Original Items. These are very nice substantial grey canvas and leather constructed shoulder bags measuring approximately 12"H x 14"W x 3", which look to have been made to carry documents and possibly equipment. They are marked under the top flap with a Swedish CROWN / FKA, for the Swedish Armed Forces Chemical Institute (Försvarsväsendets kemiska anstalt or FKA). This organization was a government agency created in 1937 and located in Ursvik, Sundbyberg Municipality. FKA had predecessors in chemical warfare and chemical warfare protection activities conducted at Lund university from 1926 and Uppsala university from 1928. In 1945 the FKA was merged into the FOA, so all FKA marked items were made WWII and prior. Some of these shoulder bags also have WWII Era dates stamped inside, but we cannot guarantee that the bags will have a legible date.

There are two main interior pockets inside the bags, one of which is subdivided into four compartments. There are also 7 small pockets under a front flap, which closes up the entire bag. It also has a 15" long pocket on the side, which has its own cover. Given that these were issued to the Chemical Institute, we believe these were used for some type of testing set, with presumably had some type of probe in the longer side pocket. It is also possible that it was for a radio. We have unfortunately not been able to find any specific use attributed to these bags.

The bags show light wear from storage, but appear to be complete and functional. With the pockets and interior compartments, there are lots of possible uses for these vintage surplus military bags. The larger pocket inside would be perfect for a tablet or some other device. Each has a nice shoulder strap fitted to the top.