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A) and B) Soviet made Finnish captured ammo pouches for M91/30 rifle.
C) Tsarist pattern pouch for M/91 rifle that were left in Finland
after 1918 conflict.
D) Continue war era rubber/canvas pouch, Finnish made.
E) Finnish made leather pouch from several manufacturers, it is made
from thicker leather and has rougher patterning than German ones.
F) German WW1 ammo pouch that was the most common ammo pouch in Finland.
These came to Finland from different ways and are made by several makers
between 1914-18.
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Beside is a picture from different cloth cartridge belts. These were
common in Finnish Civil war but during the Continuation war when there was
a great shortage of leather the Army had to make these cloth belts again.
Asevarikko 1, Oy Vyö- ja Nahkateollisuus and Partolan Kenkätehdas
made these 105.000 pieces in all.
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Maker's markings in Polish made ammo pouch.
Finland had also Polish made pouches, these were almost identical to the German ones.
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Finnish maker "Loimaan nahkatehdas" marking and year 1928
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Finnish maker "Friitala" marking and year 1928
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different "Friitala" marking with year 1928, there is also pouches without makers marks just only year 1928
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Later Friitala ammo pouch.
Probably wartime issue, leather is thinner and front straps are attached by using rivets.
Only marking is Friitala´s deer logo in the front.
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In peacetime used ammo pouch had one of these wooden blocks, it was
used to help to disassemble the rifle lock.
Finnish and German pouches are made for 45 cartridge. In 1940 Finnish
rifle man had 90 rounds. Later in the Continuation war a soldier had
only 45 rounds, sniper had also 45 (15 tracers, 15 armor piercings and
15 normal rounds).
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Finnish Y-straps
These are meant for those units that don´t have normal
tornister or backpack, this means only cavalry and jaeger troops. M/22
y-straps are made from natural color leather and all metal parts are
made from brass. M/27 y-straps are similar like M/22 except color that
is now dark brown, markings are for example INT/29 and Friitala´s
logo. On the right side is later and modified model. These are made from
green leather and metal parts are steel. They are also wider on the
shoulder. Makers for these later ones are army depots and Friitala.
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Army belt M/22
In 1919 first belts were natural brown and 5 cm wide, they had a simple
buckle. Officer's and soldier's buckles for M/22 belt is shown in the
picture beside. Officer's M/22 belt were 4.5 cm wide, made from natural
color leather. The diameter of the duckle was also 4.5 cm and it was
made from copper. Shoulder strap was 25 cm wide in the middle and the
ends were 20 cm wide. Style is quite close to the German officer's belt
Soldier's belt is made also from natural color leather. Otherwise it is
exactly same like M/27 belt.
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M/27 and M/30 belts
M/27 belt is made from dark brown leather and it is 4.5 cm wide. Buckle
is black (48 * 68 mm) and same as in M/22. Belt's length is marked in
the end of the same side where the buckle is attached. M/30 is also
4.5 cm wide dark brown belt, but it has simple brass roller buckle.
Because M/30 was simplier to made (especially during the wars) it
replaced M/27 belt. SKY had own roller buckle belt from 1919 to the
end and these are marked with SY or SKY, year and maker's marks,
often Friitala.
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M/27 Officer's belt is 5.5 cm wide, shoulder strap is 27 mm wide in the
middle and the ends are 23 mm wide. It is made from dark brown leather
and it has only one brass ring in the side to attach sword (postwar
M/52 has two rings). There are some little differences between makers
and making periods. Some have stitches in the border like in the picture.
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It is often seen Finnish captured Soviet belts M/32 and M/35 in
wartime pictures but those belts are more like souvenirs, not officially
distributed belts.
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This type belt is often worn by SKY officer and Mannerheim himself.
Swedish officers seemed to have similar style belts so is it presumably
Swedish origin.
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