Ted, I had to look up the time difference, you are 16 hours ahead of us!!!  As a former soldier of the Cold war we had to study all manner of Russian Army uniforms, field gear, vehicles and ordnance.  I knew many guys who collected bits from the mid 1960''s thru 1990's, lots of items were recovered during Desert Storm.  However the WWII sets like you have are just splendid, something I have rarely seen even in museums around the free world.  My main focus of collecting and study is, world-wide jerricans, if you have any made in NZ, I would be most interested in a photo or two.  Cheers, Armygas

I should have a take-out set of valves somewhere, but I doubt they are marked like this. Nice find though 😊    

Yeah - that’s a beauty!

That’s a nice jacket! Just ‘salty’ enough to be interesting. Unless you can black light the thread on the repairs, I think it’s a 50/50 call as to wether it’s a period job.

Does anyone know what these thingamajiggers  are? I spotted a box of them at the monthly flea market a few weeks ago. Most were marked with advertising but one had the V for Victory logo, so legitimate question on the forum. One end has what seems to be an eraser, but cannot tell what the other end is for. The market is back this weekend, so if they are something cool and interesting, I may have to get some if still there.  mikie

Hi Armygas! I doubt it’s NZ made. We had a very small manufacturing base here in the 30s/40s. It’s almost certainly British manufacture, as was 90% of the non-US Lend Lease stuff we used. I imagine it was just part of the accessories pack that came with the Vickers. The Communist stuff is there to offset the Nazi stuff! But seriously, I’m pretty keen on the Red Admy weapons and equipment. Hideously proletarian though it was.

Ted, Brilliant exhibit all around, very interesting to see the Communist items of the period, I don't know anyone else with that sort of thing.  Is the condensing canister for the MG a New Zealand made item?  If so was it bespoke made for guns or is it petrol related?  Cheers, Armygas

That's actually a "cutters mark" after spending 50 years in the textile industry.  And I am inclined to agree that your bag is a post war surplus store modification for civilian use.     OD  

I'm pretty sure it is a 3rd Army patch. The 733rd FAB was a non-divisional asset.   These two examples are from this 733rd FAB website: http://www.733rd.org/     Dan

Looks custom made, could be something made with extra parts by a surplus store post war, or best case it’s some sort of “rigger item” definitely not something that was factory made in my opinion.