wwii axis reenactment forum

Afternoon folks,

Have been speaking with a fellow member of the TFF (Tent Freaks Federation) and with a long list of German tents that were produced during the war - we thought instead of making everything on the list, we would ask you what you wanted.

So what model of German tent do you want, what is most practical?

Kind regards,

Jack.

A few people use British army squad tents at events. Is there an authentic German equivalent?

Sometimes it would be nice to do a behind the front display there everyone gets to sleep in comfort rather than bed down in a Zelt tent.

There are a few types of tent similar to the British 160lb tent of varying sizes:
- Gebirgsgruppenzelt 500cm x 400cm I had an original one of these - they are exceedingly complicated and contrived!
- Truppzelt 250cm x 400cm this is essentially a shortened version of the Gebirgsgruppenzelt without the contrived bits!
- Truppzelt (kolonial) 600cm x 500cm manual pitches this (ha!) as a standard tent for all branches of the Heer. It's the same shape and design as the British 160lb tent. Manual interestingly states that it can accommodate 6 'Olympia' beds (these are the folding wooden framed cots we all know and love - they were marketed in Germany by the Olympia company). Comes in tropical or temperate flavour (tan or brown basically).
- Gebirgsverbindezelt 530cm x 400cm same design as the 160lb tent but with higher walls as it was designed for medical use by mountain troops. These pop up all over the place in a variety of uses. I have 2 originals of these - one is grey, the other tan. This is the only grey tent I have ever seen...!

There are some others, but these are smaller and very function specific (usually signals related). To my mind the latter 2 would suits our needs the best.

What about 1-2 person tents ? Are we limited to zelt combinations ?

Jack is already working on the kl. Gebirgs nach. zelt

Smaller 1-2 man tents are few and far between, that's really what the zelts were for.

are there any tents for pionier troops?

There was a magazine tent, but it's huge!

Sorry about the late response i always forget about this section down here!
do you have a photo available? is this like a sectional tent which you can keep adding sections to so the length is only limited to how many sections you have?

sparky wrote:Sorry about the late response i always forget about this section down here!
do you have a photo available? is this like a sectional tent which you can keep adding sections to so the length is only limited to how many sections you have?

It can be used like that - PM me your email address and I'll send you some photos when I get home tomorrow.

Dave

Rather than tents how about tables etc like the US items you produce but German ones e.g.

That's the 'stationstisch' - a folding table commonly found in radio and telephone vehicles. I've got a seized set of the legs for one of these - they are fairly straight forwards to reproduce, apart from the hinge in the middle which requires a part to be manufactured specifically.

For general tables, have a look at original photos. There is everything from field made affairs to wooden 'church hall' style folding tables.