Pistolhylster M/46 - Danish holster for the FN Browning M/1935

A straight forward holster design, as seen with the British and Americans at the time. 

With a classic "lift the dot" button, and made of a thick cotton duck with heavy stitching. Made to last.

( Picture borrowed from Arma Dania ) 

The FN Browning M.1935 was purchased / given to the newly formed Danish army post WWII. The Germans had taken almost all the pistols and small arms in the Danish inventory, and the Danish army took a look around the world for some replacement weapons. There was plenty to chose from, since the market almost overflowed with weapons post WWII. 

The army already used Swedish and British pistols and revolvers, but the army wanted to standardise, and chose the FN Browning as the standard side arm. In 1949 they opted for the M49 Neuhausen (SIG SAUR) instead, but did not replace the FN Broning and the M/46 and M/49 soldiered on in the Danish army for decades. It is said that the M/46 was finally retired in 2000? Some say it is still in use.  

The holster is a straight forward webbing holster, in a karkee colour. 

Webbing was used without blanco in Denmark, as opposed to the British army. This made life considerably easier for the conscripts, as they only had to clean, and not re-blanco the equipment. 

You can carry the holster in two ways. 

With the C-hooks straight onto the belt, or with a shoulder strap attached to the buckles at the top of the holster, and slung over the shoulder. 

The holster has a nice quality feel over it, and it is most likely produced by the Danish company KitKat founded by the old Major Anton Hvidt. He bought some old machines from the British Mills Equipment Company post war, and made a lot of the replacement equipment for the Danish army. 

He was responsible for the contact between the Danish army /government and the British filial of Mills Equipment Company in the first years after the war, and one of the men behind the M45-50 webbing equipment. 

 Small pockets for cleaning equipment and bit and pieces, and a larger pocket for a spare magazine. 

Small internal pocket for the cleaning rod.

Danish M/46 helmet

M/46 helmet 

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The M/46 helmet was a failed attempt to make a helmet to replace the large amount of British Mk. II's, Mk. III's, Mk. IV's and Swedish M/37 in service with the Danish army in the aftermath of WWII.  

Production began in 1946 and was undertaken by the company Glud og Marstrand. The same company that produced the M/23 helmets before the war.
Right after the war they had begun production again and approximately 4700 M23/41 helmets for the navy were produced. Glud og Marstrand were the only company in Denmark with the capacity to produce the M/46 helmets in the numbers needed.

The M/46 helmet borrowed the shape of the shell from the Swedish M/37 helmet. For the untrained eye they look almost similar. The liner is often the best way to tell which one is which. The M/46 were made with two different type of liners. The first liners were scavenged Mk. II helmet liners! Later they made a US Style liner with webbing and plastic for the helmets used by the civil defence. Both type M/46 helmets used a US style chinstrap. Made out of khaki webbing. 

The chinstrap bales are fixed and spot-welded in place making the straps prone to breaking when used over a long period of time.  

They are found with a greyish / green coarse paint job. ( they mixed the paint with sand) and a smotth grey paint job. (For CF use) 

A total of 30.000 helmets were produced, and most ended up with the navy (they stopped using them in 1951) and the Civilforsvaret (civil defence). It was never adopted by the army (officially), since they adopted the US M1 helmet in 1948. (M/48)  

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Above: The front of the helmet.

Above: The rear of the helmet

Above: The interior. Notice the Mk. II helmet liner. 

Above: The chinstrap and buckle. It is made out of webbing and brass.

Above: Chinstrap bale... Spot-welded in place. 

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 Above: Swedish M/37 helmet for comparison.

Danish M/49 gas mask

The mask with associated equipment: 1. Filter M/47, 2. Gas mask M/49, 3. anti dimming cloth, 4. Carrier 164.115-4, 5. two pair of protective goggles, 6. Manual, 7. Cleaning cloth.  

Remember! you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it! 

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The Danish M/49 gas mask is one of these items that everyone knows exist, but no one owns.

I was lucky enough to find one, with all the different items that normally are missing + the altered British carrier used together with the mask. (see the first picture) 

The mask is a re-design of the Danish M/38 gas mask that the army used from 1938 and until 1943. The M/38 (as did the M/31) saw some post war usage, but it was quickly replaced by this mask.

The stopped covering the mask in cloth, and the eyepieces can no longer be unscrewed to put in anti fogging discs. Instead they introduced an anti-dimming cloth. 

The mask is made of a one pice rubber part, an intake / exhale valve assembly, two eyepieces and a rather comprehensive strap system. The strap system exactly the same type of strap system used on the M/38 mask. All metal parts are made of aluminium, and the exhale / inhale valve assembly is down to the smallest detail the same as the M/38 mask.

The carrier is an interesting item, since it has been altered to meet Danish requirements. 

The C-hooks were cut off together with the shoulder strap rings. The C-hooks were then placed vertically together with two green webbing straps and two new buckles. This made it possible to carry the carrier in a vertical position, instead of the horizontal position as the British intended.      

 

Danish M48 helmet / Hjelm M48 ( US M1 helmet and Austrian clone)

Danish M48 clone helmet - made in 1965 by USCH

Medic helmet cover from 1963

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In the first years after WWII, the Danish army used three main types of helmets. The British "turtle" helmet + the Mk II and the Swedish M/37. We tried to produce our own helmet, the M/46, however the Danish army decided to introduce the American M1 helmet instead. It was cheap and well made. It remained the standard combat headgear in the Danish army until 1992 when the first kevlar helmet, produced by Schubert in Germany, and the first flak jacket was introduced.

The M1's were in the beginning surplus WWII helmets. A small Danish production run was begun in 1957. These helmets were made of magnetic steel, and came with a Bakelite liner. All of them went to the civil defence, since they were deemed unusable by the army. In 1965 the Danish army received the first German and Austrian produced M1 clones. These helmets are known as the M/48-65.

The Danish M1 clones were produced by:

Austria: Heinrich Ulbricht's Witwe, Schwanenstadt (stamp: U.SCH)

Germany: Linnemann Schnatzer, Ahlen (stamp: LS)

Germany: Busch Vereinigten Deutsche Nickelwerke AG Schwerte (stamp: VDN)

In the beginning the helmet liner were the old "resin" ones, but later, the old WWII helmets and clones were given a hard plastic liner produced from 1963 in Denmark by Dansk Kunststof Industri - DKI. They were of a higher quality that did not dissolve in the humid Danish weather like the resin ones. They liners were made of fibreglass impregnated with coloured polystyrene, and were made in three different colours: Green (army), grey (civil defence) and blue (navy). Later DKI produced a high visibility orange liner for the Civil defence. The liners were able cope with temperatures ranging from -30 to +40 degrees Celsius. DKI also sold the same helmet liner to the Norwegians, when they introduced the M1 helmet, as the M/58.

The helmets were usually used together with a cotton helmet net. The net was very similar to the US M/44 net.  All webbing parts were in a olive green shade, and all metal work on buckles etc were kept in brass. The helmets were made of a non-magnetic metal, the so called Mangalloy because of its high impact strength and resistance to abrasion. - WIKI: Mangalloy

If you want additional information on the M1 helmets, visit Mannie's blog.

http://www.combathelmets.blogspot.com/

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First helmet is a M1 -Front seam helmet made by McCord Radiators late in the war - late 1940s.
Heat stamp: 926A
Liner is of the 1963 DKI type, and the chinstraps are made of cotton webbing.
Colour: "apple green"
Buckles: Brass.

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Austrian clone shell made by USCH in 1965
Same type of liner, made by DKI.
Webbing straps on the liner is a cotton / nylon mix.
The chinstrap on the shell is the US M/73, with chin cup. It is made out of nylon and cotton webbing.