

Grenade Pouch
#1
Posted 26 December 2006 - 03:47 AM
Then I could remember something alike in an old MCF topic (reference section) and I found Charlie Flick posted a pic of this pouch hanging from a BAR belt.
Is this a coincidence or this pouch go married well with the BAR belt?
#2
Posted 26 December 2006 - 04:05 AM
2 x first aid tins perfectly per pouch
or
1 x smoke grenade perfectly per pouch
BUT one thing it is NOT is a grenade pouch, although they do fit it but are loose in the pouch.
Perhaps someone will come up with the 100% definition of it, but this pouch first surfaces in pictures around August or September 1944.
#3
Posted 26 December 2006 - 06:04 AM
#4
Posted 26 December 2006 - 09:00 AM
There is also a series of pics for experimental bags and pouches to carry grenades that is shown on MCF. They are the property of "army junk". I hesitate to post them without his permission and I'm not sure if he is a member here. The 3 pocket pouch with one LTD is shown in that group. You can do a search by his name and find them.
Ranger

OSS

#5
Posted 26 December 2006 - 09:24 AM
Anyway I think Robin's suggestion would be the right one without tripping too much with the mind: fragmentation grenade pouch. Maybe, from the collector point of view, a bit scarcer than the bigger one with two LTD.
#6
Posted 26 December 2006 - 10:59 AM
#7
Posted 26 December 2006 - 09:44 PM
#8
Posted 26 December 2006 - 10:30 PM
#9
Posted 27 December 2006 - 05:32 AM
#10
Posted 27 December 2006 - 06:52 AM
#11
Posted 27 December 2006 - 10:04 AM
Fact is I think I have just cracked what it is, an experimental pouch for holding additional "ammo" of various sorts or a combination of all.
#12
Posted 22 January 2007 - 03:02 PM
Well, that still hasn't changed. However, I have discovered a new pic---in color no less---showing a soldier in WW2 using the pouch with fragmentation grenades. The pic is below. The caption to the photo reads "Private demonstrates the use of the M2 hand fragmentation grenades and the bag that holds six of these types of grenades" (Credit: The photo is in the public domain and was located at www.historylink101.com.)
While this pic is not enough to put this debate to bed for good, I think the weight of evidence now indicates this pouch to be for frag grenades, and not for carlisle bandages, smoke grenades or the other suggested uses that have come up from time to time.
What do you guys think? Can we now proclaim this a fragmentation grenade pouch?

#13
Posted 22 January 2007 - 03:34 PM
Edited by craig_pickrall, 27 March 2007 - 07:52 AM.
#14
Posted 22 January 2007 - 03:34 PM
#15
Posted 22 January 2007 - 11:50 PM
It is not the same pouch as the triple grenade one featured above.

Edited by craig_pickrall, 27 March 2007 - 07:52 AM.
#16
Posted 23 January 2007 - 12:25 AM
The smaller 3 cell pouches were intended to be used as ammopouches for the half moon clips for the M17 S & W revolver, according to the revised version of "From Doughboy to GI", but the smaller 3 cell pouches were also used by individual medics as first aid pouches...
#17
Posted 23 January 2007 - 01:02 AM
#18
Posted 23 January 2007 - 01:24 AM
The USMC used their own double (not triple) pocket grenade pouch in the PTO by the way. This pouch has the USMC style belt hook on it.
Peter, you're mixing up two different pouches there - the S&W ammo pouch is not the same one as the triple first aid pouch (the S&W one is much smaller and fits onto the belt like a .45 auto magazine pouch).
Here's another pic of the triple "first aid" pouch in use that I've got on my website:

CG-4A Glider chalk no. 49, nicknamed Hump II, before Operation Market Garden. The two men in front of the glider are probably the C-47 Pilot and the Glider Pilot. The Gilder Pilot is wearing M43's, has flying goggles on his helmet and a Gas Arm Brassard on his left arm. He is also wearing a Triple First Aid Pouch on his left hip.
Edited by craig_pickrall, 27 March 2007 - 07:56 AM.
#19
Posted 23 January 2007 - 02:02 AM
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3333/doublepocketgrenadepoch0kn.jpg
<img src="http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/1369/doublepocketgrenadepoch8au.jpg border="0" class="linked-image" />
Note the typical USMC wire hook

#20
Posted 23 January 2007 - 02:29 AM


Hi Charlie Flick, Thanks for opening this particular can of worms. So far I dont think that anyone has turned up any conclusive written proof either way, as to the use of the single lift dot three pocket pouch. There's is no argument by anyone on the larger two lift-dot three pocket pouch, it's for grenades. The two variations of the three pocket pouches are totally different in size, width, depth and pocket shape ( i.e. Cadillac and Ford Pinto ).
The small three pocket pouch in ' Doughboy to G.I. ' was given to the author by a medical corpman who related that that is what he used it for, which was anecdotal evidence. The two different pouches are displayed here. On the flip side of this question, on this forum in a different section there is a post about Marines in early WWII using left over WWI corpsmans bandage belts to carry grenades, again I believe he states anecdotal veteran statement. How many anecdotal statements do you get about the helmet, headwear, cooking-pot, digging foxholes, washing bowl, etc, etc.
In 1979 I attended an Airborne reunion in Nijmegen Holland, I questioned a vet as to what he was wearing by 1944 in that area. He stated this large bag with lots of straps, I suggested the M-1928 pack. He was adament it was not that, I sensed I was pushing too hard so stopped questioning. five years later I turn up a photo, they were using ' jungle' packs, so do we say he was wrong that they were only used in Jungles, because that's what they are called, and he could not have used it, as he was ' Airborne' Cheers ( Lewis )
#22
Posted 23 January 2007 - 02:43 AM


Hello everyone again, I have heard several statements that the three pocket/ two lift dot grenade pouches were never used in Europe. In other posts one of our members has used the phrase ' Never say never' several times. Here is the front cover of ' American Rifleman July 1944 ', it shows a soldier in Italy 1944, and on his right hip can be seen the three pocket pouch.
The blurb inside says that the soldier is Sergeant Donald P. Hamilton from Oklahoma. it states that he has worn the American armband twice before, once Sicily and again at Salerno. I have seen this exact same photo in another wartime publication, it was taken at exactly the same time in the identical pose, but his armband had been slipped off. so at the same photo shoot they had photographed him with and without the armband for some reason. Cheers ( Lewis )
#23
Posted 23 January 2007 - 04:24 AM
That pouch looks to me like it is the single LTD pointed flap one - you can see the corners of the pointed flaps in the colour photo.
#24
Posted 23 January 2007 - 04:49 AM
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