Extremely nice unissued tropical bread bag. It is in excellent condition. R.B.Nr. stamp inside. The button holes have never been buttoned. There is some light rust on the rivet by the hook. This is a great example of one of the more desirable variants of the bread bag. This one is made from some beautiful materials including the super funky later war synthetic webbing for the inside tabs. It also has the shape of a late war bag which were slightly longer. A beautiful example.
These are referred to as tropical due to the webbing. While I am sure this type was issued to other regions; I do know that this particular bag was destined for the south. Some of the bread bags I found were early 1941 dated tropical bags, so it seems to hold true for this batch despite some variation in construction amongst the lot.
This was part of a recent find in Southern Germany. Part of the long fabled tale of the train headed south full of tropical items that was raided by locals when it was abandoned in their town at the end of the war. I found these in the next town down the tracks from where the train stopped, not 50meters from the tracks. They have moved around a bit over their life, but they have not gone far and have just been traded amongst the locals. Other items we know to have been on the same train include tropical rucksacks, felt pith helmets, tropical uniforms including tunics, shoulder boards, and hats. Based on the rough quantities of each, it seems to have been destined to outfit a company sized element. Trust me, I have feelers out to try to track down more items that one would think would be along side these but have yet to be found. The bread bags went undiscovered until this year, so there is hope that more is still hiding.
