Danish M45 Webbing?

Hello everyone, I've been collecting US and UK/commonwealth webbing for twenty years or near about. I've purchase many lots of 37 pattern webbing and I occasionally get pieces of post-war Danish, Dutch, Italian and Belgian webbing that I have been saving in a box. Now I've started to learn about it.

I've been reading over the posts that cover Danish webbing M45/50 and M45/59 and I found them very informative. I have a few questions, is there an M45 webbing? What was the wartime UK/commonwealth 37 pattern called, is that M45.

I also found these photos of Home Guard soldiers with what looks like cartridge carriers. In one of the photos, three soldiers seem to have the M45/50 ammunition pouches. One of those soldiers has a Madsen LMG so I'm thinking the other two soldiers are his assistant gunners. Was unmodified UK/commonwealth 37 pattern used by the home guard? I'm unsure if some of the webbing is Danish or UK/commonwealth. I also have a great interest in the US M1917 Rifles in Danish Home Guard service as 7.62 Gevaer M/53.

I want thank everyone for taking time to read this.

When was the last photo taken? The car looks fairly modern. I did not know the Danes used the M1917. I always see this rifle used by China in WW2 and the UK home guard.

It was taken sometime in the 1950's or maybe early 60's, I think. In 1953 the Danish Home Guard adopted the U.S. M1917 rifle as the 7.62 Gevaer M/53 to replace the mix of rifles they were then using; which were mostly 6.5mm M1896 Rifles on loan from Sweden. They got the M1917's from Norway, Canada and the UK and traded off their stocks of British rifles, the M1896 rifles went back to Sweden. Beginning in the late 1950's, most but not all of the M/53 rifles had their front sight blades replaced with a larger post front sight; some rifles remained in service unmodified throughout their service. The M/53's were replaced by H&K G3's in 1975 but they didn't totally leave service until the early 80's at least.

The Danish government originally wanted the arm the Home Guard with U.S. M1903A3 Rifles, however the Home Guard wasn't under NATO command and didn't receive equipment under that system, nor did the U.S. Government provide the rifles as aid under MAP. They offered to sell the rifles to Denmark but the cost was too high and the Danes settled on the M1917 rifles instead. I guess neither country felt that the juice was worth the squeeze.

The Danish Army postwar adopted the No 4 Enfield rifles as the 7.7 Gevaer M/45E these were supplemented with numbers of No 1 and No 3 rifles and some U.S. M1 rifles. The British rifles were replaced when the Army adopted U.S. M1 Rifles as 7.62 Gevaer M/50, I believe that all M/50's procured after 1955 came from Italy. I'd be curious to know when the M/45E's were fully phased out.

Both the Army and the Home Guard used Madsen LMG's in 30.06 and later 7.62x51mm MG3's, with H&K G3's from 1975. I know Demark also had some German weapons left over after the war but I have no idea what became of them or the Danish Krags.

To keep it simple.

Yes there are not only one, but two M/45 "webbing" set: M/45E(English) or M/45S (Swedish).

After WWII Denmark bought a lot of surplus British equipment as part of a larger acquisition plan.
Denmark had promised to help the UK after the war had ended, and were to supply a contingent of Danish soldiers to the British occupational forces in Germany. This would free up British veterans that could return home earlier than expected. As part of this deal, and because the Danish soldiers were to be work alongside the British forces, they were equipped with the British Patt. '37 webbing. In Denmark named the M/45E.

However, a small, but well equipped, exile army had been training in Sweden between 1943-1945 (DANFORCE). Upon returning to Denmark in May 1945 they brought with them a lot of Swedish equipment. The LBE of the former DANFORCE was used in the late 40's early 50s as the M/45S.

/M55q

Thank you for your insight, I wasn't aware of the Swedish equipment. Was the M45E mostly British made or were Canadian items seen too?

TimB wrote:When was the last photo taken?  The car looks fairly modern.  I did not know the Danes used the M1917.  I always see this rifle used by China in WW2 and the UK home guard.

Triumph Herald was in production from1959, through to 1971.

CRjackson37 wrote:Thank you for your insight, I wasn't aware of the Swedish equipment. Was the M45E mostly British made or were Canadian items seen too?

I have come across ex-British webbing components with Danish markings, but not any Canadian pieces yet. Still, it seems entirely possible that some Canadian-made items were part of the mix in the early days.

Antarmike wrote:

TimB wrote:When was the last photo taken?  The car looks fairly modern.  I did not know the Danes used the M1917.  I always see this rifle used by China in WW2 and the UK home guard.

Triumph Herald was in production from1959, through to 1971.

Thats why I love these forums, I had no idea what sort of car that was, now we can narrow down the date range. Thank you.


Wolverine, thanks for posting, I'm really getting into Danish equipment and I'm still learning much, I have a British made / Danish modified respirator bag remarked CF. This is a nice field to collect and its pretty affordable. I'm getting together a Home Guard set up for display since I have the M1917 rifle and associated items.

CRjackson37 wrote:Thank you for your insight, I wasn't aware of the Swedish equipment. Was the M45E mostly British made or were Canadian items seen too?

As Wolverine already pointed out most of it was British made. With the odd Canadian item thrown in. E.g. I have a couple of Canadian made cartridge carriers with Danish stamps.  

The M/45E were used to equip the Home Guard when the M45-50 was introduced.

Home Guard 1950s 1960s:

And I really must recommend the digital collections of the National Museum of Denmark:
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/objectbrowse?collection=THM&media=image,rotation&keyword=Danmark,webbing

They don't get everything right with the nomenclature. But it is great resource non the less.

CRjackson37 wrote:

Antarmike wrote:

TimB wrote:When was the last photo taken?  The car looks fairly modern.  I did not know the Danes used the M1917.  I always see this rifle used by China in WW2 and the UK home guard.

Triumph Herald was in production from1959, through to 1971.

Thats why I love these forums, I had no idea what sort of car that was, now we can narrow down the date range. Thank you.


Wolverine, thanks for posting, I'm really getting into Danish equipment and I'm still learning much, I have a British made / Danish modified respirator bag remarked CF. This is a nice field to collect and its pretty affordable. I'm getting together a Home Guard set up for display since I have the M1917 rifle and associated items.

If you are looking for any spare pieces let me know, as we are on the same side of the Atlantic, and I have quite a few duplicates.

Two of my later sets, incomplete but coming along. I noticed in some of the 1980's era photos that soldiers were wearing very minimal sets and not carrying bayonets. These set ups were based on photos of soldiers with M59 and rubberized sets in 1980's training exercises. Was the older M45/50 still in use much by the 1980's? What is the designation for the rubberized gear?

CRjackson37 wrote:Two of my later sets, incomplete but coming along. I noticed in some of the 1980's era photos that soldiers were wearing very minimal sets and not carrying bayonets. These set ups were based on photos of soldiers with M59 and rubberized sets in 1980's training exercises. Was the older M45/50 still in use much by the 1980's? What is the designation for the rubberized gear?

Looking good.
As time went by many of the regulars used very minimalist sets.
Bits and pieces from the old M/45-50 set were still in use. Especially the belt, braces, water bottle carriers, and small/large packs.
In reality, it was a bit of a mix-and-match when it came to personal gear in the 1980s and early 1990s (until the introduction of the M/96).


Conscripts, Royal Guards, 1989:



Personal gear, Home Guard, 1980s:


Conscripts, early 1990s:


Conscripts, Royal Guards, 1990s: (The Conscripts in the Royal Guards transitioned to the M/75 riffle in 1995)

Thank you for the reply.

I've gotten a few more lots of equipment including small and large packs.

Small packs, with FKF, HTK, and HMAK markings. Can you tell me anything about the grey pack?



My large packs the rubberized pack is unmarked, two others are marked FKF and HMAK and one is British that was modified but still has writing on it.





I was also able to get my shovel, carrier and a few other items to add to my set.

In the pictures that I've studied I haven't noticed any of the soldiers with the darker green canvas gear. Most of the HMAK marked gear in my collection is darker green canvas and in unissued. The only HMAK marked items in my collection that seem to have been issued are a pack and the belts and they are more olive in color. Was the darker green equipment late production or was it held back until older stocks were exhausted; I see a lot of khaki equipment in 80's and 90's photographs.

I Was also wondering if the rubberized gear was intended as a stop gap until better gear was available? The canvas gear in my collection and the few pieces of M96 I have, are very well made. Was the rubberized gear contemporary with the HMAK marked items?

Some of the basic sets for the Home Guard. Set up for the Gevaer M/53. I'm not sure how accurate these set ups are, critiques are welcome.

M45/50, in some of the pictures I see Home Guards with one M45/50 ammunition pouch and one cartridge carrier and they were near Madsen gunners. I assume they were acting as assistant gunners? I'm not sure if carrying both would be correct. The bayonet really fits behind the canteen nicely.




A mixed set with a one green brace and one UK made brace, a British made belt, Canadian made respirator carrier "C.F." marked and an earlier canteen pouch ( M45? ) marked M.E.Co. I've seen pictures of Home Guards in the 70's with G3 and M1917 rifles so I'm not sure if mixing green equipment was seen in that era or if I need and earlier brace. Most of this gear is pretty well used.

The CF-marked lightweight respirator carrier would be a civil defence item. I believe that the grey haversacks/small packs were also intended for civil defence, but someone else may know better.

The grey 'Paksæk M/49' (i.e. the "small pack") was intended for the air force. Like the British blue-grey webbing.
Made in very limited numbers, but it is possible for tenacious collectors to collect an entire set of M/45-50 webbing in air force grey.

HMAK (Hæren Materielkommando), FKF (Forsvarets Krigsmaterielsforvaltning) and HtK (Hæren tekniske Korps) were more or less the same "organisation".
It changed names a number of times over the years. Somewhere I have a list of all possible abbreviations and when they were used. However, I do remember that HMAK was used between 1967 and 2008.

The rubberised equipment was not intended as a stopgap. But the quality was poor and the decision to switch to the British LBE of the 1980/the 1990s was made easier by the poor workmanship and quality. It was only made during the HMAK period (1970s-early 1990s)

It is more than "ok" to mix and match M/45-50 (khaki) and M/45-59 (OD-green) with each other. The M/45-59 was intended to replace the M/45-50 in the regular army. But that never really happened, and most regulars, conscripts and home guardsmen from the period don't really remember there being any difference. However, there exist two very distinct official regulations for the M/45-50 and M/45-59 Webbing Equipment and they were originally thought of as two different sets of webbing.
 
M/45-50:


M/45-59:

I didn't realize that a set of air force webbing existed. It must really be scarce, because I only ever see the grey packs!

Wolverine wrote:I didn't realize that a set of air force webbing existed. It must really be scarce, because I only ever see the grey packs!

I've only seen one belts, a single brace, and two cartridge carriers (albeit ruined) - and I used to own a small pack.

I've no idea how many sets were made.

I nearly got my newest set together, still researching what gas mask would be appropriate for this equipment set. I'm going to get a British or Canadian WW2 model for the earlier use.

Working on a Garand this month hopefully. I still need bayonets as well. I've mostly sorted out the rifles though. I'm probably not going to get into the pistols or MG's deactivated or otherwise.

Does anybody know when the Enfield No4 rifle (Gevaer/45E) was fully phased out of Army service for the M1 Garand (Gevaer/M50)?

My research is pointing me toward a Canadian C3 gasmask for use from the 1970's-1990's. Is this correct and would any C3 be fine or were Danish used masks specially marked? Were other masks used at that time by either the army or homeguard?

CRjackson37 wrote:My research is pointing me toward a Canadian C3 gasmask for use from the 1970's-1990's. Is this correct and would any C3 be fine or were Danish used masks specially marked? Were other masks used at that time by either the army or homeguard?

Yes. The Danish army and Home Guard used the C3 until it was succeeded by the FM12.
However, I don't know for how long the M/49-53 model soldiered on in the Home Guard.

I finally got the Garand, and am posting it with my set of m/45-59 webbing. Its mostly HTK marked. Not that it really matters. I'm not sure about the gasmask carrier.

I think the shovel carrier and bayonet adapter are m/45-50. The shovel carrier is FKF marked and was repaired later with the synthetic green webbing, that is heat sealed on the tip. I'm hunting down the later bayonet adapter. I'm not sure of the designation for the rifle sling. Its khaki and HTK marked, late 1950's? Late production m/45-50 after the FKF to HTK change over. Most m/45-50, I see has the earlier letter code and the latest FKF I've seen is dated 1957.

I decided mount the poncho carrier on the belt for this photo, instead of under the small pack. The bayonet is a post war unmarked example out of Greece, still looking for a WW2 US or Danish model.

A Canadian C2 gasmask is gonna be the next major purchase.

The C3 gasmask arrived along with some other small items. I've lucked into more grey webbing. One of the brace attachments looks british, the other I can't tell. I do have one grey HTK marked brace attachment in my collection.

Concerning the grey webbing. What kind of ammunition pouches and canteen pouch should I be looking for? The old m/45-50 style?

CRjackson37 wrote:I finally got the Garand, and am posting it with my set of m/45-59 webbing. Its mostly HTK marked. Not that it really matters. I'm not sure about the gasmask carrier.

I think the shovel carrier and bayonet adapter are m/45-50.  The shovel carrier is FKF marked and was repaired later with the synthetic green webbing, that is heat sealed on the tip. I'm hunting down the later bayonet adapter. I'm not sure of the designation for the rifle sling. Its khaki and HTK marked, late 1950's? Late production m/45-50 after the FKF to HTK change over. Most m/45-50, I see has the earlier letter code and the latest FKF I've seen is dated 1957.

I decided mount the poncho carrier on the belt for this photo, instead of under the small pack. The bayonet is a post war unmarked example out of Greece, still looking for a WW2 US or Danish model.

A Canadian C2 gasmask is gonna be the next major purchase.

Looks good!
I know many want a "clean" M/45-50 or M/45-59 set. In reality, the troops (especially the conscripts) were issued whatever was in stores. As is evident by period photos.
The Gas mask carrier is the last model. The first model came in a green/greyish canvas. But looked almost identical.
However, it was only water resistant. Not ideal (see attached):