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'Sigh' this thing:
This is the polish combat pack.. It's a Sack okay!? can we just be honest for a moment, this is not a combat pack designed to keep all the vital gear of the polish soldier, this is a camouflaged potato sack..
Ugh.. alright, here's the history of the thing..
History:
Poland was liberated and occupied by the USSR during World War 2, and later gained autonomy and entered into the Warsaw Pact.
Typical for the Warsaw Pact armies, the polish camouflage patterns have rarely had any camouflage properties.
In 1968 the polish army introduced the wz.68 Moro LWP(Ludowe Wojsko Polskie) Pattern, otherwise known as the Worm Pattern, because it looks like worms.
This is so stupid that i wouldn't even bother describing it, if it wasn't actually the thing i do on this blog.
Someone in the polish army actually had the thought, "Uhhhhhhhh.. We should, you know, like, make a camouflage pattern, that looks like worms, because if we were spotted by the enemy, they wouldn't shoot at us, because they would just think that we were piles of worms shaped like humans" and his superior looked at this man and said something like "HALLELUJAH! THAT'S BRILLIANT!!!! keep this up and you'll make General some day!"
Its ridicules, but as we progress through polish camouflage history, you'll notice that this ain't the last time this happens..
In the 1970's the polish special forces started experimenting with the Gepard(Leopard) Camo:
And here is my question: "What the actual fuck was the experiment?". Was this some sort of psychological experiment designed to prove how much bullshit soldiers would take? Or were they actually trying to camouflage themselves as Leopards, to blend in with the natural population of leopard, that had just EXPLODED in Poland during the 1970's. In fact i have made a chart showing the population of wild Leopards in Poland, starting in the dark ages until the end of the cold war.
So maybe i was wrong..
The next thing the polish army came up with was the wz.89. Zába Pattern, which in polish means Frog, but it was nicknamed the Puma Pattern, again i guess, because of the abundance of wild Pumas in Poland.
And can i just point out that this is what a puma looks like:
WHAT THE F... I don't even care anymore....
As we know, every time a new camouflage system is introduced, new gear is issued, and this is were the nightmare pack joins the polish army.
THIS IS 1989!!! HOW CAN THIS EVEN BE REAL?? in 1939 the Swedish were issued with stuff like this:
Is it really that ba...
Let me stop me right there. This is not that bad, nothing is this bad, this is a bad dream, a literal nightmare, you are expecting to wake up, but you never do...
I am thankful everyday that i was not in the polish army during the 1990's..
Here is what the carrying system looks like:
So they decided to do this, 2 wide nylon straps so you can carry this like a backpack, but they added carbines to the straps, so you can make yourself a handy shoulder bag, that you will have no possible way of hauling around..
The straps are not padded and they are made of Nylon, combine this with the fact that the sack has a load capacity of around 70 liters, you have, put mildly, a very uncomfortable pack. There is no back support and the entire thing is made of soft cotton.
In Short: Its a Cotton sack, 70liters capacity, dreadful.
Do i even dare to ask.. anything ells?
I have 3 things for you:
1:
You can write your name on a piece of paper and slide in here, making it possible for other people to know that this is yours and then proceed to beat you. The nametag pocket is NOT covered in plastic and not waterproof.
2:
Rubber bottom, this is the only positive aspect. Waterproof bottom, so when you put it down, the stuff inside won't get wet, not until the thing falls over and gets drenched, because the rest of the pack has the same watershedding capabilities as wet paper.
3.
YOU CAN MAKE IT BIGGER... ARE YOU KIDDING??? just stop...
Anything negative?
I'm not even going to answer that question...
Price?
Considering how bad this pack is, its actually quiet expensive. i bought mine for 10£ on ebay(16$, 12 Euros)
And it doesn't matter how much or how little you pay for this, if you pay human money for this, you are getting hustled. Not by the guy selling it to you, but by the 1989 all star polish army team.
Verdict?
For the first time ever, I am going to give this pack: Nothing. It is simply so bad that the few positives get killed by the huge negatives aspects. I hate it, so very, very much.
Thanks for reading
Chris.
Note:
I do realize that this was probably not issued as a combat pack, as it more closely resembles the Bundeswehr Seesack. So it was probably a sack issued for transporting gear to and from barracks, and/or bases of operation, and not used for combat.
BUT, as long as retailers label these as combat packs, i reserve the right to review them as such.
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