Some Bulgarian Stuff

Here's a little post for Alex  

With shipping prices I haven't had a whole lot of luck finding good priced Bulgarian stuff, but I got lucky recently with a couple pieces.

First off is a Bulgarian M72 helmet dated 1981, based on the Italian M33. Has a broken liner piece but otherwise in good condition, I'd like to find a Splinter cover for it someday as well.












Next up, a woodland DPM shirt. This one is dated 2007, and has badges for a paratrooper of the 68th Special Forces Brigade. Considering the number of Bulgarian paratroopers there are I thought it was a neat find, it was fun looking up the history of the Bulgarian para brigade.















And finally, most recently, I picked up an un-issued Zhabezhka kozha "Frogskin" coverall. By far one of the coolest patterns I've seen.
As I understand they were issued to paratroopers, chemical troops, and either Border Guards or Federal Border Guards/Patrol.
No markings besides the size tag unfortunately, unless I'm just blind. It fits perfectly and has some good features for a simple coverall.
Button cuffs and pants legs, chest mag pockets, two hand patch pockets and two small button pockets, as well as a thick drawstring waist and neat hood.





The chest pockets have 3 slots for magazines, two for AKs and a third skinny one, maybe for an SMG?



The interior, showing drawstring waist and size tag



The lower hand pockets and smaller button ones



Sleeve cuffs and lower pockets



Not a part of my collection but apparently before camouflage the same style coverall was used, just in green.



Kinda hard finding good photos of it in use.








I'll be adding more to this thread as I find them, hopefully next will be some Splinter and eventually one of the old Splinter coveralls.

Enjoy!
-Nate

Thanks for the reference pics!

Thanks for the pictures! Some Frogskin pics I've not seen before, so kudos for those! I've also not seen the solid olive drab (green) coveralls before.

Here's a thread I started on coveralls:

https://iacmc.forumotion.com/t9627-bulgarian-post-war-camouflage-coveralls

Steve

Nice bunch of things there mate ... the solid green coverall is astonishing ... you don't really see any of those here in BG, these are incredibly rare nowadays ... excellent ref pictures, too ... nice one. btw. I'll get you a splinter cover for your M72 pot ... PM me for shipping details ...

Thanks all, I checked out the coverall thread, nice stuff there! I'll be sure to get back to you Alex for one of those helmet covers!
Also, sorry if linking is not allowed, but here's the listing for that OD coverall, up for anyone who wants it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1950s-BULGARIAN-PARATROOPER-JUMP-SMOCK-COVERALL-SOLDIERS-UNIFORM-with-HOOD-/232038482053

the shortsleeve shirt with "BULGARIA" patch can be seen in photos of the UNTAC Bulgarian contingent in Cambodia, maybe also used during other multinational missions. Most trousers in UNTAC photos have 2 pockets, so shirts probably worn with the standard trousers. A few might have single pocket, but hard to tell. They also sometimes cut trousers down into shorts for off duty use in Cambodia.

M36C is typical later refurbished one from 80s with modified version of M72 liner for M36 and same paint like most M72. There is no "M36/51", this type appeared around 70s-80s. The older refurbished M36 from 50s-60s had no standard and varied a lot (probably done in depots or unit workshops), but the liners mostly still based vaguely on the WW2 type.

Thanks for resurfacing this thread! You started it just as I ducked out of circulation for a few years. There's lots of great pictures here that show interesting stuff. Splinter camo side caps, for example!

Back to your winter jacket in Splinter, you might have already learned that it is a standard winter jacket. There were some slight variations in details over the years, IIRC, but the basic form didn't change much.

Steve