BW Zeltbahn's

[CBH]

great finds chris, your pair both have the peg packs is there a maker stamp on yours mate ?

From the same litter as yours James

[James C]

Thanks steve i should know the answer before i ask but just wanted to double check if there were any trooper's who might of deviated from the set up you show ,as for the book i remember quickly leafing through your copy but i do know now what i will be asking from santa this year

Excellent chris so we have the same maker ,thanks for showing yours to confirm

regards james

[reneblacky]

Lovely James-- sorry I just found this post! Are these zelts of the same lay out design as the BGS type?

[M422A1]

Both sides are amoeba pattern... reversible Summer/Autumn, both are the same just different colours...........
These are now getting hard to find, many are being cut up and being made into caps (which never existed!) and helmet covers by unscrupulous dealers ! these zelts are great early examples of BW equipment to have in a collection, well done to find two James !
By the way, no splinter pattern zelts were made available to the BW, only a similar pattern to the BGS....olive and Flecktarn zelts were used in the 60's through to now.
Prost ! Steve.

A lot of these were also cut up to make smocks & helmet covers for the Waffen SS soldiers in "A Bridge Too Far".

[collectinsteve]

Bumping this to add some interesting facts. This trapezoidal design with hood and peg pouch was used for the following items:

1. BW 1956 Amoebatarn
2. BW Flecktarn
3. Belgian Moon and Balls (predecessor to Brush)
4. Belgian Jigsaw (successor to Brush)
5. Swiss Leibermuster (standard)
6. Swiss Leibermuster (bicycle rider - has sleeves)

All of these, except #2, were produced in the 1950s only. The Swiss ones were, I think, made in Switzerland the rest were made by 2 (or more) German firms. The Bundeswehr switched to an olive drab/gray type between the two camo types.

Of course other nations used the trapezoidal shape (which the US, as far as I know, first used in WW2), but as far as I know nobody else had the hood/bag and peg bag system like these.

Steve

[James C]

Steve many thanks for your valued input id like to hear your thought's on something that i noticed between two hood/bags i have ,one seems to show a dominant black amoeba pattern while the other seems sparse on the darker pattern even when i show the summer reverse side ?

[collectinsteve]

The hood on the right is "defective" One of the unique aspects of 1950s BW Amoebatarn, BW Splintertarn (Narrow), BW Splintertarn (Broad), BW Splintertarn (Snow), and BW Leibermuster is the use of two black rollers in the printing. One was set to 100% color the other was designed to allow roughly 75% through. They were designed to be two halves of a whole shape. The effect breaks up the black to be less solid, which is good from a camouflage standpoint.

If you look closely you'll see ghost images of the 75% black on the cover on the right. If you examine it next to your other hood you'll find the black patterns match. I can see such a match myself from your pictures.

What this says is that when printing the cloth used on the right something either went wrong or they decided to experiment with less black. I had a Leibermuster jacket with a panel without the 75% being used at all! My guess is something went wrong as I'd expect to see more of this variation if it was intentional. Remember this was the last pass in the printing process so if they messed up the black they would be faced with tossing cloth that already had 100% cost input. My experience is these things become "good enough" at that point.

Oh, and another interesting thing is that the black roller is not synched with the other rollers. This is on purpose and was part of the original WW2 Leibermuster pattern. The roller was made in a smaller diameter than the others so that the black is not in a consistent spot. Some Swiss Leibermuster cloth runs are also like this, but most have the black in traditional predictable location.

Steve

[James C]

Steve Many thanks for clearing that up you know the thought never crossed my mind to a defect in the printing process i also failed to notice the ghost printing as you kindly pointed out but do see it now ,the hood on the left is being passed on to a friend so i will tell him the good news we i see him
i have a huge amount to learn on camo patterns but i do see echoes of the Leibermuster in other nations camo designs,would you know of more example's off hand ?,ive often thought the czech vz 95 shows some similiarities or perhaps im confusing myself with US m81 woodland pattern ,one thing for sure camo is a fascinating subject matter

[collectinsteve]

I don't think I've ever seen a hood like that so it took me a little head scratching myself

Leibermuster was only produced by Germany (there's an odd connection to Belgium, but forget that) and Switzerland. The next closest thing is a reversible sniper/scout set from Czechoslovakia from the late 1950s into the early 1960s (use, production was probably 1950s only).

Steve