Combat gears of the PLA

how come this board is so chill now? no one comes here anymore. still, i open a new thread to talk about infantry combat gear.
back to the old days, in WWII, the most common personal gear of ammo holder is a cloth belt to be worn on the shoulder or waist. IN 1955, as type 53 rifles are made into a sttandard rifle for the PLA, 53 ammo holder is also worn on the belt. It didn't last long as type 56 entered service. which a new cloth belt ammo holder is issued to the troop.
the type 56 semi auto rifle's ammo holder is combine of X belt and packets for 56 clips.

as type 56 assualt rifle entered the service, the world famous chest ammo punch also entered the service. this gear is still in the service today.

type 81's ammo holder is about as same as the type 56. the punch could hold 4 mags instead of type 56's 3. and it also has 4 smaller packets, 2 on each side, for hand grenade, first aid, or paper, pen and some stuff.

the standard PLA infantry soldier webbing carriage order goes like this.

1.gasmask bag (mostly a 65 gasmask), wear on left shoulder, the bag is at right hand side.
2. stuff bag, wear on right shoulder, the bag is at left hand side.
3. grenade (4 stick grenades) pack, wear on left shoulder, the bag is at right hand side.
4. canteen. wear on right shoulder, the canteen at left hand side.
5. put on the belt, the most common red brown leather belt to keep all of the gears at where they are.
6. put on ammo punch, tie the rope at the back to keep it still.
7, RPG loader, machine gun loader carries on the extra ammo.
or wear backsacks.
8. check your gears.

such webbing could make the progress going very very VERY slow. and at about the early 90s, such problem was noticed to the high command, and one of the first new vest was in progress
it is the type 91 webbing system.

since i need to upload some photos, i will be putting this thread into 3 parts, please don't count this as doulbe posts.

the type 91 webbing system has mostly 3 parts.
the vest
the the huge backsack
and the 24 hours backpack.



the vest has 4 front mag holders, with 4 stick grenade holder 2 on each side of the rib cage. and at the back of the vest, it has a pack for canteen. it has no S belt, and at the front is connected by 2 metal clipers.

the 24 hous backpack is more a stuff bag, which could contain some bullets and meals.

the only good design of this system is the huge backsack. which could hold winter clothes, sleeping bags, and other stuff. it could open from the top and the bottom. it has two small bags on each side could hold rubber shoes. and below the small pack, one side could hold the gasmask pack another side is for canteen.


the problem with the vest was the greatest. soldiers complain about the loose design, and uncomfortablness. which resulted 91 did not make into the service for a large number.

there, we have 95 vest.

the type 95 carriage system is one of the more advanced carriage system to the PLA. it is issued to the troop with the 95 rifle.
type 95 system includes 3 parts:
type 95 infantryman vest
type 95/01 infantryman 24 hours backpack
type 01 backsack.

which type 95 vest includes:
type 95 rifleman vest, sniper vest for 88 sniper rifle, machine gunner vest for 95 maching gun. and 99 submachine gunner vest.

the most common type 95 rifleman vest has 4 front mag holders for type 95 rifle, from photos we could also find such vest could be used for 81 rifle as well. a S belt is added at the bottom of the vest. such belt could hold uni packs such as canteen pack, stuff pack, gasmask pack, scope pack, bayonet board, first aid pack and shovel pack. 4 grenade packs are at the same place as type 91, under the arm. it could hold both stick grenades and hand grandes.





95/01 infantry backpack
it is a square pack to be worn on the back of the soldier. 2 more mag holders on the outside of the pack. and the main bag could contain meals, bullets and such. at the bottom, there are a pack to hold for rifle launch grenades.
such pack is different for machine gunner and sniper




01 living carriage sack

it is the big sack. it could hold sleepingbag, winter clothes, and so on. type 95 infantry backpack could be put on such sack

it is similiar to 91 sack, only without the gasmask pack and canteen pack at the bottom.


type 95 carriage system could easily solve the main problem of SPEED wearing for PLA. but the only thing issued to the troop of the vest is the vest and the belt. none of the unit packs of canteen, shovel pack and such were issued to the troop. soldiers still have to put on canteen, and other packs except the grenade pack the old fashion way. which resulted 95 vest DID NOT improve the speed of wearing very much. for this, type 95 is a completly failure to the PLA, and we DO NOT KNOW what the XXXX the high command is thinking!

thought i am off topic but i think this periods are a exam period

Good photos of the gear. It seems to bear some resemblence to the Israeli equipment though major differences are obvious including the vest like appearance that helps distribution load more effectively.

actually, most people agree on type 95 is somehow from LBV (sorry if i spelt wrong, never been a fan of US miltary). and lots of people don't like the idea of 4+1 mags for common infantry man. but my point of view on PLA is that PLA is still a field combat army, with lots of supplies from the rear of the line, 4+1 is just enough for an infantryman. i guess somehow it should be improved as PLA matches to war.

4+1??? Let me tell you from experience, 2+1 weigths too much, even with practice blank ammoes. Our army has calculated that 90 rounds for rifle is sufficent enough to withstand 24h even in most fiercing battles. And less weigth, better gear, better gear, better morale...and so on...well maybe this is artillery point of wiev and from small army, but still...

But I think that most important to personal gear is its adjustability. Finnish gear was wery neat thing and looking from pics it seemed to contain nicely things that would need in various conditions of battle. But in service, its very, very uncomfrotable, you cannot took any bags out of it whitout serious efforts (and risk it to broke), so if you had to move quigly, like we did in one simulated gurellia raid to another battery, we simply leave them in the truck and stucked mags and smokegrenades (wich very used to simulate real explosives) into our pockets and snarbel-proof vest wich were required to wear under the normal battle gear!! (added with constant raining requiring the raincoats to be our de facto service dress, we were mobile as snowmens)
It was quite releifing moment to run in the swamped woods whit no extra weigth, only with your rifle...for prief moment i use to think that i have made wrong decicion to join artillery...well it didnt lasted wery long, i and everybody else of that squad forgot to take my canteen whit me so after our strike was over and we were offically killed. We couldnt redo our strike to my brother's HQ battery as we were dying of thirst. It would have nice renzevou as he would have in guard of some position for 90% posipility...

I think china (and every other army as well) should go on for protective vest/battle gear compination, whit all the heaviyer personal equipment carryed in removable baggs and packs. Modern armyes move more and more in touch with vehicles, trucks and armour and every squad needs a dedicated transporter to move in modern warfare. That allows much of the stuff to left there and old leather personel carrier technigues are more to specially trained troops that needs special equipment of their own thus making need for specialised gears.
And that backpack seems rather small one. Sleeping back i good, but you most likely would want a fieldmatches to go whit it, and winterwear takes afwull lot of space, expecially if we are talking of WINTERs of how i understand them...and for me, it took almoust have of the space to include the personals stuff like your own food, candyes, tea, coffey, sugars, milkpowers, personal hygienia sets, towels....and of course the 'warmemoryes'...it takes lots of space to stuff reindeer horns and undestructed grenades alongside all of that...

4+1 is too much? I don't think so. Diggers get 6 30 round clip. 180 round per person. Under combat, per digger will have the 6 mag + 2 grenade + 1 40mm rocket,2 1iter of water and 1 Kilo MRE, first aid kit and other tools. The poor machine gun crew carrys extra 250rounds machine gun mag on there webbing. . The back pack is about 25 kilos. In it, we have 2 change of uniform and underwear. wool jumper, tent & sleeping gear, 2 liter water. personal hygiene item. extra 250 round for long range partol. It is our House on our own back.

as for 90 rounds quota of finish army.. I know just one section attack, we will use about 2 magazine. 180 rounds don't last too long under heavy exchange.

The diggers from Australia are still very much an triditional infantry on foot. It is motorized, but active on foot recon partrol backed by motorized fire support is the winning package. Like in vietnam. Most time we tried to avoid direct contact with enemy. But when sh*t hits the fang, diggers sure can dig in and fight. In the battle of longtam, 1 company withstanded attack from a full VC regiment. At that time. they used famous 7.62 SLR. it was still 6 magazine per person I think.

Now.. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

...well our government tryes to go cheap everywhere it can....

But the 90 rounds is calculated by some theoreticans based on our experience in WWII, exspecially form those cruisal battles in 1944...It should last in the most heavyest fighting...but i quess it's different policy in different country...eg. we were not allowed to use the rapidfire mode other than in extreme emergency situations, and in training it was strictly forbidden ...they always told us that this is not an US army, we simply don't have enough bullets...

...and what comes for carrying the stuff around...we artillery mens go every places by cars so we are used to just throw the things in the car...to us even carrying the rifle was sometimes too much for us gunners...

And merry christmas to down under as well....

your experience in WWII? man, i thought your last battle is with the russians, but anyway. remember back to WWII, you still use single shot rifles? you ever heard of something that fires automaticly?
i am just kidding. but 4+1 is OUR EXPERIENCE on viet name war from 1979 to 1989. and i think the mags should be doubled as many as possible, since the US EXPERIENCE is like...2005....