Do you like to camp out? If you do, consider picking up a Zeltbahn, these are German ww2 soldiers tents. they start out at about 20 dollars complete. (thats for a French one) and go right on up to mercedes Benz class ones like the Splinter Pattern A and SS Cammo ones that run about 100 dollars per panel.(4 panels needed) anyway the Swedes and the Austrians and the French all used this pyramidal 4 man tent. once u have one . you can talk a friend into doing it too. then you can camp out like Germans etc. singing volkslieder around the campfire building massive tents out of zelt panels and other activities are possible. Now follow along here , pay attention drop the game boy etc. you button four panels together with the slot for your head near the top. peg the corners down slip a 44 1/4 inch center pole thru the top gromets. and use 4 more pegs to pull out the side and anchor the tent more firmly to terra Firma. now slip in an air matress or pad and a sleeping bag and all your other accoutrements and voila. u have a military mans home away from home. reenactors should not be the only ones to enjoy this/Boy Scouts Eagle Scouts even cub scout packs can do this. of course you caN also do this with the USA army pup tent but its smaller and only sleeps two, (tight fit) and has less head room but they are cheaper and easier to find in surplus stores and catalogs. look at Wephaus,HQ etc. if you like this idea we'll form a club of happy campers who go zelting. boot camp for reenacting?
Zeltbahn site here is a url for Zeltbahnen www.Zeltbahn.net there is good information there. im going surfing on the topic and if i find anything cool I will add it
omigod in the feldgrau site they said the bund used ww2 zelts and u could buy them for 5 marks (1.25 US) per section including poles pegs. the pity if that is that i was there in Germany in 1963-1966 the author of the statement is a motorcyclist and likes the compactness, also said he did all his cooking on the esbit stove. (teensy little folding stove used by the Germans) i could have picked up as many zelts as I wanted for cheap. prolly lots of things had I known.
center poles I use one piece center poles, whenever i see an old mop,I steal the handle and paint it feld grau and screw a dry wall screw into the end, they dont break as easily as the jointed pole sets supplied. I use wal mart pegs too. call me a farb why dontcha, ya cant see em they are hidden
tank site with zelts this was a site of pix of theSPR Tiger tank it has pix of lots of German stuff including zelts http://www.angelfire.com/planet/9thpzgren/page06.html let me know what u think of the tank the sdkfz 251 and the zelts