Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 175:
Description
WWII U.S. Army Signal Corps BG-131 Canvas Carrying Bag – Field Communications Accessory Case, circa 1941-1945 Offered here is a U.S. Army Signal Corps BG-131 canvas carrying bag, a standardized field case produced during the Second World War to house and transport small accessories and components for signal equipment sets. No individual recipient, unit, or contract marking accompanies this piece; its identity rests entirely in the surviving black stencil and its place within the Signal Corps’ numbered ‘BG’ nomenclature system. Throughout the war the Signal Corps issued a large family of canvas bags and covers under this ‘BG’ designation to organize the spare parts, cords, and small tools required to keep field radio and signaling equipment functioning. The BG-131 pattern has been associated with accessories for sets such as the SCR-288 radio and components of the SE-11 signaling-lamp equipment, both fielded widely by infantry and signal units across the European, Pacific, and other theaters, though these photographs alone cannot confirm which specific set this example accompanied. Bags of this type traveled with radio and wire operators moving alongside forward elements, where a compact, snap-secured canvas case offering quick access to accessories was essential to keeping communications running under field conditions. Unglamorous as it appears beside combat relics, such equipment was the quiet backbone of the signal networks tying together companies, battalions, and higher headquarters throughout the conflict. The bag is constructed of heavy olive-drab cotton duck canvas in an elongated, multi-flap configuration, with a main body pocket, an inner divided flap, and a smaller snap-secured accessory pocket layered atop it. The black stencil
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