What did our soldiers wear in World War II, what did they ride and what did they use? Women in the Great Patriotic War: influence and role, interesting facts What dresses were worn during the war

13.03.2022

In countries that took an active part in the Second World War, the war, women served voluntarily and on an equal basis with men. In the home front, women took on traditionally male positions: in factories, government organizations, maintenance of military auxiliary equipment, resistance groups, and much more. Many women were victims of bombing and occupation. By the end of the war, over 2 million women were working in the military industry. Hundreds of thousands of women voluntarily went to the front as nurses, or as full-time military. In the Soviet Union, 800,000 women, along with men, served in the army during the war.

Defense of Sevastopol. This is the Russian girl sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who, by the end of the war, had killed 309 Germans.

Director Leni Riefenstahl looks through the lens of a large camera filming a 1934 shoot in Nuremberg, Germany. The footage would make up the 1935 film Triumph of the Will, later recognized as one of the best propaganda films in history.

Japanese women participate in war production at a factory in Japan, September 30, 1941.

Members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) are photographed at camp before leaving New York on February 2, 1945.

A woman checks the health of barrage balloons in New Bedford, Massachusetts, May 11, 1943.

In New York, moving through gas clouds, nurses in a hospital put on gas masks, taking precautionary precautions, November 27, 1941.

Three Soviet girls in a partisan detachment, during World War II

A woman dressed in a warm winter coat operates a searchlight near London on January 19, 1943, trying to find German bombers.

German pilot, Captain Anna Reitsch, shakes hands with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler after being awarded the Iron Cross Second Class at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, in April 1941

Students are busy copying campaign posters at Port Washington, New York, July 8, 1942

A group of young Jewish female resistance fighters currently under arrest by German SS soldiers in April/May 1943 during the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto by German forces following an uprising in the Jewish Quarter

More and more girls are joining the Luftwaffe under a conscription campaign in Germany. They replace the men and take up arms against the advancing Allied troops. Here, German girls are shown in training with the Luftwaffe, somewhere in Germany, December 7, 1944.

Women are trained to serve in the police. January 15, 1942

The first "Women's Guerrilla" Corps was just formed in the Philippines from Filipino women, trained in the auxiliaries of local women who are working hard here on November 8, 1941 at the shooting range in Manila.

Little known, although they have been fighting fascist regimes since 1927, the Italian Maquis carry out their fight for freedom in the most dangerous conditions. The Germans and Italians of the fascist organizations are targets for them, and the icy, eternally snow-capped peaks of the Franco-Italian border are their battlefield. This schoolteacher from the Aosta Valley fights side by side with her husband in the "White Patrol" above the St. Bernard Pass Italy, January 4, 1945

Female firefighters form a "V" with crossed hoses at a demonstration of their abilities in Gloucester, Massachusetts on November 14, 1941.

A nurse bandages the hand of a Chinese soldier as another injured man limps to provide first aid during fighting on the front of the Salween River in Yunnan province, China, June 22, 1943.

Women making airplane fuselages at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, California, in October 1942.

American film actress Veronica Lake, shows what can happen to women in who wear long hair, working at a drilling machine, in a factory somewhere in America, November 9, 1943

Anti-aircraft gunners, members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), run towards the guns in the suburbs of London on May 20, 1941, when the alarm is sounded.

Two German telephone operators during World War II.

Young Soviet girls tractor drivers of Kyrgyzstan (now Kyrgyzstan), effectively replace their friends, brothers and fathers who went to the front. Here, a girl tractor driver sows sugar beets on August 26, 1942.

Ms. Paula Tita, a 77-year-old air-raid spotter from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, stands under a gun in front of a US flag on December 20, 1941.

Polish women march through the streets of Warsaw to help defend their country, after German troops launched their invasion of Poland on September 16, 1939.

Nurses clean up rubbish in one of the wards at St. Peter's Hospital, Stepney, East London, April 19, 1941. Four hospitals were among the buildings hit by German bombs during the attack on the British capital.

Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-Whiteh participates in the high-altitude flight of a Flying Fortress aircraft during World War II in February 1943

Polish women are being led through the woods by German soldiers to be executed sometime in 1941.

These Northwestern students hold rifles to join the campus militia in Evanston, Illinois on January 11, 1942.

Army nurses wear gas masks as courses focus on their pre-training at a hospital somewhere in Wales, May 26, 1944

Film actress Ida Lupino, is a Lieutenant in the Women's Ambulance and Defense Troops and is near a switchboard in Brentwood, California on January 3, 1942.

The first contingent of American Army nurses to be sent to the Forward Allied base in New Guinea carry their equipment on November 12, 1942.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Generalissimo of China, advocates maximum efforts to stop Japan's war against China on February 18, 1943

US nurses walk along the beach in Normandy, France on July 4, 1944, after they wade through the surf from landing ships. They are on their way to a field hospital where they will be tending to wounded Allied soldiers.

French men and women, civilians and members of the French internal forces took the fight to the Germans, in Paris in August 1944

A German soldier wounded by a French bullet and one woman during the street fighting that preceded the entry of the Allied forces into Paris in 1944

Elizabeth "Lilo" Gloeden stands before judges being tried for her part in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in July 1944

The Romanian army rounded up civilians, men and women, young and old, to dig anti-tank ditches on the border of the region, on June 22, 1944, in readiness to repel the attacks of the Soviet army

Miss Jean Pitcaithy, a nurse at the New Zealand Hospital in Libya, wears goggles to protect her eyes from sand on June 18, 1942.

The 62nd Stalingrad Army on the streets of Odessa (the 8th Guards Army of General Chuikov on the streets of Odessa) in April 1944. large group Soviet soldiers, including two women in front, marching through the streets

A girl, a member of the resistance movement, is a member of a patrol looking for German snipers who remained in some areas, Paris, France on August 29, 1944.

A woman is forcibly sheared by fascist mercenaries. July 10, 1944

Women and children, from over 40,000 concentration camp prisoners liberated by the British, suffering from typhus, hunger and dysentery, huddle in a barracks in Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in April 1945

Female SS punishers whose brutality was equal to their male counterparts at Bergen concentration camp, Germany, April 21, 1945

A Soviet woman harvester shakes her fist at German prisoners of war as they march east under guard in the USSR on February 14, 1944.

In this June 19, 2009 photo of Susie Bain shows in Austin, Texas, from a 1943 photo of herself when she was one of the female service air force pilots (wasps) during World War II

Uniform and equipment of the victorious soldier
On the left is a Red Army soldier in 1941. On the right is a soldier Soviet army in 1945

Steel helmet SSH-40. This helmet is a modernization of the SSH-39 helmet, accepted for supply to the Red Army in June 1939. In the design of the SSH-39, the shortcomings of the previous SSH-36 were eliminated, however, the operation of the SSH-39 during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. revealed a significant drawback - it was impossible to put on a winter hat under it, and a regular woolen balaclava did not save from severe frosts. Therefore, soldiers often broke out the SSH-39 under-the-shoulder device and wore a helmet over a hat without it.
As a result, in the new SSH-40 helmet, the under-shoulder device was significantly different from the SSH-39, although the shape of the dome remained unchanged. Visually, the SSH-40 can be distinguished by six rivets around the circumference in the lower part of the helmet dome, while the SSH-39 has three rivets, and they are located at the top. The SSH-40 used a three-petal under-body device, to which shock absorber bags stuffed with technical cotton were sewn on the reverse side. The petals were pulled together with a cord, which made it possible to adjust the depth of the helmet on the head.
The production of the SSH-40 began to be deployed at the beginning of 1941 in Lysva in the Urals, and a little later in Stalingrad at the Krasny Oktyabr plant, but by June 22 the troops had only a small number of these helmets. By the autumn of 1942, helmets of this type were made only in Lysva. Gradually SSH-40 became the main type of helmet of the Red Army. It was produced in large quantities after the war, and was withdrawn from service relatively recently.

The pot is round. A bowler hat of a similar round shape was used in the army Russian Empire, made of copper, brass, tin plate, and later aluminum. In 1927, in Leningrad, at the Krasny Vyborzhets plant, mass production of round stamped aluminum bowlers for the Red Army was launched, but in 1936 they were replaced by a new flat bowler hat.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in the fall of 1941, the manufacture of round bowlers was again established in Lysva in the Urals, but from steel instead of scarce aluminum. The return to the round shape was also understandable - such a bowler hat was easier to manufacture. The Lysvensky plant did a great job, which made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of production. By 1945, the total production of round army bowlers amounted to more than 20 million pieces - they became the most massive in the Red Army. Production continued after the war.

Duffel bag. This item of equipment, nicknamed "sidor" by the soldiers, was a simple bag with a strap and a rope neck tie. It first appeared in the tsarist army in 1869 and ended up in the Red Army without significant changes. In 1930 it was accepted new standard, which determined the look of the duffel bag - in accordance with it, it was now called the “Turkestan type duffel bag”, or the duffel bag of the 1930 model.
The duffel bag had only one compartment, the top of which could be pulled with a rope. A shoulder strap was sewn to the bottom of the bag, on which two jumpers were put on, intended for fastening on the chest. On the other side of the shoulder strap, three rope loops were sewn to adjust the length. A wooden toggle was sewn to the corner of the bag, for which the loop of the shoulder strap clung. The shoulder strap was folded into a "cow" knot, into the center of which the neck of the bag was threaded, after which the knot was tightened. In this form, the bag was put on and carried behind the back of the fighter.
In 1941, there was a change in the appearance of the duffel bag of the 1930 model: it became slightly smaller, the shoulder strap was narrower and received lining inside on the shoulders, which required its stitching. In 1942, a new simplification followed - the lining in the shoulder strap was abandoned, but the strap itself was made wider. In this form, the duffel bag was produced until the end of the 40s. Taking into account the ease of manufacture, the duffel bag became the main means for carrying the personal belongings of the Red Army soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.

Gas mask bag model 1939. By 1945, no one removed the gas mask from the supply of Red Army soldiers. However, four years of the war passed without chemical attacks, and the soldiers tried to get rid of the "unnecessary" piece of equipment by handing it over to the wagon train. Often, despite the constant control of the command, gas masks were simply thrown away, and personal belongings were carried in gas mask bags.
During the war, soldiers of even one unit could have different bags and gas masks different types. The photo shows a gas mask bag of the 1939 model, issued in December 1941. The bag, made of tent fabric, closed with a button. It was much easier to make than the 1936 bag.

Small infantry shovel. During the war, the MPL-50 small infantry shovel underwent a number of changes aimed at simplifying production. At first, the overall design of the tray and shovel remained unchanged, but the fastening of the lining with the rear cord began to be made by electric spot welding instead of rivets, a little later they abandoned the crimp ring, continuing to fasten the handle between the cords with rivets.
In 1943, an even more simplified version of the MPL-50 appeared: the shovel became one-piece stamped. It abandoned the lining with the rear cord, and the shape of the upper part of the front cord became even (before it was triangular). Moreover, now the front strand began to twist, forming a tube, fastened with a rivet or welding. The handle was inserted into this tube, tightly hammered until wedging with a shovel tray, after which it was fixed with a screw. The photo shows a shovel of intermediate series - with strands, without a ferrule, with fixing the lining by spot welding.

Pomegranate bag. Each infantryman carried hand grenades, which were regularly carried in a special bag on the waist belt. The bag was located on the left rear, after the cartridge bag and in front of the grocery bag. It was a quadrangular fabric bag with three compartments. Grenades were placed in two large ones, and detonators for them were placed in the third, small one. The grenades were brought into combat position immediately before use. The material of the bag could be tarpaulin, canvas or tent fabric. The bag was closed with a button or wooden toggle.
Two old grenades of the 1914/30 model or two RGD-33 (pictured) were placed in the bag, which were stacked with the handles up. The detonators lay in paper or rags. Also, four F-1 "lemons" could fit in pairs in a bag, and they were located in a peculiar way: on each grenade, the ignition nest was closed with a special screw plug made of wood or Bakelite, while one grenade was placed with the cork down, and the second up. With the adoption of new types of grenades during the war by the Red Army, putting them in a bag was similar to the F-1 grenades. Without significant changes, the grenade bag served from 1941 to 1945.

Soldier's trousers of the 1935 model. Accepted for supply to the Red Army by the same order as the tunic of 1935, bloomers remained unchanged throughout the Great Patriotic War. They were high-waisted breeches, well-fitting at the waist, loose at the top and tightly fitting the calves.
Drawstrings were sewn on the bottom of the trousers. There were two deep pockets on the sides of the trousers, and another pocket with a flap fastened with a button was located in the back. At the belt, next to the codpiece, was a small pocket for a death medallion. Pentagonal reinforcement pads were sewn on the knees. Loops for a trouser belt were provided on the belt, although the possibility of adjusting the volume was also provided with the help of a strap with a buckle in the back. Bloomers were made from a special double "harem" diagonal and were quite durable.

Soldier's gymnast, model 1943. It was introduced by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated January 15, 1943 to replace the tunic of the 1935 model. The main differences were in a soft standing collar instead of a turn-down. The collar was fastened with two small uniform buttons. The front placket was open and fastened with three buttons through through loops.
Attached shoulder straps were placed on the shoulders, for which belt loops were sewn. At the soldier's gymnast war time there were no pockets, they were introduced later. Pentagonal field epaulettes were worn on the shoulders in combat conditions. The infantry's epaulette field was green, the piping along the edge of the epaulette was crimson. Badges of junior officers were sewn on the top of the epaulette.

Belt. Due to the fact that leather was expensive to process and often required for the manufacture of more durable and responsible items of equipment, by the end of the war, a braid waist belt reinforced with leather or split leather elements became more common. This type of belt appeared before 1941 and was used until the end of the war.
Many leather waist belts, differing in detail, came from Lend-Lease allies. The American belt shown in the photo, 45 mm wide, had a single-pronged buckle, like the Soviet counterparts, but it was not made of wire that was round in cross section, but was cast or stamped, with clear corners.
The Red Army soldiers also used captured German belts, in which, because of the pattern with an eagle and a swastika, they had to modify the buckle. Most often, these attributes were simply ground off, but if there was free time, the silhouette of a five-pointed star cut through the buckle. The photo shows another version of the alteration: a hole was punched in the center of the buckle, into which a star from a Red Army cap or cap was inserted.

Scout knife NR-40. The reconnaissance knife of the 1940 model was adopted by the Red Army following the results of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, when there was a need for a simple and convenient army combat knife.
Soon, the production of these knives was launched by the Trud artel in the village of Vacha (Gorky Region) and at the Zlatoust Tool Plant in the Urals. Later, HP-40s were also manufactured at other enterprises, including those in besieged Leningrad. Despite a single drawing, HP-40s from different manufacturers differ in details.
At the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War, only scouts were armed with HP-40 knives. For the infantry, they were not authorized weapons, but the closer to 1945, the more and more knives can be seen in photographs of ordinary submachine gunners. Production of the HP-40 continued after the war, both in the USSR and in the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact.

Glass flask. Glass flasks were widely used in many armies of the world. The Russian Imperial Army was no exception, from which this type of flask was inherited by the Red Army. Although the tin or aluminum canteens produced in parallel were more practical, cheap glass containers were good for the mass draft army.
In the Red Army, they tried to replace glass flasks with aluminum ones, but they did not forget about glass either - on December 26, 1931, another standard was approved for the manufacture of such flasks with a nominal volume of 0.75 and 1.0 liters. With the beginning of the war, glass flasks became the main ones - the shortage of aluminum and the blockade of Leningrad, where most aluminum flasks were produced, affected.
The flask was closed with a rubber or wooden stopper with a twine tied around the neck. Several types of cases were used for carrying, and almost all of them provided for wearing a flask on a belt over the shoulder. Structurally, such a cover was a simple bag made of fabric with rope ties at the neck. There were options for covers with soft inserts to protect the flask during impacts - these were used in the Airborne Forces. A glass flask could also be carried in a belt case, adopted for aluminum flasks.

Bag for box magazines. With the advent of box magazines for the Shpagin submachine gun and with the development of the Sudayev submachine gun with similar magazines, a need arose for a bag to carry them. A bag for magazines of a German submachine gun was used as a prototype.
The bag contained three stores, each of which was designed for 35 rounds. Each PPS-43 was supposed to have two such bags, but wartime photographs show that submachine gunners often wore only one. This was due to a certain shortage of stores - in combat conditions they were consumables and were easily lost.
A bag was sewn from canvas or tarpaulin and, unlike the German one, was greatly simplified. The valve was fastened with pegs or wooden toggles, there were options with buttons. On the back of the bag were sewn loops for threading a waist belt. Bags were worn on a belt in front, which provided quick access to equipped stores and stacking empty ones back. Laying stores up or down the neck was not regulated.

Yuft boots. Initially, the boots were the only footwear of the Russian soldier: boots with windings were accepted for supply only at the beginning of 1915, when the army increased dramatically in numbers, and the boots were no longer enough. Soldier's boots were made from yuft and in the Red Army they were supplied to all branches of the armed forces.
In the mid-30s, tarpaulin was invented in the USSR - a material with a fabric base, on which artificial sodium butadiene rubber was applied with an imitation of leather texture. With the beginning of the war, the problem of supplying the mobilized army with shoes became acute, and the “damn skin” came in handy - the boots of the Red Army soldier became tarpaulin.
By 1945, the typical Soviet infantryman was shod in kirzachi or boots with windings, but experienced soldiers sought to get leather boots for themselves. The photo on the infantryman shows yuft boots, with leather soles and leather heels.

Uniform and equipment of the victorious soldier

The pot is round. A bowler hat of a similar round shape was used in the army of the Russian Empire, being made of copper, brass, tinplate, and later aluminum. In 1927, in Leningrad, at the Krasny Vyborzhets plant, mass production of round stamped aluminum bowlers for the Red Army was launched, but in 1936 they were replaced by a new flat bowler hat.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in the fall of 1941, the manufacture of round bowlers was again established in Lysva in the Urals, but from steel instead of scarce aluminum. The return to the round shape was also understandable - such a bowler hat was easier to manufacture. The Lysvensky plant did a great job, which made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of production. By 1945, the total production of round army bowlers amounted to more than 20 million pieces - they became the most massive in the Red Army. Production continued after the war.

Duffel bag. This item of equipment, nicknamed "sidor" by the soldiers, was a simple bag with a strap and a rope neck tie. It first appeared in the tsarist army in 1869 and ended up in the Red Army without significant changes. In 1930, a new standard was adopted that determined the look of the duffel bag - in accordance with it, it was now called the "Turkestan type duffel bag", or the duffel bag of the 1930 model.

The duffel bag had only one compartment, the top of which could be pulled with a rope. A shoulder strap was sewn to the bottom of the bag, on which two jumpers were put on, intended for fastening on the chest. On the other side of the shoulder strap, three rope loops were sewn to adjust the length. A wooden toggle was sewn to the corner of the bag, for which the loop of the shoulder strap clung. The shoulder strap was folded into a "cow" knot, into the center of which the neck of the bag was threaded, after which the knot was tightened. In this form, the bag was put on and carried behind the back of the fighter.
In 1941, there was a change in the appearance of the duffel bag of the 1930 model: it became slightly smaller, the shoulder strap was narrower and received lining inside on the shoulders, which required its stitching. In 1942, a new simplification followed - the lining in the shoulder strap was abandoned, but the strap itself was made wider. In this form, the duffel bag was produced until the end of the 40s. Taking into account the ease of manufacture, the duffel bag became the main means for carrying the personal belongings of the Red Army soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.

Gas mask bag model 1939. By 1945, no one removed the gas mask from the supply of Red Army soldiers. However, four years of the war passed without chemical attacks, and the soldiers tried to get rid of the "unnecessary" piece of equipment by handing it over to the wagon train. Often, despite the constant control of the command, gas masks were simply thrown away, and personal belongings were carried in gas mask bags.
During the war, soldiers of even one unit could have different bags and different types of gas masks. The photo shows a gas mask bag of the 1939 model, issued in December 1941. The bag, made of tent fabric, closed with a button. It was much easier to make than the 1936 bag.

Small infantry shovel. During the war, the MPL-50 small infantry shovel underwent a number of changes aimed at simplifying production. At first, the overall design of the tray and shovel remained unchanged, but the fastening of the lining with the rear cord began to be made by electric spot welding instead of rivets, a little later they abandoned the crimp ring, continuing to fasten the handle between the cords with rivets.

In 1943, an even more simplified version of the MPL-50 appeared: the shovel became one-piece stamped. It abandoned the lining with the rear cord, and the shape of the upper part of the front cord became even (before it was triangular). Moreover, now the front strand began to twist, forming a tube, fastened with a rivet or welding. The handle was inserted into this tube, tightly hammered until wedging with a shovel tray, after which it was fixed with a screw. The photo shows a shovel of intermediate series - with strands, without a ferrule, with fixing the lining by spot welding.

Pomegranate bag. Each infantryman carried hand grenades, which were regularly carried in a special bag on the waist belt. The bag was located on the left rear, after the cartridge bag and in front of the grocery bag. It was a quadrangular fabric bag with three compartments. Grenades were placed in two large ones, and detonators for them were placed in the third, small one. The grenades were brought into combat position immediately before use. The material of the bag could be tarpaulin, canvas or tent fabric. The bag was closed with a button or wooden toggle.

Two old grenades of the 1914/30 model or two RGD-33 (pictured) were placed in the bag, which were stacked with the handles up. The detonators lay in paper or rags. Also, four F-1 "lemons" could fit in pairs in a bag, and they were located in a peculiar way: on each grenade, the ignition nest was closed with a special screw plug made of wood or Bakelite, while one grenade was placed with the cork down, and the second up. With the adoption of new types of grenades during the war by the Red Army, putting them in a bag was similar to the F-1 grenades. Without significant changes, the grenade bag served from 1941 to 1945.

Soldier's trousers of the 1935 model. Accepted for supply to the Red Army by the same order as the tunic of 1935, bloomers remained unchanged throughout the Great Patriotic War. They were high-waisted breeches, well-fitting at the waist, loose at the top and tightly fitting the calves.

Drawstrings were sewn on the bottom of the trousers. There were two deep pockets on the sides of the trousers, and another pocket with a flap fastened with a button was located in the back. At the belt, next to the codpiece, was a small pocket for a death medallion. Pentagonal reinforcement pads were sewn on the knees. Loops for a trouser belt were provided on the belt, although the possibility of adjusting the volume was also provided with the help of a strap with a buckle in the back. Bloomers were made from a special double "harem" diagonal and were quite durable.

Soldier's gymnast, model 1943. It was introduced by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated January 15, 1943 to replace the tunic of the 1935 model. The main differences were in a soft standing collar instead of a turn-down. The collar was fastened with two small uniform buttons. The front placket was open and fastened with three buttons through through loops.

Attached shoulder straps were placed on the shoulders, for which belt loops were sewn. The soldier's tunic had no pockets in wartime, they were introduced later. Pentagonal field epaulettes were worn on the shoulders in combat conditions. The infantry's epaulette field was green, the piping along the edge of the epaulette was crimson. Badges of junior officers were sewn on the top of the epaulette.

Belt. Due to the fact that leather was expensive to process and often required for the manufacture of more durable and responsible items of equipment, by the end of the war, a braid waist belt reinforced with leather or split leather elements became more common. This type of belt appeared before 1941 and was used until the end of the war.

Many leather waist belts, differing in detail, came from Lend-Lease allies. The American belt shown in the photo, 45 mm wide, had a single-pronged buckle, like the Soviet counterparts, but it was not made of wire that was round in cross section, but was cast or stamped, with clear corners.

The Red Army soldiers also used captured German belts, in which, because of the pattern with an eagle and a swastika, they had to modify the buckle. Most often, these attributes were simply ground off, but if there was free time, the silhouette of a five-pointed star cut through the buckle. The photo shows another version of the alteration: a hole was punched in the center of the buckle, into which a star from a Red Army cap or cap was inserted.

Scout knife NR-40. The reconnaissance knife of the 1940 model was adopted by the Red Army following the results of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, when there was a need for a simple and convenient army combat knife.

Soon, the production of these knives was launched by the Trud artel in the village of Vacha (Gorky Region) and at the Zlatoust Tool Plant in the Urals. Later, HP-40s were also manufactured at other enterprises, including those in besieged Leningrad. Despite a single drawing, HP-40s from different manufacturers differ in details.

At the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War, only scouts were armed with HP-40 knives. For the infantry, they were not authorized weapons, but the closer to 1945, the more and more knives can be seen in photographs of ordinary submachine gunners. Production of the HP-40 continued after the war, both in the USSR and in the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact.

Glass flask. Glass flasks were widely used in many armies of the world. The Russian Imperial Army was no exception, from which this type of flask was inherited by the Red Army. Although the tin or aluminum canteens produced in parallel were more practical, cheap glass containers were good for the mass draft army.

In the Red Army, they tried to replace glass flasks with aluminum ones, but they did not forget about glass either - on December 26, 1931, another standard was approved for the manufacture of such flasks with a nominal volume of 0.75 and 1.0 liters. With the beginning of the war, glass flasks became the main ones - the shortage of aluminum and the blockade of Leningrad, where most aluminum flasks were produced, affected.

The flask was closed with a rubber or wooden stopper with a twine tied around the neck. Several types of cases were used for carrying, and almost all of them provided for wearing a flask on a belt over the shoulder. Structurally, such a cover was a simple bag made of fabric with rope ties at the neck. There were options for covers with soft inserts to protect the flask during impacts - these were used in the Airborne Forces. A glass flask could also be carried in a belt case, adopted for aluminum flasks.

Bag for box magazines. With the advent of box magazines for the Shpagin submachine gun and with the development of the Sudayev submachine gun with similar magazines, a need arose for a bag to carry them. A bag for magazines of a German submachine gun was used as a prototype.

The bag contained three stores, each of which was designed for 35 rounds. Each PPS-43 was supposed to have two such bags, but wartime photographs show that submachine gunners often wore only one. This was due to a certain shortage of stores - in combat conditions they were consumables and were easily lost.

A bag was sewn from canvas or tarpaulin and, unlike the German one, was greatly simplified. The valve was fastened with pegs or wooden toggles, there were options with buttons. On the back of the bag were sewn loops for threading a waist belt. Bags were worn on a belt in front, which provided quick access to equipped stores and stacking empty ones back. Laying stores up or down the neck was not regulated.

Yuft boots. Initially, the boots were the only footwear of the Russian soldier: boots with windings were accepted for supply only at the beginning of 1915, when the army increased dramatically in numbers, and the boots were no longer enough. Soldier's boots were made from yuft and in the Red Army they were supplied to all branches of the armed forces.

In the mid-30s, tarpaulin was invented in the USSR - a material with a fabric base, on which artificial sodium butadiene rubber was applied with an imitation of leather texture. With the beginning of the war, the problem of supplying the mobilized army with shoes became acute, and the “damn skin” came in handy - the boots of the Red Army soldier became tarpaulin.

By 1945, the typical Soviet infantryman was shod in kirzachi or boots with windings, but experienced soldiers sought to get leather boots for themselves. The photo on the infantryman shows yuft boots, with leather soles and leather heels.

5. A girl and a young man from the Leningrad People's Militia on the banks of the Neva. 1941

6. Orderly Claudia Olomskaya assists the crew of a wrecked T-34 tank. Belgorod region. July 9-10, 1943

7. Residents of Leningrad are digging an anti-tank ditch. July 1941

8. Women are engaged in the transportation of gouges on the Moscow highway in besieged Leningrad. November 1941

9. Female doctors make dressings for the wounded in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the Zhitomir-Chelyabinsk flight. June 1944

10. The imposition of plaster bandages on the wounded in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the flight Zhitomir - Chelyabinsk. June 1944

11. Subcutaneous injection of a wounded man in the car of the Soviet military hospital train No. 234 at the Nizhyn station. February 1944

12. Bandaging of the wounded in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 318 during the flight Nezhin-Kirov. January 1944

13. Female doctors of the Soviet military hospital train No. 204 give an intravenous infusion to the wounded during the Sapogovo-Guryev flight. December 1943

14. Female doctors bandaging the wounded in the car of the Soviet military hospital train No. 111 during the flight Zhytomyr-Chelyabinsk. December 1943

15. The wounded are waiting for dressing in the car of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the Smorodino-Yerevan flight. December 1943

16. Group portrait of the military division of the 329th anti-aircraft artillery regiment in the city of Komarno, Czechoslovakia. 1945

17. Group portrait of servicemen of the 585th Medical Battalion of the 75th Guards Rifle Division. 1944

18. Yugoslav partisans on the street of the town of Pozhega (Požega, the territory of modern Croatia). 09/17/1944

19. Group photo of female fighters of the 1st battalion of the 17th shock brigade of the 28th shock division of NOAU on the street of the liberated town of Dzhurjevac (the territory of modern Croatia). January 1944

20. A medical instructor bandages the head of a wounded Red Army soldier on a village street.

21. Lepa Radic before execution. Hanged by the Germans in the city of Bosanska Krupa, 17-year-old Yugoslav partisan Lepa Radic (12/19/1925-February 1943).

22. Female air defense fighters are on alert on the roof of house number 4 on Khalturin Street (now Millionnaya Street) in Leningrad. May 1, 1942

23. Girls - fighters of the 1st Krajinsky proletarian shock brigade of the NOAU. Arandjelovac, Yugoslavia. September 1944

24. A female soldier among a group of wounded Red Army prisoners on the outskirts of the village. 1941

25. A lieutenant of the 26th Infantry Division of the US Army communicates with Soviet female medical officers. Czechoslovakia. 1945

26. Attack pilot of the 805th assault aviation regiment, Lieutenant Anna Alexandrovna Egorova (09/23/1918 - 10/29/2009).

27. Captured Soviet female soldiers near the German tractor "Krupp Protze" somewhere in Ukraine. 08/19/1941

28. Two captured Soviet female soldiers at the assembly point. 1941

29. Two elderly residents of Kharkov at the entrance to the basement of a destroyed house. February-March 1943

30. A captured Soviet soldier sits at a desk on the street of an occupied village. 1941

31. Soviet soldier shakes hands American soldier during a meeting in Germany. 1945

32. Air barrier balloon on Stalin Avenue in Murmansk. 1943

33. Women from the militia unit of Murmansk in military training. July 1943

34. Soviet refugees on the outskirts of a village near Kharkov. February-March 1943

35. Signalman-observer of the anti-aircraft battery Maria Travkina. Rybachy Peninsula, Murmansk region. 1943

36. One of the best snipers of the Leningrad Front N.P. Petrova with her students. June 1943

37. Construction of the personnel of the 125th Guards Bomber Regiment on the occasion of the presentation of the guards banner. Aerodrome Leonidovo, Smolensk region. October 1943

38. Guard captain, deputy squadron commander of the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 4th Guards Bomber Aviation Division Maria Dolina near the Pe-2 aircraft. 1944

39. Captured Soviet women-military personnel price Nevel | Pskov region. 07/26/1941

40. German soldiers take the arrested Soviet women partisans out of the forest.

41. Girl-soldier from the Soviet troops-liberators of Czechoslovakia in the cab of the truck. Prague. May 1945

42. Medical instructor of the 369th separate battalion of marines of the Danube military flotilla chief foreman Ekaterina Illarionovna Mikhailova (Dyomina) (b. 1925). In the Red Army since June 1941 (added two years to her 15 years).

43. Radio operator of the air defense unit K.K. Barysheva (Baranova). Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945

44. Private, treated for a wound in the Arkhangelsk hospital.

45. Soviet anti-aircraft gunners. Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945

46. Soviet rangefinder girls from the Air Defense Forces. Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945

47. Sniper of the 184th Infantry Division Cavalier of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, Senior Sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina. 1944

48. Commander of the 23rd Guards Rifle Division, Major General P.M. Shafarenko in the Reichstag with colleagues. May 1945

49. Operating sisters of the 250th medical battalion of the 88th rifle division. 1941

50. The driver of the 171st separate anti-aircraft artillery division, Private S.I. Telegin (Kireeva). 1945

51. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, holder of the Order of Glory, III degree, senior sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina in the village of Merzlyaki. Vitebsk region, Belarus. 1944

52. The crew of the T-611 minesweeper of the Volga military flotilla. From left to right: Red Navy sailors Agniya Shabalina (mechanic), Vera Chapova (machine gunner), foreman of the 2nd article Tatyana Kupriyanova (ship commander), Red Navy sailors Vera Ukhlova (sailor) and Anna Tarasova miner). June-August 1943

53. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Commander of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, Senior Sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina in the village of Stolyarishki, Lithuania. 1944

54. Soviet sniper corporal Roza Shanina at the Krynki state farm. Vitebsk region, Byelorussian SSR. June 1944

55. Former nurse and translator of the partisan detachment "Polyarnik" medical service sergeant Anna Vasilievna Vasilyeva (Wet). 1945

56. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, holder of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, senior sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina at the celebration of the New Year 1945 in the editorial office of the newspaper "Destroy the Enemy!".

57. Soviet sniper future Hero Soviet Union senior sergeant Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (07/01/1916-10/27/1974). 1942

58. Soldiers of the partisan detachment "Polar Explorer" on a halt during a campaign behind enemy lines. From left to right: nurse, intelligence officer Maria Mikhailovna Shilkova, nurse, communication courier Klavdia Stepanovna Krasnolobova (Listova), fighter, political instructor Klavdia Danilovna Vtyurina (Golitskaya). 1943

59. Soldiers of the partisan detachment "Polar Explorer": nurse, demolition worker Zoya Ilyinichna Derevnina (Klimova), nurse Maria Stepanovna Volova, nurse Alexandra Ivanovna Ropotova (Nevzorova).

60. Soldiers of the 2nd platoon of the partisan detachment "Polar Explorer" before going on a mission. Partisan base Shumi-gorodok. Karelian-Finnish SSR. 1943

61. Soldiers of the partisan detachment "Polar explorer" before going on a mission. Partisan base Shumi-gorodok. Karelian-Finnish SSR. 1943

62. Pilots of the 586th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment are discussing the past sortie near the Yak-1 aircraft. Airfield "Anisovka", Saratov region. September 1942

63. Pilot of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Junior Lieutenant R.V. Yushin. 1945

64. Soviet cameraman Maria Ivanovna Sukhova (1905-1944) in a partisan detachment.

65. Pilot of the 175th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Maria Tolstova, in the cockpit of an Il-2 attack aircraft. 1945

66. Women dig anti-tank ditches near Moscow in the fall of 1941.

67. Soviet traffic controller in front of a burning building on a Berlin street. May 1945

68. Deputy commander of the 125th (female) Borisov Guards Bomber Regiment named after the Hero of the Soviet Union Marina Raskova, Major Elena Dmitrievna Timofeeva.

69. Fighter pilot of the 586th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Raisa Nefedovna Surnachevskaya. 1943

70. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front Senior Sergeant Roza Shanina. 1944

71. Soldiers of the partisan detachment "Polar Explorer" in the first military campaign. July 1943

72. Marines Pacific Fleet on the way to Port Arthur. In the foreground, participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Pacific Fleet paratrooper Anna Yurchenko. August 1945

73. Soviet partisan girl. 1942

74. Officers of the 246th Infantry Division, including women, on the street of a Soviet village. 1942

75. A private girl from the Soviet liberators of Czechoslovakia smiles from the cab of a truck. 1945

76. Three captured Soviet female soldiers.

77. Pilot of the 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Junior Lieutenant Lidia Litvyak (1921-1943) after a sortie on the wing of his Yak-1B fighter.

78. Scout Valentina Oleshko (left) with her friend before being thrown into the German rear in the Gatchina region. 1942

79. A column of captured Red Army soldiers in the vicinity of Kremenchug, Ukraine. September 1941.

80. Gunsmiths load IL-2 attack aircraft cassettes with PTAB anti-tank bombs.

81. Female medical instructors of the 6th Guards Army. 03/08/1944

82. Red Army soldiers of the Leningrad Front on the march. 1944

83. Signalman Lidia Nikolaevna Blokova. Central front. 08/08/1943

84. Military doctor of the 3rd rank (captain of the medical service) Elena Ivanovna Grebeneva (1909-1974), medical resident of the surgical dressing platoon of the 316th medical battalion of the 276th rifle division. February 14, 1942

85. Maria Dementyevna Kucheryavaya, born in 1918, lieutenant of the medical service. Sevlievo, Bulgaria. September 1944

An invaluable contribution to the victory over the Nazi invaders was made by Soviet women who stood up to defend their homeland. This collection is dedicated to them.

1. Soviet nurse assisting a wounded Red Army soldier under enemy fire.

2. Soviet nurses are a wounded Red Army soldier, delivered to the rear on the C-3 aircraft (modification of the U-2 aircraft for transporting the wounded).

3. Pilots of the Pe-2 bomber from the 587th air regiment are discussing the upcoming flight in 1943.

4. The crew of the Pe-2 bomber from the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment tells aircraft mechanics about the past flight.

5. A girl and a young man from the Leningrad People's Militia on the banks of the Neva. 1941

6. Orderly Claudia Olomskaya assists the crew of a wrecked T-34 tank. Belgorod region. July 9-10, 1943

7. Residents of Leningrad are digging an anti-tank ditch. July 1941

8. Women are engaged in the transportation of gouges on the Moscow highway in besieged Leningrad. November 1941

9. Female doctors make dressings for the wounded in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the Zhitomir-Chelyabinsk flight. June 1944

10. The imposition of plaster bandages on the wounded in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the flight Zhitomir - Chelyabinsk. June 1944

11. Subcutaneous injection of a wounded man in the car of the Soviet military hospital train No. 234 at the Nizhyn station. February 1944

12. Bandaging of the wounded in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 318 during the flight Nezhin-Kirov. January 1944

13. Female doctors of the Soviet military hospital train No. 204 give an intravenous infusion to the wounded during the Sapogovo-Guryev flight. December 1943

14. Female doctors bandaging the wounded in the car of the Soviet military hospital train No. 111 during the flight Zhytomyr-Chelyabinsk. December 1943

15. The wounded are waiting for dressing in the car of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the Smorodino-Yerevan flight. December 1943

16. Group portrait of the military division of the 329th anti-aircraft artillery regiment in the city of Komarno, Czechoslovakia. 1945

17. Group portrait of servicemen of the 585th Medical Battalion of the 75th Guards Rifle Division. 1944

18. Yugoslav partisans on the street of the town of Pozhega (Požega, the territory of modern Croatia). 09/17/1944

20. A medical instructor bandages the head of a wounded Red Army soldier on a village street.

21. Lepa Radic before execution. Hanged by the Germans in the city of Bosanska Krupa, 17-year-old Yugoslav partisan Lepa Radic (12/19/1925-February 1943).

22. Female air defense fighters are on alert on the roof of house number 4 on Khalturin Street (now Millionnaya Street) in Leningrad. May 1, 1942

23. Girls - fighters of the 1st Krajinsky proletarian shock brigade of the NOAU. Arandjelovac, Yugoslavia. September 1944

24. A female soldier among a group of wounded Red Army prisoners on the outskirts of the village. 1941

25. A lieutenant of the 26th Infantry Division of the US Army communicates with Soviet female medical officers. Czechoslovakia. 1945

26. Attack pilot of the 805th assault aviation regiment, Lieutenant Anna Alexandrovna Egorova (09/23/1918 - 10/29/2009).

27. Captured Soviet female soldiers near the German tractor "Krupp Protze" somewhere in Ukraine. 08/19/1941

28. Two captured Soviet female soldiers at the assembly point. 1941

29. Two elderly residents of Kharkov at the entrance to the basement of a destroyed house. February-March 1943

30. A captured Soviet soldier sits at a desk on the street of an occupied village. 1941

31. A Soviet soldier shakes hands with an American soldier during a meeting in Germany. 1945

32. Air barrier balloon on Stalin Avenue in Murmansk. 1943

33. Women from the militia unit of Murmansk in military training. July 1943

34. Soviet refugees on the outskirts of a village near Kharkov. February-March 1943

35. Signalman-observer of the anti-aircraft battery Maria Travkina. Rybachy Peninsula, Murmansk region. 1943

36. One of the best snipers of the Leningrad Front N.P. Petrova with her students. June 1943

37. Construction of the personnel of the 125th Guards Bomber Regiment on the occasion of the presentation of the guards banner. Aerodrome Leonidovo, Smolensk region. October 1943

38. Guard captain, deputy squadron commander of the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 4th Guards Bomber Aviation Division Maria Dolina near the Pe-2 aircraft. 1944

39. Captured Soviet female soldiers in Nevel. Pskov region. 07/26/1941

40. German soldiers take the arrested Soviet women partisans out of the forest.

41. Girl-soldier from the Soviet troops-liberators of Czechoslovakia in the cab of the truck. Prague. May 1945

43. Radio operator of the air defense unit K.K. Barysheva (Baranova). Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945

44. Private, treated for a wound in the Arkhangelsk hospital.

45. Soviet anti-aircraft gunners. Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945

46. Soviet rangefinder girls from the Air Defense Forces. Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945

47. Sniper of the 184th Infantry Division Cavalier of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, Senior Sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina. 1944

48. Commander of the 23rd Guards Rifle Division, Major General P.M. Shafarenko in the Reichstag with colleagues. May 1945

49. Operating sisters of the 250th medical battalion of the 88th rifle division. 1941

50. The driver of the 171st separate anti-aircraft artillery division, Private S.I. Telegin (Kireeva). 1945

51. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, holder of the Order of Glory, III degree, senior sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina in the village of Merzlyaki. Vitebsk region, Belarus. 1944

53. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Commander of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, Senior Sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina in the village of Stolyarishki, Lithuania. 1944

54. Soviet sniper corporal Roza Shanina at the Krynki state farm. Vitebsk region, Byelorussian SSR. June 1944

55. Former nurse and translator of the partisan detachment "Polyarnik" medical service sergeant Anna Vasilievna Vasilyeva (Wet). 1945

57. Soviet sniper, future Hero of the Soviet Union, senior sergeant Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (07/01/1916-10/27/1974). 1942

59. Soldiers of the partisan detachment "Polar Explorer": nurse, demolition worker Zoya Ilyinichna Derevnina (Klimova), nurse Maria Stepanovna Volova, nurse Alexandra Ivanovna Ropotova (Nevzorova).

60. Soldiers of the 2nd platoon of the partisan detachment "Polar Explorer" before going on a mission. Partisan base Shumi-gorodok. Karelian-Finnish SSR. 1943

61. Soldiers of the partisan detachment "Polar explorer" before going on a mission. Partisan base Shumi-gorodok. Karelian-Finnish SSR. 1943

62. Pilots of the 586th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment are discussing the past sortie near the Yak-1 aircraft. Airfield "Anisovka", Saratov region. September 1942

63. Pilot of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Junior Lieutenant R.V. Yushin. 1945

64. Soviet cameraman Maria Ivanovna Sukhova (1905-1944) in a partisan detachment.

65. Pilot of the 175th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Maria Tolstova, in the cockpit of an Il-2 attack aircraft. 1945

66. Women dig anti-tank ditches near Moscow in the fall of 1941.

67. Soviet traffic controller in front of a burning building on a Berlin street. May 1945

68. Deputy commander of the 125th (female) Borisov Guards Bomber Regiment named after the Hero of the Soviet Union Marina Raskova, Major Elena Dmitrievna Timofeeva.

69. Fighter pilot of the 586th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Raisa Nefedovna Surnachevskaya. 1943

70. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front Senior Sergeant Roza Shanina. 1944

71. Soldiers of the partisan detachment "Polar Explorer" in the first military campaign. July 1943

72. Marines of the Pacific Fleet on the way to Port Arthur. In the foreground, participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Pacific Fleet paratrooper Anna Yurchenko. August 1945

73. Soviet partisan girl. 1942

74. Officers of the 246th Infantry Division, including women, on the street of a Soviet village. 1942

75. A private girl from the Soviet liberators of Czechoslovakia smiles from the cab of a truck. 1945

76. Three captured Soviet female soldiers.

77. Pilot of the 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Junior Lieutenant Lidia Litvyak (1921-1943) after a sortie on the wing of his Yak-1B fighter.

78. Scout Valentina Oleshko (left) with her friend before being thrown into the German rear in the Gatchina region. 1942

79. A column of captured Red Army soldiers in the vicinity of Kremenchug, Ukraine. September 1941.

80. Gunsmiths load IL-2 attack aircraft cassettes with PTAB anti-tank bombs.

81. Female medical instructors of the 6th Guards Army. 03/08/1944

82. Red Army soldiers of the Leningrad Front on the march. 1944

83. Signalman Lidia Nikolaevna Blokova. Central front. 08/08/1943

85. Maria Dementyevna Kucheryavaya, born in 1918, lieutenant of the medical service. Sevlievo, Bulgaria. September 1944

86. Anti-aircraft gunner Elena Petrovna Ivanova after returning from the front. Voronezh region. May 1945