Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
If you need to carry weight then (from my experience) you carry the combat essentials in your chest and hip webbing and all the other stuff mainly food and water and additional ammo etc in your Bergen. On contact hit the quick release belt-buckle and drop the Bergen and get on with the fight. First few minutes with the weight off you and the adrenalin it feels like you are walking on air. Kind of addictive. Go back and get your other kit later.

The stuff on your chest and belt only can't be too much more than 10kgs unless you are a machine gunner.

The change that is necessary for these longer ops is that the kidney pouches are removed from the back of the belt so the Bergen can ride on the hips.
German tradition is to separate Rucksack and a small combat pouch (rear, on the belt). The Rucksack is almost never worn, though (exception: mountain troops). It's hard to impossible to find exercise or wartime photos where infantrymen carry Rucksacks. Platoon trailers and later squad vehicles carried the stuff.

Very early 1870-1914), soldiers were often portrayed or photographed with moderate march packs on their back, but that weighed less than a Rucksack.