Rear carry rack from a German Truppenfahrrad M39 Wehrmacht bicycle used by soldier in the SS Totenkopf Division recovered from old German SS dugout in the Demyansk Pocket near Leningrad in Russia,1942 battlefield

This is a unusual find from the battlefield rear carry rack from a German Truppenfahrrad M39 Wehrmacht bicycle. The carry rack which is near complete and pretty much undamaged it is 15 inches long by 6 inches wide it is rusty but still very solid it is relic but has cleaned up very well and is perfect for display or any collection and a nice bit of German bicycle.The rack would have been used by soldiers in the SS Totenkopf Division which was recovered from old German SS dugout in the Demyansk Pocket near Leningrad in Russia,1942 battlefield.The rack comes with 2xA5 laminated information cards.

The Demyansk Pocket in Russia was the name given to the pocket of German troops encircled by the Red Army around Demyansk (Demjansk), south of Leningrad, during the war on the Eastern Front. The pocket existed mainly from 8 February to 21 April 1942. A much smaller force was surrounded in the Kholm Pocket at the town of Kholm, about 100 km (62 mi) to the southwest. Both resulted from the German retreat following their defeat during the Battle of Moscow.

German Forces trapped in the pocket were the 12th, 30th, 32nd, 123rd and 290th infantry divisions, and the SS Division Totenkopf, as well as RAD, Police, Organisation Todt and other auxiliary units, for a total of about 90,000 German troops and around 10,000 auxiliaries. Their commander was General der Infanterie Walter Graf von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt, commander of the II Army Corps.