Mystery german leather strap

Anybody have any theories about what this was used for? Heavy duty black leather, probably from the 1950s. It has a NATO stamp and "BUND", which means it was issued to either BGS or Polizei. Does the design of it give any hints to the purpose it served?

Thanks!

Steve

It is somewhat similar to the shape of the very early style strap sets used to carry the entrenching tool across the chest, with the handle pointing up on an angle. But I am not sure if they were ever made in leather, or if the BGS/Polizei used them. Or could it by bicycle or motorcycle related?

Wolverine wrote:It is somewhat similar to the shape of the very early style strap sets used to carry the entrenching tool across the chest, with the handle pointing up on an angle. But I am not sure if they were ever made in leather, or if the BGS/Polizei used them.

As far as I know the super, super rare entrenching tool was used only by the BW with their typical cotton webbing straps. Also, I should have put something in here for scale. The circular portion is about 8cm in diameter, which is way bigger than an entrenching tool handle. The long strap is about 93cm in length.

Or could it by bicycle or motorcycle related?

Possible that it is vehicle related! Whatever it is, the strap is highly specialized for a very specific piece of equipment.

Steve

Yeah, the etool idea was a wild guess. The stud/rivet is especially interesting, as it was clearly put there for a reason.

A quick search on the internet gave me the words ''Strap,hose And Ladd'', and the impression that it is something firefighting related.

From an NSN search? How did I miss that...

AH!  That makes total sense.  Something to strap a firehose onto something.  THANKS!! Now I know I don't care about it

I'm very surprised they would use leather for something like that as cotton webbing is vastly superior in terms of wearing and repeatedly getting wet, but I suppose anything is possible.

I thought of the NSN search but don't have a clue how to search for German items.  What's the secret?

Steve

The secret is just typing the nsn into google. You won't get many results and it wont always instantly solve your question, but it works.

Also I think germany kept using leather for it's straps longer than other nations, perhaps it was cheaper?

I also usually just Google the NSN and come up with various hits in most cases. It works especially well if the NSN is from a recently manufactured item.

Using leather instead of web may also have been related to economic regional benefits - ie, keeping the leather trade in a certain region busy with government contracts.

I suspect that using leather may have been more expensive on average. (This is the conclusion that is stated in French report on manufacturing field gear with leather versus cotton that I have seen.)