Pattern 44 Webbing

[Peter Laidler]

The 44 pattern bino cases were a bit of a joke because they were just too small to fit a pair of No2 binos!!!! Well, you could get them in if the case was wringing wet through (which it often was out there I have to admit!) So binos were kept slung round your neck with an SMG sling with the dog clip part around the centre axis bar and tucked under the cross strap. Yes, we did have the belt type pouch issue one-per-man in the rifle companies. I seem to think that was used a a general carry-all. Others who used this '44 and '37 kit will come on board and tell you that when you're 19 or 20, all as thin as a rake there was only so much you can attach to your belt. 2x water bottles each, machette/parang/gollock, pouches, pistol, kitchen sink, fondu set........, you know the sort of thing.

Malaya was the first time I'd ever seen rifles slung muzzle down...., it was the norm.... everyone did it that way..., the Malay Army our Gurkhas, UK Infantry until they left....... that you just got used to although in Australia during work-up training and in Malaya and SVN we didn't have top sling swivels so we couldn't sling our rifles up or down anyway!

But I digress. The really good things were the jungle boots we used on ops and military training days. But alas, no good further up country when the ground was spiked