L42A1 slings at War & Peace Show

Found four of these at Beltring - brand new, never issued. Last of the breed in that they are dated 1992 and marked on label for the L42A1 (the year they went out of service). The slings were later used on the new L96 before an identical nylon sling (slightly softer nylon material) marked L8A1 was made only to go out of service for health & safety reasons (nylon melts and sticks to your skin but if you are that close to the fire then I imagine that will be the least of your problems). The new version of the L8A1 sling uses a canvas webbing material and is not as wide so is not as comfortable to use and I don't believe they were ever issued with L42A1.

I can only assume that these came from Belgium judging from the REN RR contractor. Our contractors were REMPLOY at Blackpool. REN assembled them out of material supplied by Wyedales(?) and buckles from Irvine (who took over Aeroflex the parachute harness and strap makers). Still far too expensive so they went to cotton then narrower material.

The narrow current ones are easily the most popular.

Good find thugh!