Historiker

Happy Independence Day! I’m spending mine rebuilding the carburetor on my Kübel… an entirely self inflicted wound. Like a dunce I used one of my jerrycans without checking it first. Duh, it was full of fine rusty particulate matter that is now blocking my carburetor jets. The Kübel won’t idle at all and runs really poorly with no power. I barely managed to limp home.

Fortunately rebuilding a VW carb is way easier than the Carter Thermoquad on my Dodge; and with only two bolts holding it on and one wire and a throttle linkage to disconnect is it removed in minutes.

I dissembled it on the bench and cleaned out a lot of fine rusty goop, soaked the body and jets, cleaned the fuel and air passages and reassemble it all in less than an hour. Here’s the cleaned carb back in place.

The Kübel purrs like a kitten again…

I don’t usually rant, but today I’m prepping for March on Rome and I need to reconfigure my zelt tent to make a sun tarp for the registration area…. and argh! the damned holes don’t properly line up on mt repro zelts. (No yes I have some real deal zelts that do work like a champ but I’d like to save them for lighter duty; they are valuable historic items.)

But why in the world can our suppliers not make something even a little bit faithful to the original…mainly because we buy them. It’s time for that to change… It’s time to start the official zeltbahn registry and authentication!

So as from today! Measure your zelt! No vendor I’ve found can consistently make an zelt of the correct size. If it doesn’t measure up correctly - send it back! It will be useless to you in the field except as a decoration.

To be of use the zelt must be able to mate up exactly with other zelts - to make your tents, to make a litter… to be of use to you and your kameraden it must be made to the original specifications. Let’s all join together and insist that our gear be of quality.

Unfortunately the zelt it is often one of the shoddiest pieces of repro gear. Originals are expensive and increasingly rare and so repros are attractive. However… fully 100% of the repros I’ve purchased have huge sizing flaws. The key being that the space between the buttons is not consistent. I’ve even had some zelts where the hole spacing even varies between the sides of the same zelt!

Why does this matter? If you are only a day soldier and all you ever do is button the zelt around you it is only a minor . However if you are making a shelter if they don’t match it renders the zelt that is nonstandard useless.

It’s hard enough if you supply all the zelts and have sorted through them beforehand. However in the field when you and kameraden are trying to build a shelter in the face of the coming cold night mismatched zelts are a huge handicap.

Now why the repro companies cannot (or will not) produce a zelt to the original specifications is a matter of conjecture. I suspect that some MBA has figured out that by making the holes 190mm apart instead of 210mm as the originals will save 1 square meter of cloth per zelt and hence a 50 cent savings per item for his bonus maybe?

Here’s a list of vendors that supply a zelt that matches the standard.

• *** None ***

If anyone knows of one please let me know I’ll happily add a link here and send every Jager your way. - feldwebel@fallschirmjager.net

My friend Paul Kepner suffered a heart attack this morning, and is currently in ICU, he’s doing ok for now however expected to be in the hospital for the next three weeks.

Iron Paul as I call him, is a fixture in Texas reenacting, he and his R-75 are at virtually every event. He’s a member of FJ Rgt/2 here in Central Texas and always ready to help with anything related to reenacting. Please keep Paul in your prayers.

An update…Paul had a successful surgery to remove blockages and install stents, and is in ICU.

I entered the Kubel and the R-71 in the IBM car show. Much to my surprise both won their classes! The Kubel took best off road.

Here’s the Kubel parked in the lot for judging and viewing. There was a lot of interest in her..

The R-71 took best classic motorcycle… I altered the generic trophies a bit the Kubel’s trophy had a plastic sand rail on it and the motorcycle had a chopper. I milled them off and replaced the sand rail with a miniature Kubel and the chopper with a Tamiya R-75.

Ken, the other owner of a Kooblekar that I’d heard from has gathered together a number of owners. Here’s a nice one in Kansas…

I’m reworking my MG-34 gas gun to fix up some nagging problems. I got this beauty along with the Kubel, an unexpected and wonderful bonus…

One of the problems is the barrel quick change mechanism. On the real deal with a hardened machined steel receiver the swivel pin holding the mechanism together is well supported. As shown in the photo below:

However when you replace the receiver with a cast aluminum part you no longer have the rigidity of the steel on steel. So over the years the joint there had a bunch of stress and the small aluminum mounting ears sheared off making for a pretty floppy midsection.

So after a lot of pondering I figured out how to add back some rigidity, first I’d add a stop plate on the bottom of the receiver that would limit the travel of the barrel. This is a relatively hidden area that I could use a fairly heavy piece to strengthen the joint. So here is the plate fitted and mounted with two AN bolts.

Now to replace the latch there wasn’t much room on the top to drill into so I chose the side and made a plate that trapped the edge of the barrel shroud. It isn’t really as obtrusive as it looks now since it will be covered by the 50 round drum magazine. But it holds the barrel tightly in place.

Now the last thing to do is rework the trigger as the old switch has shattered…

I recently heard from another Kooble Kar builder. Ken was kind enough to forward me some photographs of his finished car. It’s a beauty! Hopefully we all can put together some type of community to trade information.

Lately I’ve seen on Ebay ads for a Drop Case for the MP-40. While I’ve never seen any historical reference to drop cases being used by the Fallschirmjäger I did purchase one to store and carry my SS Room BFNG. It would save the gun from being banged around on the way to events, I wouldn’t show it or place it in any display at an event.

Here’s a couple of photos of mine…

I heard from Jim from Iowa a few days back and he was wondering about the historical provenance of the drop cases he was seeing on Ebay as well. He sent along references to several current auctions. Two were for the type that I’d purchased and one for a style I hadn’t seen before.

The larger style bag on Ebay…

We’ve chatted a bit via email and he’s also done a bit of research but neither of us have found anything close. Well know examples are the breech covers for the K98 and I’ve also seen similar covers for the MG34, however those are for travel protection; and not for jumping with weapons.

Every reference book and photograph I’ve seen shows Fallschirmjäger jumping with only a pistol as was the original practice, retrieving heavier weapons after landing from the drop canisters. Or written accounts of later jumps where the Fallschirmjäger jumped with their primary weapon.

The only photo I could find with a Fallschirmjäger preparing to jump with a weapon is this famous photo, and that weapon is a wooden mockup of an SMG.

For a while I’ve had a period style movie camera, a Bell & Howell Filmo. I’ve been looking for a way to make it work so I can record digital video at reenactments but without the jarring note of having a modern camera in hand. Much like I did with my Matryoshka (Матрёшка) Nesting Doll Camera Leica.

I’ve found a fairly small point of view (POV) camera in the Contour HD 1080P. For now I’ve mounted it on the side where I can cover it mostly with my hand. But as soon as I find a suitable donor film camera body (this Filmo still works well so I don’t want to ruin it). I’ll move it into the shell behind the lens. I’d really like to find a 16mm vintage Bolex with the pistol grip to use as a donor.

The Contour camera mounted on the Filmo…

This weekend I again helped my friends out a bit on their movie project, Nebelwand. We used the Kübel and filmed a number of the garrison scenes. The project has taken on a life of it’s own over the more than a year of filming. I think the outtakes are going to be a hit, with out acting I’m not sure that we’d make the cut at Sundance.

What were my lines again…?

The Kübel making a dash through the woods…

Andrew and Bill ready to do the gate scene…