My Collection- United States Army

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Ladies and gents I bring you the most worthless pack/haversack on the planet! If you saw Mailcall where they talked about the equipment of WWI doughboys they showed a POS pack. That was the Model M1910 Haversack... Guess what they used in WW2! The M1910 Haversack and the M1928 Haversack (which was the exact same except instead of one back strap like mine, it had two... not a big change and it didn't solve any of the problems of the original). Its not really that bad to have but its still a pain at times.

The M1910 Carrier hooks in on a flap on the back, usually underneath the meatcan pouch but you can find that soldiers would wear it in all kinds of styles. Sadly the d*** thing flaps around, so you can do a Sgt Saunders (Combat!) and use the bottom strap of the haversack to wrap the T-handle's Handle to the pack so it flops less.

Now lets open this puppy up!





We've just now started to open it and look inside. You can see the straps that hold the meatcan pouch on.







So there are my things (or some) packed for an event, normally I'll toss some K-rats and a bottle of water too, and more clothes. Which I remembered and then repacked in. Also the previous owner's name is there as well as where he's from. I want to find out who that man was and what unit he was in.





Added more stuff and now I have to hold it with my hand as I try to wrap the flaps around and stap it together. It is actually easier to do with more crap.

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The flap for the E-tool Carrier and the the grommets for the bayonet scabbard (which I have but since we aren't allowed to keep straight blades over 3" on base the bayonet scabbard and my M3 and scabbard are with a fellow unit member who watches my ammo and rifle too)

Finally, we can breathe easier!

The Haversack is an original and the E-tool and Carrier are Repros from At the Front.

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Shouldn't really have to explain this one to any of you all at all.... Yeah it makes me feel like Radar Its comfy, warm and nice to wear as padding underneath my helmet.

[Jim O]

Great collection that you have. How long have you been acquiring this gear?

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My M1 Helmet. Yes thats the Red Bull of the 34th Division. You look at pictures of the 34th and of the 100th Battalion/442nd RCT and you can see these guys were Red Bull mad!!! Many many pictures have soldiers of the 34th with their red bulls prominently displayed on their helmets.

The M1 is a 43+ at least because it has swivel bales (visible on the interior pic) versus the fixed welded bales of earlier helmets. Both the liner and helmet are originals and were bought from At the Front who put a new paint job on it. The Red Bull was done by our unit leader, Tim Kano. I have yet to get a helmet net. I want one like Telly Savalas in Kelly's Heroes. One of the guys has a rip in his helmet just like Caje from Combat! so we figured we could make the Hollywood pair.

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My latest acquisition. The postwar history of the "Famous" 34th...

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Jim I started re-enacting and buying gear about Last March. My collection has ballooned since then and even though they are a bit pricey (compared to Civil War) they uniforms are high quality and are very much like originals in almost every aspect to the point where the owner of At the Front purposely does things to his uniforms (he used to make totally real QM tags, now he doesn't) to prevent them from being marketed as the real deal.

Now to Marine!

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Ardennes, 1944. I'm wearing wools with my HBT coat between my 41 and wool shirt. Wearing it there makes it the regular layer and between the 41 and the HBT coat they keep the wind out and keep me dry. Sadly I was stuck with wet and cold legs with only the wools. Me and another guy were tasked with setting up trip mines around our positions so I was travelling light and ditched my pack and carried only a British Made M1936 Musette Bag with extra ammo grenades and my camera (the Green OD General purpose strap is visible on my right shoulder) but this was borrowed from a friend. You will notice I am wearing black overboots, those were also borrowed. Normally we are supposed to keep our helmets on in the field but the enemy was nowhere near and I needed to see to work. I am carrying my M1 and cartridge belt. You can see my added items. I have an M3 Fighting knife and M8 Scabbard tucked into my boot with the top tied to my leg by the leather thong (its normally worn off of the belt and there is a hole where the thong can be fed through to tie it down to your thigh). I am wearing my Civil war knit gloves (they are from mom if anyone asks) and I'm wearing battlefield pickup snow goggles (thankfully I bought these from a vendor at the event for my German impression they were a godsend to have out there at Navajo). Sadly our booby traps were moot and were never crossed.


Tunisia 1943. Before I bought HBTs. I took my wool shirt off and just wore my 41 over that to keep the stickers and rocks out, but kept slightly cool. Prior to a patrol. You can see the dried sand/dirt on my helmet that I'd done to take the shine out of it, which also covers up the AAAO of the 39th Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division.



Anzio. You can see the variance in color of uniforms and gear here.

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Almost forgot that part. Its where I try and keep 90% of my gear and stuff (though its slowly getting to be too much). But its an officers footlocker and original and still has the shipping address to NY and the name, service number and address of the man it belonged to. I just need to try and discern the black letters from the dark dark green paint.

EDIT: N/M the flash brought the lettering out almost perfect!

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Update!

Poking around on Ancestry.com I managed to find a few things out about my two historical owners.

Sadly all I got for Major Moreau was a census done when he was very young, but he did live in California and in the LA area which would justify the Santa Ana address...

But for Mr. Lenihan. Interesting things I've dug up on him. He'd signed a card for the 1942 Draft, This was a draft meant for men between the ages of 42-65. I kid you not. Mr. Leo Patrick Lenihan from Barberton, Ohio, was 49 when he signed for the draft. But here's the interesting part. He served in WWI! In a collection of Ohio Records for "Ohio Military Men" there is this entry:

Replacement U 305 Motor Transport Corps to 6 Nov 1918;
Service Park Unit 460 Motor Transport Corps to Discharge Corporal 1 Dec 1918.
Honorable discharge 5 March 1919.

Now I know a little more about the original owner of my haversack.