Documenting Flächentarn/Blumentarn equipment

Ehrentitle (Kevin) made a great suggestion that someone should start up a thread to document the various bits of equipment in Flächentarn/Blumentarn and Strichtarn.  I have a bunch of Flächentarn pics handy so I figured I might as well start it off!

I'm anxious to see what sorts of variants and rare things people have. I'm also always interested in learning more about the items I have.

First, my most rare (and large) piece is a full mine detector set:





RPD dual drum pouch:





Pack for mobile troops (older type with leather parts):






Pack for mobile troops (later type with camo parts):



2nd Model backpack:



Dispatch bag:



Gasmask bag (I'm lucky to have one fully loaded):



SKS pouches:



3 cell AK magazine pouch:



2 cell AK magazine pouch:



Canteen:



Other stuff I have, but don’t have pictures of;

1st Model backpack
Poineer demolition line checker in custom case

Steve

Steve, Great stuff! Now I have to get motivated to find my boxes with my Blumentarn equipment.

Here are a few quick photos of my Blumentarn hood, often used as a helmet cover.  

The hoods are surprisingly rare and go for stupid amounts of money these days! In fact, if any of you are looking for a hood... beware there are fakes out there. People have cut up shelter halves or beat jackets and used the cloth for a hood. A really good faker would take a common Strichtarn type and steal the mesh and component pieces out of it. That would make for a very difficult to spot fake.

Steve

Steve, I'm aware of that possibility. This one does not have the mesh veil.  However it came from the estate of an elderly collector who did most of his collecting in the early 1990s. I know that is no guarantee of originality as the hard to find stuff has been faked for nearly two decades now.

Interesting! It is possible that these were "field made" during the late 1960s. Possibly because even by then they were difficult to find even within the NVA.

Steve

Blumentarn Era Zeltbahns.

Tan Zeltbahn, 1955 or 56 Ministerium des Innern (MdI).  The I looks like a J.  Before the establishment of the East German Army on 1 March 1956, military units were part of the Ministry of Interior and held police designations and ranks.





Blumentarn Zeltbahn, 1963

Here are a few of my Blumentarn uniforms that I was able to dig out so far.

1965 NVA Size 1, Lieutenant (Leutnant) with a collar, much harder to find than the ones with the hood...



1962 MDI Size 4, with a hood. Size 4 is the largest size and very hard to find.



Mint 1961 NVA Size 4 Pants with the original makers inspection tag.





1962 NVA Size 1 with hood and the rare early arm rank of Lieutenant (Leutnant) .

There is an outstanding German site that covers the evolution of the Flächentarn/Blumentarn uniforms and the associated equipment. If you don't speak German then Google Translate or other on-line translation programs make it relatively easy to understand.

http://www.flaechentarn.de/index.htm

Excellent examples! I have never been fortunate enough to find a jacket with legitimate arm rank or legitimate arm rank separately for sale. Closest I've come is some popped threads on a jacket where rank used to be. Not really the same thing

Nice finding a 1950s Zeltbahn. It's always nice to have the full lineage of a particular item.

Yup, that website kicks butt. The only tiny mistake I know of is that he states the first jacket without chest pockets was 1960. I have one dated 1959 (IV 59 IIRC). Very, vey minor point but it is useful to know because the seller had it advertised as a 1959 jacket and I first thought it was the type with chest pockets. But I bought it knowing what it was just to have it. I have a 1958 jacket, but so far not a 1959 variant with chest pockets.

Steve

My SKS and 2 cell Blumentarn Ammo Pouches.  Steve already posted his, so I thought I'd also include a shot of the backside of these pouches.

An interesting variation of the Blumentarn Sturmgepäck/Tornister (Backpack).  Originally I thought it was an RPG rocket carrying case.  However the Flächentarnuniform website shows it as a Sturmgepäck.  It's marked, but the date is a bit hard to make out, it looks like 1963.

Two more Blumentarn Sturmgepäck/Tornister (Backpacks) from my collection.

The first the standard issue. It was marked at one time, but the ink is so faded that the date is unreadable.





The second is a bit unusual. It's MdI marked 1965 on the bag and the black leather straps.

Excellent material, congratulations to you both.

There are two types of Strumgepäck; Infantry and Motorized.  The Infantry type has hooks for hanging on the Y-straps, the Motorized one does not.  The idea is the Motorized ones were designed to stay in the vehicles.  I think the idea is that the hooks for the Infantry type might get caught on things within the vehicle.  The Motorized type also has two sets of "female" buckles instead of the normal one type.

The infantry type comes in two types. The 1. Modell has a square padded back and opens up fully, the 2. Modell does not. The Strichtarn type is based on the 2. Modell.

There are also a few variations. I have a motorized type with real leather straps instead of the normal Blumentarn cloth type.

Steve

Here's an unusual piece I just received. It is a Pioneer demolition control unit in Blumentarn cloth. This device allows up to 24 individual charges to be linked to the unit. There is a control knob for the Pioneer to select which charges to blow. I haven't read the instructions, but I assume there is a way to set them all off at once. There is an option to test each line without detonating the explosives.





Steve

Very nice, I've never seen one before.

Fantastic.