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    more private BW pics


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    Uwe,

     

    Now you have made me look closer I see they are FN rifles!  At a casual glance I thought G3 at first.  Perhaps these soldiers are not even German, some sort of competition perhaps.

    Edited by Jock Auld
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    My impression, based on uniforms, etc., is that those photos are actually pre-1961; perhaps mid-late 1950s.  From my personal observation at Wildflecken, some Bundeswehr Soldiers were armed with Belgian-made FN rifles as late as 1963.

    Thanks for the info, envelope states Fursten???brück 1961, it is only pened on so could be wrong.

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    Chances are good the photos are from 1961.  I was thinking they may have been taken earlier & developed in 1961.  In terms of personal equipment, weapons, uniforms, etc., the Bundesheer was a new & dynamic organization in the 1950s & early 1960s.  A lot of insignia items were adopted & changed during those years.  Originally, West German Infantrymen wore crossed rifles insignia, reminiscent of that worn by U.S. Infantrymen.  That didn't last long & was soon replaced by traditional German "two-ribbon" collar insignia w/branch of arm colors.  By 1963, high, pull-on "dice-box" boots had replaced the original British-style lace-up short boots w/gators.  Early West German Soldiers wore "splinter" camouflage (not unlike the Wehrmacht) field uniforms replaced shortly thereafter by heavy wool dark-olive field uniforms referred to as "the felt louse" because of their rough, itchy texture.  Given that all, or nearly all, senior officers & non-commissioned officers were WW II Veterans, uniform items were influenced by Wehrmacht experience.  In the early 1960s, for example, West German military police wore traditional "chain dog" plaques, hanging by a chain around their necks, to identify themselves a MPs.

    Edited by Long Thrust VI
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