Karkee Web: British & Empire Accoutrements and Personal Equipment of the Twentieth Century
Contributors' Collections: Victor Pichon
Victor is a WW2 collector in France. He recently found this bag at a garage sale, and emailed KW asking for information about it. He mentioned that he had been told that it was a parachutists' carry bag. As you'll see from Rog's caption below, we haven't been able to throw much light onto exactly what it is. Can any of our readers identify this? All photographs on this page are © Victor Pichon 2010.
Gary Bainbridge, of the Living History Group MECO - Military Equipment Collectors, has sent us this on Victor's bag:
I have the same bag, marked up with a Royal Army Pay Corps Capt.'s details. I have been using it for over 10 years now to store my officers' campaign furniture set. It fits perfectly, and I wonder if this is the official use of such a bag. I have seen a few over the years, all dated around 1944, and most of them had officers' details painted on them.
In form, this is a "grip", to use common parlance, by virtue of its handles. It's certainly not something a parachutist would carry on a jump, nor is it the shape of a parachute itself, neither seat, dorsal or chest types. The extensive weather flaps are akin to airborne equipment - but not with those handles. It is reminiscent of a tent bag, though these are not usually equipped with handles. It might be an aircrew item, but for the Broad Arrow (R.A.F. mark with a Crown over "A.M.") and its dimensions are not those of the usual slim "large briefcase" type carried by such as navigators.
