Tores tuesday, another obscure item. This is something that few collectors have, for a few obvious reasons.
The Grabenpanzer is a heavy piece of personal protection. Made of thick steel plate it consists of a heavy cuirass with three additional pieces hanging down, offering a modicum of mobility while protecting the soldier down to the groin area. The three loose steel plates are connected by web straps and onto the straps are sewn coarse squares of thick felt that go between the plates to prevent clanking.
Armor like this was worn by troops who had to be positioned above the parapet of the trench, sentries, MG crews and others, and wearing this armor made them practically bulletproof. It was for defensive use only as running and even walking wearing this was highly impractical due to the weight. Needless to say, it was quite unpopular for that reason. I have put it on myself to try it and it is hellish to wear. These were worn on the front or on the back, as the situation dictated.
A lot of these were made, in several sizes and variations, so why are they so hard to find today? Well, nobody wanted to march home dressed in one. They were dropped in the trenches and most originals found are in relic condition. The web straps and felt pads long since rotted away.
Mine came to me from another Norwegian collector who had repainted it. It is in quite nice shape, nowhere near as pitted as the ones you normally see. It had the leather strap to fasten it around the waist, but the web straps and pads were gone. The leather strap actually looks to have been made from a Kar98A sling.
But, mine has original web straps and felt pads, how can that be? Well, on Gunboards I came across a collector who claimed to have some originals that he had bought at a flea market in the 80s. I thought that that was impossible, but we made a trade and I got them home. To my surprise they looked, felt and smelled right, but I still thought they most probably were repro. Then I put them on…
I am aware that one should be careful with textiles from WWI as remnants of poison gas can be in them, and if you wash them without rubber gloves you can get rather unpleasant damages to your skin. Well, I wasn’t going to wash this… So, using coarse old linen thread I started sewing the straps and pads onto the armor. Inside the main piece there are brackets, then the smaller pieces of armor plate have holes in them to sew through.
However, I forgot to think of another piece of protective equipment: a mask! So, sewing through dusty old felt with coarse thread, there was a lot of dust in the air. Suddenly it felt like my nose and sinuses were on fire. The pain was really terrible, one of the most thoroughly unpleasant experiences I have ever had. Now there was no doubt. This stuff was original! Being frontline equipment it will have been marinated in poison gas again and again, and 100 year old remnants were enough to make me groan with pain. I got well but for the next fortnight coagulated blood and bloody Scabs came out whenever I blew my nose. Don’t do this at home, lads!
So, that is how this rather rare panzer ended up at my place. Even when one can find a relic set, it is not the kind of thing you take home in your rucksack, and I dare not think of what the postage of sending it home would be… I am glad I got mine here in Norway.
The coal drawing of two sentries wearing such armor was made by Rita Børtveit based on an original photograph.
