[8roundstoboot]

Afternoon ladies and gents, so due to my never ending love of everything airborne I scrounged up some old parts I had lying around to kit bash a german fallschirmjager and I had everything I needed except a bandolier, now I've never been much of a fan of the German paratrooper bamdoliers I always thought they looked kind of silly and would much rather give my fallschirmjager some leather K98 pouches, but was wondering if this would be historically accurate seeing as I've never seen any photos of German paratroopers armed with K98s that didn't have bandoliers, so I'm just wondering if it would be historically accurate to give my para some leather K98 pouches instead of a bandolier? Thanks in advance!

 

[Mik'sStudio]

I'm guessing as they jumped without weapons they landed and got their gear from canisters. So threw bandoliers over their shoulders, but if they've been on the ground a while I assume they could use the Kar 98 pouches. Fallschirmjäger.net - Basic Fallschirmjäger Gear

See plenty of illustrations but few photos.

 

[russcal]

.
Remember that after the Crete operations FJs were never again used as airborne troops, but as semi-elite leg infantry. By the end of the war, their helmet and Luftwaffe insignia were the only things that differentiated them from Heer soldiers.
.

 

[8roundstoboot]

That's true I didn't think of that thanks

 

[Lancer506]

As mentioned by the others, it depends on the time you're trying to portray. You could use black K98 pouches for a late war trooper, and brown pouches maybe on Mid war troops. The bandolier would be good for and early war or "textbook" representation.

 

[8roundstoboot]

I'm going for a later war trooper 1944-1945

 

[Lancer506]

Any of the 3 could work and be historically accurate in that case. Good luck with it!

 

[8roundstoboot]

Thank you!!

 

[LizardKing1968]

FJ were still doing operational jumps right into the battle of the bulge, just not at the levels of crete. also after crete they did jump with weapons strapped to their harnesses as it became quite apparent they were defenseless without weapons, once on the ground The k-98 FJ bandolieer was used right to the end of the war.

namaste
Miguel