that.

Not sure about the bandage, could be Dutch or Belgian, no NSN country code, and it came from a crate of mixed Dutch and Belgian stuff.
Only know it's from the 50's.

The rest is not Belgian.

About the bandage, see here:

https://iacmc.forumotion.com/t11000-documenting-a-plunjebaal-circa-1970

I found the same one in a Dutch PSU lot.


Also, is the green magazine pouch KLu?

Ah nice, thanks. That one actually has a readable NSN country code.

And yes it's KLu, it's for he M93 type harness in KLu greygreen. I don't think anyone over here has ever seen a magpouch, so when I saw this destroyed one I threw it in my pile and got it for free.

The harness and backpacks show up quite rarely, but anything else is pretty much nonexistent.


Also, in that thread you call the net a field scarf, which it was indeed used for sometimes, but officially it's a faceveil.
And about the webbing, the KLu marked belt could be late 80's-early 90's from after the KLu went to green gear.
And 1 of your webbing braces in the webbing pic is Dutch marked but actually a mid-late WW2 British one, most likely made by MeCo judging by it's folding-inward construction, which was an economy measure. Many WW2 things were later stamped with MvO markings.

And you don't have any outer mittens yet? Or have you found some in the meantime.
Otherwise I have a spare set

I have seen the backpacks from time to time, but never any other parts in grey/green.

The items shown in that thread with the bandage all came in one plunjebaal, apparently from one man (I think that the latest item with a date is 1969 or so). So the belt remains a bit of a mystery. Yes, one of the braces is certainly British-made. I can't recall off the top of my head if ME Co made braces in that particular shape, but I have quite a lot of clearly marked WE 37 braces that I could compare it to. (One item from that group which is not shown in the thread is the German-type folding shovel.)

Yes, I have several pairs of outer mitten shells, but for some reason none were included in that particular group. The mitten shells seem to turn up in surplus stores over here again and again over the years.

Today's Belgian finds.

Nice! What's the date on that jacket? I'm wondering if it is one of the newer darker printed types.

Steve

Thanks!

There's no date on the tag, but it's the late type tag in sand color with black letters.

Thanks! I didn't know they stopped dating items. The Belgians have been very reliable with that over many decades.

OK, my guess is this is the 2nd Pattern desert, which is the same shapes and colors but darker.

Steve

My Belgian jacket is also from the darker type but the tag is the old white one:

VERY nicely badged!!! I'm going to start a separate thread about this topic, so please visit and post there

Belgian desert name tapes are so rare I bought a used jacket from our friend in Thailand because it had the name still on it.  Oh, and he also had a KAZ57 jacket with the rifle strap role still attached to the shoulder, so I got two things I've been looking for at one time

Steve

Got some stuff again, not sure how the posted pics might look to the rest of you, but some others I posted today were absolutely huge, despite me not doing anything different than normal.

Anyway, found a light blue-greyish helmet and liner today, airforce, right?
The liner is the one with the linerbolts having removable lockrings.
Got a helmetnet with it for free.

Also bought 2 magazine pouches for the load bearing vest, with a tag, not sure what it is for.

Yes, an air force helmet for sure. The arrow marking inside the shell signifies Belgian air force property. On later manufacture air force helmets, the arrow is stamped into the rim next to the manufacturer/date.

From what I have seen, earlier air force helmets and liners are painted grey, while later ones are light blue. Eventually the plastic liner was also made in light blue.

The tag on the pouch looks like a QM property tag. I find similar tags on Canadian items sometimes.

And more Airforce stuff, this time a hood for the parka, now I want to find some Fleck rankslides!