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Does anyone have an Australian issue Bren wallet and spare barrel webbing or canvas case with the correct Australian manufactured/issued marked oil bottles, please? If so could we see some pictures, please, especially of the oil bottles, if they are Australian marked. Thanks
I don't know when the last Brens went out of service in first/front line/rear echelon troops in Australia. Muffer? The ones we had for the L4's were the usual UK issue '44 colour dark green webbing WITHOUT the modified wallet*. In Australia they didn't need to concern themselves with low temperature oil - especially where we were!
* had extra pockets sewn in for 4 part cleaning rod
I have a NOS Australian wallet but without any of the contents and, off the top of my head, I can't remember the date marked on it, if visible. I will see about digging it out and having a look at but working from memory I think it may be made by Slazenger.
If I recall right the wartime, canvas rather than webbing Aussie Slazanger wallets I was importing back in the 90s as they were dirt cheap, with MK I tools and full spares tins all had the original metal bottles but with very rough soldering and no markings on them at all. The 1970s plastic L4 wallet I still have but is heading for the eBay pile along with all the post war Aussie kit, has a standard metal bottle but better made, as well, on the base is a badly printed oval with C arrow W inside, which I've always assumed is a variant of a Canadian mark that I've so far not found a reference to. Paint that is rather than stamped into the metal.
The Aussies did things there own way, as late as 1943 ( I think, the scans are on the PC at home in the shed) they were issuing instructions about holdalls still showing the two piece MK 1 cylinder cleaning rods and only then announcing the issue of new holdalls with a pocket big enough to take a filled wallet. The ATR or MGO was a poor photo copy so I did one of my infamous red backed layouts to reproduce the original photo, breach block and all. If I could retain the info about how to put up photos I'd stick them up here.
Perhaps if the nice chap who bought my Aussie holdalls and wallets off me reads this thread he can have I look at the bottles I sent. They all came out of Australia, even if they were maybe manufactured elsewhere.
ATB
Tom
But while there are 'differences' of course, the 'differences' really equate to different methods of manufacture or interpretation it seems to me
At the end of the chapter I wrote regarding the CES (one of the longest too I should say) I mention that just the variables likely to be encountered in the wallet the holdall and the contents would warrant another book in its own right. Forget the oil bottles and cans......... you could almost do another book about just the combination tools........
Just read the chapter again......... phew! almost 13,000 words alone. It's important to note that the contents of the SPW and holdall changed/varied and had several incarnations during its life with the Bren and L4 guns. While I was clearing my mums house out, I found the tool roll from my dads last Vauxhall car, a Viva. Yep, a spare parts wallet with points and condenser in the pocket part, tools and useful bits and pieces elsewhere and all rolled up around a set of spanners!
Were all the Canadian spare barrel holdalls made of a canvas type material; the example I have is? In my opinion it seemed a better choice of material than webbing by, perhaps, being a little more "waterproof". However, the limited number of Canadian wallets that I've seen have all been made of webbing. Did Canada have canvas type wallets as well as the barrel holdall?
This might interest you guys perhaps?
A former Small Arms Manufacturing Company I worked for, for 11 years. Also had a storage 'Facility' on a Farm in the next Villiage.........(Non Sensitive stuff naturally) & amongt many differing items, including a mountain of 3" Mortar Bipods spares. Was a large pile of unissued tan webbing & canvas variations.
Of the Bren Spare Barrel Carriers. A LOT still with original stores labels attached. The Boss wanted more space for other new stuff to be stored. &.....as '37 Patt webbing was LONG Obsolete & was definitely NOT selling. Or indeed, had any demand from Military Forces Worldwide that we dealt with.
The Boss decided to get rid, 'Burn it all' He said!! Well, as a good Armourer with Excellent Clearing up 'Husbandry' Skills. This felt wrong to Me...Though I understood his logic perfectly.
So I decided to 'Rescue' them all. I asked If I could have them instead, & he agreed. As this was quicker & labour saving in Total. So lunchtime, I drove my Old Austin Maestro Van up the Farm & loaded up all of the wallets. They were stacked VERY neatly in the back, so as to get as many as I could in there.
All in string tied bundles of 10. I JUST managed to get the whole lot neatly ensconced in the Van. With a Feeler gauges thickness both top & side to spare!
It worked out that there was one thousand of these wallets in Total! Now, where to dispose of them?.....After many phone calls to dealers & Friends I knew who might know what to do/ where to offload them. I finally did a deal with former well know Trader in the South of the UK. On the coast.
I sold the lot for one pound ( £1 ) Each, so as to shift the entire batch in one hit. They cost me nothing, so anything that covered my fuel cost, was OK by Me.
I never took cash for them, but got a credit note. So....Every time I visited his very large warehouse/shop. I chose/took stuff that I wanted & it was deducted from the credit note. It took Me 2 years to use it al up! LOL. but did get me some interesting items for my own collection.
The mindset of the Civy manufacturer is to make profit, as it is after all. A Civil Manufacturing Company. If something has no tactical value to the Military, it will not sell. if it doesent sell, it has no value to the manufacturer!...The do not think about collectors, as we are small fry. & they want to sell thousands of items at a time. Or, VERY expensive items singularly. To them as long as there is a large sum involved. It doesn't matter what type of product it is. as long as it WILL Sell!!....
Then there was the time..........OOPS! I'm rambling again! Cheers! :cheers:
One of those might interest the blokes things....... The holdall was pretty redundant right from the word go and certainly in my service life it was so far as Military Training goes. The 2nd gunner in the Bren team would carry the second barrel tucked across his chest, between the pouches and the cross-straps together with the important spare parts wallet. This was important because from the early 60's or so it carried the extra cleaning stuff for the rifle section such as the 4 piece screw-together cleaning rod, oil and graphite grease, a few spare Bren and rifle parts. So far as the section commanders were concerned the holdalls were just extra kit to carry and as useless as........, the tripod! And like the tripods, just filled up space on the G-10 store shelf
Most things 'on the shelf' had a second sort of tacit use..... like the wallet used as a simple tool roll or simple range tool kit wallet. But I can't think of any other use for the holdalls - except as a carrier bag for a Sten (useless of for the Sterling though!).
Depending on the operation, the 2nd gunner might or might not carry a rifle but he'd have an SMG (or a pistol).
The Canadian Bren holdalls were made both ways. Some of webbing and some of canvas.
---------- Post added at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:46 PM ----------
All of the Canadian wallets I've seen were webbing.
The silver coloured metal ones are actually all brass with some sort of coating on. If you scrape off the dull silver layer, it will show brass.