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The WWII M-1944 Wool Sleeping Bag System


rambob
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The nice Sleeping Bag Case find by kphfun in another post prompted me to post this general article about the M-1944 model Wool sleeping bag, case and liner. I hope you find it interesting and I am using my mint, unissued sleeping bag set as an example. The M-1944 wool sleeping bag system had three components, a cotton liner, the wool sleeping bag and the water repellant case. The liner was installed inside the wool sleeping bag to keep it from getting soiled. The idea being that a lightweight, cotton, cloth liner was much easier to launder and dry compared to a heavy wool bag. The wool sleeping bag was actually lashed to the repellant case around the opening to keep them attached together. I show a view of this. The wool sleeping bag had cloth tapes attached, that were used to tie the bag into a roll. These tapes could be threaded through slits in the case, so they could tie up the pair, when used and rolled together. A clever design that saved materials.

 

A few interesting points here is that the liner shown is mint and they are somewhat hard to come by in this condition. I show it separate because I didn't want to hide such a nice item inside the bag and it covers up the QM tag of the wool bag. Does anybody know why someone would have marked a line on the QM tag striking out the contract date? The obvious idea that someone in the past was trying to hide the fact the liner was made post WWII, comes to mind, but I hope that isn't the case. The water repellant case has a nice QM tag on it, but also has three smaller tags attached that have OPERATOR 318 on them. Any Ideas on these tags??

 

Regards,

 

 

Bob

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Another weak place of mine- W.W.II Sleeping Bag variations :P

 

Top-notch set; thanks for posting!!

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kphfun, You have a great start with your mint case. Get the wool bag next and then go for the cherry on the cake, liner last. BTW. The hunting part of our hobby is half the fun!

 

BTW. In digging through my sleeping bag box I found another set, without the liner. Here are the tags for those interested in different manufacturers data.

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Kevin, That is a nice looking Wool Sleeping bag to go with your Water Repellant case. You are now 2/3 of the way to having a complete set!! Show me the QM tags on the wool bag please.

 

Keep looking and you may find the ellusive Sleeping Bag liner, when you least expect it!!

 

Bob

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Keep looking and you may find the ellusive Sleeping Bag liner, when you least expect it!!

 

Bob

 

Especially one with a full-length opening. The standard half-lengths used to show up fairly often, but the Liners were a short-lived item, so I don't know if they were still producing 'em when they revised the design. If anyone bags one (no pun intended), it would be a 1st-class find.

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It is my understanding the three-piece "system" would also allow the user to forgo the wool bag and just install the liner in the cover to create a lightweight summer sleeping bag.

 

Tom

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Tom, I hadn't thought of that configuration, but no reason why you couldn't do it. Just remember though that the zipper is part of the Wool Bag, so closing/fastening the liner/case only combination would not be elegant.

 

Bob

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  • 1 year later...

I do have two M1944 sleeping bags. There is a coincidence that both of them are dated the same 6-22-44 though they were manufactured by two different companies -- see below their cutter tags.

 

Question 1: Were those M1944s manufactured before June 1944? If I am not mistaken I have never seen such a sleeping bag dated earlier than June '44. Am I wrong?

 

Question 2: Is it known when those M1944s were issued to the ETO troops? Are there any photos of the GIs carried them in the ETO or sleeping in them?

 

Question 3: Is "M1944" official name of those sleeping bags? Or maybe they are designated "M1944" unofficially by the collectors only, as it happens sometimes in various cases? All the other WWII era US sleeping bags are designated "M-year" but this one is only "Bag, Sleeping, Wool" without Model designation.

 

Regards

 

Gregory

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Still looking for the liner

A scarce commodity!

 

The UNRRA also distributed those sleeping bags as the bags only without liners and cases. Looks like a permanent shortage of the liners and cases when the bags were mass manufactured.

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here's a strange addition. A wool sleeping bag made by sewing blankets together using cloth machine gun belts as backing for the zipper or repairing a zipper using the machine gun belts. Not sure either waypost-551-1326243177.jpg

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Can anybody try to answer my questions of my post #16?

 

1: Were those M1944 sleeping bags manufactured before June 1944? If I am not mistaken I have never seen such a bag dated earlier than June '44. Am I wrong?

 

2: Is it known when M1944 sleeping bags were issued to the ETO troops?

 

3: Is "M1944" official name of those sleeping bags? Or maybe they are designated "M1944" unofficially by the collectors only, as it happens sometimes in various cases? All the other WWII era US sleeping bags were designated "M-year" but this one is only "Bag, Sleeping, Wool" without Model designation.

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