A very good colour and fittings matched pair of WW1 German Pouches both manufacturer dated 1915, and both issued at the same time from the same Armee Korps, this the 10th Armee Korps in 1916. Each pouch has the 1916 issue date for this Armee Korps placed in exactly the same place, the inside of the middle closing lid.
Whilst WW1 German Ammunitions Pouches are not too difficult to find, locating a matching pair clearly issued together such as these is near impossible.
Though issued together the Pouches appear to have different manufactures for 1915. This is not easy to tell as on one Pouch the maker’s mark is obscured. Both Pouches however are made of exactly the same early brown leather, each has brass fittings throughout, and due to being issued together each Pouch matches the other precisely in the level of wear. The Pouches thus display unusually well.
On both pouches the stitching is good all over and each has exceptionally strong, flexible, and undamaged closing tabs and belt loops. The closing tabs on these Pouches are the most soft and pliable I have come across.
Both Pouches have a complete set of their inner ammunition clip divider strips. One Pouch also has a nice field grey leather replacement reenforcing tab depot applied to the inside of each of the outer lid flaps. This very common front line replacement is invisible from the outside. There is equally a depot strengthening rivet depot applied to where one closing tabs joins the lid, this again being a very common front line trait.
The 10th Armee Korps of these Pouches fought its entire war on the Western Front with a good combat reputation. This is the same Armee Korps as the 1916 German Entrenching Tool and Carrier I recently listed. Together all these items make a very nice set and indeed I have obtained them from the same old collection.
