Some recent British finds, and some questions, Part 2!

Thanks, that might bring me a bit closer to an ID.

Made a trip to some shop today, found a 44P compass case, the only British find of the day.
Dunno what the sheath is for, some Bolo knife? Almost no markings on it, just C.W.E. or G.W.E. on the leather, and on the other side an M.

Found some more kit again, a packet of sealed No1 Mk3 NBC trousers which I already had, but was a freebie, will probably go away again.

Then an Individual Protection Kit (sort of a tarp), a modular pouch made by Combat Kit (Dutch used), another Mk6 helmet cover (with a
strange contract number like the windproof smock from a few posts back).

And then a weird thing I haven't fully identified yet, it's some type of sealed NBC smock, but there is no type number like No* Mk*, it's
just part of a suit called Suit C. B.
It's quite old, maybe it predated the No1 series suits? Or is it something different entirely...

I've manually made the pics smaller with mspaint now, and they aren't spilling out of the screen anymore, so either I've fixed it that way,
or they're uploading normalsized again.

Test with the fullsize file:

edit: yeah there we have it, didn't need to make the pics smaller myself, stuff's fixed itself somehow

The Suit C.B. is indeed the predecessor of the NBC suit. It was made in three parts: smock, trousers and a separate hood. The hood exists in Sizes 1 (small) and 2 (medium and large). The suits were supplied with a patch repair kit which seems to have been dropped for later Marks. All C.B. suits I've seen are the same contract number as above and are dated 1968 or 1969. Presumably it was soon realised that anyone needing the smock was always going to need the hood and so this was followed in about 1970 by the Mark I NBC suit with integral hood.

The contract number on the helmet cover is a mystery to me.

Nice Afghan made holster

Usall

Thanks guys!

I actually thought the No1 Mk1 was the 3-piece suit, so this is new to me. This one was reported to have come from a load of Dutch KM gear.
The helmet cover and the smock are the only items I've seen such contract numbers on, and judging by how the smock is the transitional type in the 84 pattern camo, this cover could be quite an early one, maybe just as early as the CT4B cover I posted a while ago.
The smock is number 654/91/0526/01, and the cover is 603-90-6023-01-0217, so aside from the cover havign 4 more numbers, the rest of the structure is very similar.

And the holster was probably brought back by some Dutch soldier on mission there. It's 1 of 3 items I have that are made by Black Ops Kandahar, the others being a black buttstock magazine pouch and the other a Desert camo plate carrier.

Found some stuff again. All actually bought for my Dutch collection, but British made.


First a PRR pouch, which is in widespread Dutch use.





Then some Berghaus gaiters.




And an oldgen Berghaus Cyclops 2 Vulcan with the old style buckles. Sadly has 1 mismatched sidepouch with broken zipper and late
type straps with fastex clips.

Another Dutch surplus shop find, A/78 contract code "SAS" Windproof trousers, tiny size, but very good condition!

Hi....going back a couple of screens......did you ever find out any more about the shiny Brit Mk6 helmet?...I've seen the meshed crown piece before but the brow pad with the bulge (for want of a better word) is very odd.....

Hi, never found any more info about the mesh part of the liner, but some people explained to me that the bulge is just how the foam below is supposed to be shaped, and the leather must've worn around it, but I haven't checked my normal Mk6's yet to verify that

More rare stuff found again, as always, it appeared here in Holland for some reason.








Also a body armor from the same source, 1979 pattern with radio pouches and loops

Very nice. Was that the guy who had them on FB?

Thanks! He might have, but I didn´t buy it from there, but on marktplaats

michelwijnand wrote:Another Dutch surplus shop find, A/78 contract code "SAS" Windproof trousers, tiny size, but very good condition!

A nice find and not that tiny for its day, more of an average size than you might think at waist 32 and leg 30. I have seen quite a few issued and named uniforms from the 70s and 80s that were Size 1. These days collectors want the larger sizes but if you want what was worn at the time, Size 1 was not unusual. Personally the sizes I prefer to collect are 2 and 5 (neither of which fit me!).

There are four sizes below 1: 01, 02, 03 and 04. They are equivalent to the present 160/88, 160/96, 160/104 and 170/88. Even 04 / 170/88 was not uncommon before the food corporations started to load our diet with sugar and corn syrup around the mid 1990s.

Oh yeah, weren't the 0 sizes meant for Gurkha regiments?

michelwijnand wrote:Oh yeah, weren't the 0 sizes meant for Gurkha regiments?

For some reason that idea has got around, but it's not correct. The Gurkhas had their own range of sizes beginning with G and these occasionally come up on ebay. The 0 sizes and their later equivalents were just an addition to the Army size range for anyone who happened to be too small for the regular sizes. For instance, I have in my own collection a Size 04 para smock issued to a named Royal Marine and a 170/88 desert shirt issued to a Gulf War soldier in the Force Maintenance Area Group, ie the Logistics Brigade.

There are still some young fellows around who have 28 to 30 inch waists. Until recently 30-32 was probably an average waist size, whereas now many consider it to be small.

Found more British old trousers, this one pretty damn big!

Old PVC DPM raintrousers, ca 1983

Some more, also something to ID.

First off, I found a PVC jacket to go with the pants, though slightly later made.






Then I have this chestrig which I think is probably made by some British company because I think I remember the distinctive quickrelease as such.
Maybe someone recognizes them and can link a company to them.






And some pouches, the 2 small ones bottom-center are British, the big pouch is actually Dutch, the other 3 are unmarked, so no idea where they're from.
The frog looks like it might be for the Eickhorn 2005 bayonet, but it's different from the Dutch type I know, it might be for the KM2000, though I don't
remember my knife being that long.
Anyway, the elastic single magpouch is made by Karrimor, the double magpouch next to it by Warrior Assault Systems , it looks too short for M4 type mags, maybe FAL?






And some trousers, the left one is actually British, a Windproof Arctic, but with a weird non-British looking contractnumber as on a helmetcover and smock I've posted before.
The trousers next to it are actually from the Dutch Marines, eventhough the tag shows a British NSN country code.
And look at the contractcode on the Dutch pants, and then compare to the British ones. This fuels my thoughts that such coded British things were for Dutch KM contracts.






And as last a Kombat UK adjustable size modular pouch, bottom row, 2nd from the right.

More Warrior stuff again, though I bought them for my Dutch collection, they are still British made.

First I bought this new(er) gen RICAS Compact vest, which I later sold after I found another one with a set of pouches on it,
at no extra money spent.





And here's the replacement vest, older gen than the above, visible in that the vertical sewing over the MOLLE strips is continuous, instead of just the
width of the strips being sewn.
I've only opened up the first new-gen one for a bit, but IIRC the plate-holding straps inside were a bit different than in this one, and it also didn't have
any QR clips at the side that can be used when wearing the vest as plate carrier without the cummerbund. (Maybe they were removed in the new-gen
vest, though I don't remember seeing any cut marks anywhere, the vest was pretty untouched)

I think the magazine pouches are one of the oldest generation, the admin pouch is also older, and the utility pouches are too, as the vertical MOLLE straps attach
with buttons instead of just folding back like the newest pouches.







And then I found this DCS vest, which is quite used, but also quite cheap, and again has some older pouches on it, and a grimlock.
The admin pouch is similar to the one above, but I think it may actually be older.
The magazine pouches I'm not sure about, maybe even older than the ones above.





And some British DPM rankslides, 1 single and 2 sealed pairs.

Oops, forgot about these DPM MVP pants

Got in another British early 90's chestrig, it was bought in the UK by a Dutch marine, who bought British rigs en masse at the time as they didn't quite like the old KM webbing and US Alice gear that they still used.
The other rig I posted earlier (probably made by a company called Comkit) also came from KM use, and there are many photos of as many different models in use throughout the 90's and early 00's until taken over by the modular vests.

This rig went with him to mount Igman near Sarajevo, when he was part of the 1st Mortar company there in 1996.

I have no idea what brand this rig is, or the exact year.
He was in the corps for 6 years from 1991 onwards, so it must be from sometime between 1991 and 1996.
If anyone knows the exact brand, please tell me!

Great piece with solid provenance.

British made, but IIRC in collab with a Dutch company, the Arktis M173 NL-rig.

Came with free pocketlitter






And an old type Berghaus sidepouch to fit on an old Vulcan I have, it was missing 1 pouch with the old type clips.
The only other British thing in the pic is the Karrimor SF double magpouch, no idea about the khaki pouch though, could also be
British for all I know.

Got this weird pack in today, don't know exactly what it is. I'm assuming it's British made since it's a copy of the Berghaus Cyclops Vulcan type packs,
and also because it was used by a Dutch marine, maybe he bought it while on exercise in the UK.

There's no tags or brands anywhere, where the Berghaus logo normally is there's now a very small tag-holder.

It has a waterproof cover at the top of the pack, inside a velcro pocket.

The straps have a HBT pattern and are completely synthetic, the straps of the 2 fastex clips closing the main-flap and the ones on the carrying strap have
rings on the end that keep loose ends from flopping around, like on newer Berghaus models.

The 2 small horizontal straps near the fastex clips are not with 1-prong buckles on this pack, but with friction buckles.

Above the daypacks on the main pack there are no straps to attach gear, but fastex clips to secure the daypacks better.

The carry straps for the daypacks are also there, almost unpadded, fasten to the pouches with fastex clips instead of friction buckles.

I don't even know how recent this could be made. The waterproof cover in the pocket on top isn't there on my older Vulcan with grey non-fastex clips,
and I don't know when that feature came to be.