East German Fallschirmjäger Assualt Vest Comparison

Hi guys today, we're going to be comparing two different East German Fallschirmjäger assault vests. Now you may be wondering why do you have two of them? Well, it's a little bit of an accident actually. So at the time when I was, you know, putting buying stuff for my, you know, Fallschirmjäger impressions, which I'll exhibit later on, not in this video, but in another video, I was buying a vest and one person I was already in talks with buying the boot and they also mentioned like, oh, if you need a vest, they found one on German eBay and so they added that to my order. But at the same time in a Facebook group, someone was selling this vest for a good price. So I ended up just buying both. Although I've mainly used the one on the right for my impression because it looks a lot nicer. The one on the left is more interesting because it was actually used and you can tell that right away seeing. Oh, wow. That's very salty. It's very faded. It's got used and it's got a name written on it. So it was definitely used by someone. I don't know in which context. Maybe training. I'm not sure. I don't think it was probably used in combat or anything, but you know, it's definitely a pretty cool piece. So we're going to be taking a look comparing the two because they're not exactly the same model, although they look very similar. There are some slight differences between them. I just kind of wanted to take this opportunity to showcase this one right here. Yeah, it's a little beat up, but it's got character. So let's get into the first thing. I just wanted to show you off, which is the name tag. So this one doesn't have M48. It just has 48. This one has M48, so more specific. And then on the back here, we have a name written down. Let's see if we can, so something bolts. I can't really make out this first part. It might be SID or something, but this part definitely looks like D-O-L-S-T. So right off the bat, they're pretty cool. Yeah, if we do look closer, though, you can see there's a lot of fading here. The fabric on this pair does seem to be a lot more green, especially if you look back up. You can see this seems to be a lot more of a darker green pattern than this version over here. I mean, over time, it varied a little bit. But yeah, it's just expected to happen. Comparing the chest pocket, you'd think they look the same, but I do notice that on the other one right here, the right chest pocket does seem to be a little bit thinner and smaller compared to this one, which does seem to be a little bit wider. But the materials are basically the same. They still use the same pebbled buttons. This one is missing a button. The size does seem to be similar. You know, there's fabric material down here, so that's another similarity to them. Yeah, we'll just keep going down the list. So again, these do have the same metal clips. So you can just use that to up-buckle and un-buckle. These ones obviously have a little bit of a rust, and the D-rings are quite a bit dirtier, but, you know, we'll just get through that. One of the things I did notice is that it seems like this one doesn't have the internal, like, area for the belt. Well, I thought that at first, but actually there is. So they do have that in common as well. You can put the belt through here if you want. Again, the second D-ring clip. So we'll just put that through here. There we go. Now we got it open. I thought that the, you know, date stamp might give you more clues, but this one is pretty faded, so you can see, you know, 1938, that's not the year it was made, obviously, that's just the stock number. The 2 is for the quarter that this was made in, but I don't see the actual alphabet letter, you know, so I can't really tell exactly when this was made, unfortunately. But if you want to take a crack at it, here's a better view. But like the other one, this one also does have the same bit of padding in the shoulders, like this one over here. So they both have that going for them as well. And we also do have a Mackrov pouch, or a holster, I should say. And let's just bring this one over here. It looks pretty much exactly the same, there doesn't seem to really be a big difference between the two there. So, pretty cool. And I don't know what this is, but there's like a little piece of leather here. It just seems to have gotten sewn in somehow, I really don't have like a clue as to what that's about. But like I said on the other one, there's also these, you know, little fasteners, like this one has right here. Right here. Yeah, so that's pretty much the same. Like I said, these are definitely more alike than different, but there are a few different things, mainly on the back that I wanted to show. So we haven't really gotten to the differences part. But there actually is one on the front. See this ammo pouch here is a different type. It's not curved like this one. So obviously, used for a different weapon. This one is significantly more faded, as you can clearly tell. The like, nylon material here is not gray like it should be over here. It's like very faded. And it is for Selzer, I believe. But obviously meant for a different type of magazine. Open it up. Yeah, you got the four cells right there. So that's pretty cool too. Again, similar to the other one, you have the same style of gas mask pouch, you know, just in the camouflage fabric. So that's also another similarity. Like I said, the older ones would just have a green like vinyl, regular gas mask pouch sewn on. And then on the back, things are pretty similar as well. You still have the clip, just like the other one does. Got the same type of clip. The same back pouch thing. You can see that there's a very big pouch in here. That's pretty much the same too. You've even got the same, you know, little loop right there. But things start to get different when we get to the back pouch, usually meant for holding the filters. So this one, it's got a hard rubberized material on the inside, which is kind of interesting. I'm not sure why they chose to put that there and not on the front. Maybe it's to keep the filters from getting wet. But this is definitely some sort of the same material that they use, you know, to rubber, to waterproof things. You can find it on the inside of the Sturmgepacks, stuff like that. So, you know, this one is not just like regular loose material. It's actually quite a bit hard and it has some, you know, structure to it. So that's a little bit interesting. We'll just take a look on the inside here. You see, it's similar to the other one. They have these two divisions here and even this little loop that's the same because it's got a metal button, just like this one does. So for this one, open it up, see the same thing, got this little divider here and then this with the same metal button. But right here, it's starting to come undone. So it's a little bit more worn, as you can clearly tell. And it looks like one of the buttons is missing as well. There's only one for this side, hard and neat. And it's got some material stuff on it. Looks pretty damaged. The one on this side, there should be one right here is missing. That's a little bit unfortunate, but pretty cool to see. And again, there's kind of like a little bit of extra material here, just like on the other one. I wasn't quite sure what to think of that. What is this for? Does anyone know what this is for? But yeah, let's continue to the rest of the three pouches. From what I can tell, they're exactly the same, same size, same construction, pretty much the same everything. So nothing too crazy there. Does look like maybe the stitching looks a little bit different, the type of stitching. But ultimately, these are definitely similar, similar in era. I don't know exactly the year difference apart, but pretty cool, pretty cool pieces regardless. But yeah, if anyone like knows the guy who's vests belong to, it'd be cool to get in contact with him. You know, maybe see what his service entailed, what he did. I think that'd be pretty cool. So if you know anyone with that last name who might have served, or if you are that person, feel free to reach out to me. And or leave a comment. And yeah, I'd like to know what it was like to be, you know, in such a elite unit. What was it like? But yeah, there you guys go. Little compare, contrast, mostly similarities, some minor differences. There's definitely a lot of variations over the history of these vests though. So you can find a lot of uniqueness on each one. Yeah, thank you guys for watching. I hope you guys enjoyed this video.