Backpack M41?

**Adrian Stevenson** · 01-13-2010, 02:06 PM

Hi Mike, this is great. Thanks very much.

Cheers, Ade.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 01-13-2010 02:06 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**RedHorseman25** · 01-13-2010, 07:52 PM

I am just tossing out an idea. Perhaps the leather shoulder straps are a repair job, rather than an issue item.

Boridin

**Adrian Stevenson** · 01-13-2010, 11:46 PM

Hi Boridin, no, I think this one is made that way. See how all the leather and the stitching match.

Cheers, Ade.

**Pawlito** · 01-14-2010, 02:47 PM

The shoulder straps are not repaired. They are made so. If you want I can post more pictures.

Paul

**RedHorseman25** · 01-14-2010, 06:06 PM

by Adrian Stevenson

Hi Boridin, no, I think this one is made that way. See how all the leather and the stitching match.

Cheers, Ade.

Just a thought.

Boridin

**Krzysiek** · 10-28-2010, 09:17 AM

It`s my best shot of this year. It`s very rare itiem in Poland. I`m collecting russian militaria for few years and It`s second time I saw this backpack on polish on-line auction. It`s possible that this one was used by solder of First Polish Army in CCCP.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 11-27-2012, 09:51 AM

Hi Krysiek, an old thread I know, but the pack you posted never got a comment.

Nice item.

The straps which would have fastened to the D rings on the early ammo pouches have been cut off. This is not unknown. Possibly from post war use as a knapsack.

Cheers, Ade.

**Krzysiek** · 11-27-2012, 05:25 PM

Thanks for reply

**Litzmannstadt** · 10-14-2017, 01:35 PM

by Wesley's Dad

Ade,

I think the nomenclature you have shown here is more or less correct. There are other differences between the two that you do not mention. The M39 is semi-rigid in that it has a stiffened base, and as result the pack is not very expandable. The M39, fully complete, has a small, removable belt hook attached via a buckle on the bottom of the pack.

When issued the M39 also came with 3-4 small auxillery pouches to organize the interior contents. These pouches are shown in "Field Equipment of the Infantry" by Robert Fisch. I made contact with this author some years ago and I have a color photo of these small pouches in my archives somewhere. I will locate it and post here. Mr. Fisch spent much of his career as the curator of arms at the West Point Museum here in the US. He has been a longtime colletor and had built most of his collection by the time his book was published in the 1980's. In speaking to him, many of his items (Soviet) were aquired in the 70's and 80's from the storied American collector George Peterson and come from George's early hunting and buying activity in Germany during those decades. Fisch's M39 pack as shown in his book, is absolutly 100% unissued condition and these four packs were found folded neatly inside when he aquired it. I am confident that they were in fact issued as part of the pack. Again, I will post the color photo when I locate it.

Bumping this odl thread as I curious about those content bags of the soviet M39 and M41 backpacks. Did you found the photos you was writing about ?