Jos Le Conté

Survival item to make shot down pilots visible at sea. The yellow paint is cracked and worn off at places, but the bag is still supple, no rips.. The bag you're looking at is just the watertight protection bag, inside there a linen bag with about 500 gram of red dye powder. The linen bag has a piece of rope connected at front which is sticking out off the yellow bag at one side. The yellow bag was pulled open and the linen bag was pulled out and it could easily be opened at the back where it was all tied together with a small piece of rope. The dye is very intense and a tiny bit will show a rather big colored spot in the water. Only few of these bags survived the war, ultra rare.. Many empty ones were found the last couple of years, but they were all in bad shape, except for a handful better ones. The 2,3 and more person life boats also had some dye bags among their equipment and also some flagpoles. Same for the flagpoles, ...ss-helmets by the dozen, but finding/buying a proper flagpole is impossible. Jos.

Escape compass.., can you tell me more ? Jos.

Hmm, the fabric looks rather blue-ish to me.. I agree Bundeswehr, but luftwaffe.. Jos.

In several collections I've spotted the gauntlet leather gloves with seperate " trigger finger " as related to airgunner... ..., but are they ?? Any pics available where we can see these gloves in action ? Jos.

Here's my " Summer set " . Jos.

Hi Paul, I personally don't know of any others sofar.. LBA means -Luftwaffe Bekleidungs Amt- , a kind of large depot.. Jos.

I've a era book about clothing rules etc. and it says this : LBA(S)= Sonneberg ( not Stuttgart ! ) LBA(B)= Berlin LBA(BF) = BieleFeld The LBA 3 isn't mentioned, might be added in a later stadium.. LBA 3= ? Jos.

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Here's a pair suspenders of mine.. They originally came with the outfit. Jos.

Looks fine to me from the pics.. Jos.

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Here's another one with crimped-in hinge and catch. Jos.

Yes, it looks like yours is a solid one.. This makes it 1 of 2 patterns of the same maker. Aluminum is rather soft, KupAl is much tougher, so it might have been used to improve the eagle..? The last eagle you're showing is a fake/fantasy one.. Jos.

I haven't seen a cap with cog wheel like this in era pics sofar, not saying they didn't exist, but the fact that quite some are in collections might be because they're copied from books. I've seen the cog wheel on jackets though.. Many caps are found without insignia and it's very tempting to convert one to a special one and make a few buck, the cog wheels can still be found. The fact they've prongs is very strange indeed, not usual for the jacket.., I also have seen them with 2 eyelets at the back to secure them with a splitpin.. Another riddle to solve, I think only a photo will help and who knows ? Quite some mysterys have been solved the last few years when a picture came to light.. Jos.

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We'll never know, I'm afraid.. Jos.

Super eagle, Peter..! 2.60 RM .., hmmm , that's cheap.. I had a 2nd model which read 3.90 at the back, that's quite a bit more...., but then you got life-time quarantee + COA ofcourse. Jos.

That's the most ugly bird I've ever seen.. They're nice heavy badges, but man, that bird.. Think OM means " Oh My.." ! Jos.

No, they're not maker marked.. I've 8 different types, I know of maybe 3 types more, but the only maker marked Summer eagles I've seen are Assmann. Then I've seen a early drooptail marked Steinhauer&L?ck as a logo, but only once and I've seen a similar early one with Juncker mark, but also only once. If I add up all I've seen there're 10/12 types max. , I guess.. I think the heavy early drooptail eagles are the most wonderful eagles there're.., but that's probably because I'm a Summer eagle fan.. Jos.

Then maybe it might be your's is totally aluminum.. This maker could've had different types.. Nevertheless a nice eagle. Jos.

I think I've the same one... KupAl is Kupfer/Aluminum... here you can see the sheet of metal.. Jos.

It's a KupAl eagle.., thin sheet of metal pressed over aluminum .. These are pretty nice.. Jos.