Your thoughts on belts and holsters wanted please...

[Brett Dixon]

Hi All,
With too much time on my hands while on holidays, I started thinking about what is a correct wartime Soviet Officers belt and holster?
I have always tended to think that the Officer belts with rivets were post war, similar to the german ones. I have seen many post war dated Soviet Officer belts with the rivets, and maybe that's why I came to that conclusion....however, what is the general opinion about what is wartime and what is post war? Where do the Officer belts with no rivets fit in? Pre war maybe? Late war? To be honest, I am totally at a loss to say exactly what period any of the belts are.....
And then I began to consider what is a war time Soviet Officers holster meant to look like? I have seen ones with no rivets in the belt loops, and ones with rivets and "D" rings on the belt loops.
I have poured through literally hundreds of wartime pictures and posts here on the forum, and all I can say is that i found maybe 3 pictures that were good enough to see with any detail the construction of the holsters worn by officers. All of them seem to have the rivets and "D" rings, so I assume they are wartime, but what about the holsters with no rivets and "D" rings? Once again, are they pre war? Or post war?
Also, is it correct to say that the pebbled finish holsters were used during the war as well, or are they a post war type holster?

I have attached some pictures of the 2 types of holster and belts, hopefully I can get some feedback on this subject as it's confusing to say the least.



Regards,
Brett

[Brett Dixon]

Some officer belts

[Brett Dixon]

Holsters in wear, although impossible to tell if they have a pebble grain finish or not........