Was SN-38 and SN-42 used by SS??

[Irish1965]

Hi guys,

Just finished making my SN-38 and SN-42 Russian body armor presentable. The SN-38 was dug up at the Narva front. The SN-42 was a battlefield found near Charkov.

I was told that the SN-38 body armor was used, after capture, by the SS on the Narva front in 1944. I have never seen pictures of these being used by the SS. In fact it's very hard to find photo's of Russian troops using these.

Note that the SN-42 had 13 impacts. Most frontal. And it worked. There are some lethal holes. These are, I think schrapnel impacts from the back.

So, does anyone has seen photographs of SS troops wearing Russian body armor??

Thx Paul

[Raul]

Interesting, saw one of these recently before quarantine. Also how much did you pay for both? Raul

[PapaStalin1943]

After doing some digging, I found out that they allegedly did. Although I could not find a picture of a German soldier wearing one, I found a Wikipedia page on soviet "steel bibs", that said they did. Heres a link to the Wikipedia page I found: Steel Bib - Wikipedia

I will also post a screenshot of the quote from the page here (click on the image to see it better, I don't know why it is so small):

[Irish1965]

Wow papastalin,

I understand that there was body armor produced by the German army for assault troops. Would be interesting to encounter that with a Krupp factory stamp or ET stamp.

Thx Paul

[Woolgar]

Interesting info

You would expect that many Red Army soldiers wore these fighting in the ruins of Stalingrad

Nick

[Woolgar]

The Soviet Armed Forces used several types of body armor, including the SN-42 ("Stalnoi Nagrudnik" is Russian for "steel breastplate", and the number denotes the design year). All were tested, but only the SN-42 was put in production. It consisted of two pressed steel plates that protected the front torso and groin. The plates were 2 mm thick and weighed 3.5 kg (7.7 lb). This armor was generally supplied to SHISBr (assault engineers) and Tankodesantniki. The SN armor protected wearers from 9×19mm bullets fired by an MP 40 at around 100 meters, and sometimes it was able to deflect 7.92 Mauser bullets (and bayonet blades), but only at very low angle. This made it useful in urban battles such as the Battle of Stalingrad. However, the SN's weight made it impractical for infantry in the open.

No SS in Stalingrad but I'm sure German troops would have worn them taken from fallen Soviet troops

Nick

[Irish1965]

Hi Raul,

I paid around 100,- euro for each. The SN-38 come from Estonia. As you have seen one plate is missing. It was replaced by a similar plate under the main breastplate. So it isn't complete. The leather I used to put the plates together, as they should be, was from a sovjet army belt that was broken. It was donated by a friend.



All in all I'm very happy with this addition to my collection. The SN-42 comes from the Ukraine. I put original sovjet gun belts to connect the two parts and a strip of linnen on the small plate for cosmetic reasons. Also a large part of the shoulder piece is gone.





They have it for me. Straight from the battlefield but I think they were a good buy.

(The purple strap is for hanging it onto the wall)

Why are you asking do you have one for sale?

Paul

[Irish1965]

I think there was a reference that SS troop at the Narva front used them. I'll try to find the info.

Paul