PUNJI PITS

[Gil Boyd]

We talk of weapons on this site and the damage they do we are all aware of, however, the punji pit, used throughout the ages to great effectiveness in slowing an Army down has been fine tuned in recent wars. The Jungle BATA boot was no challenge for the Punji!!
Just the carrying of one downed soldier took its toll in slowing down a Platoon or Section and the enemy knew it.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Just the carrying of one downed soldier

And later the chances of his losing a foot to septic infections...I used to wear those boots too and the sole had a sheet of roofing steel in it. Nothing more. The spikes usually emanated from the sides of the traps so as to penetrate the leg not the sole. Always made my skin crawl.

[muffett.2008]

Our GP's had a stainless steel plate in them, used to be a bugger when it cracked out.

[browningautorifle]

a stainless steel plate in them, used to be a bugger when it cracked out.

Yes, when I had a pair come apart on me I thought it looked like sheet steel for roofs, no thicker. Didn't know it was stainless. I remember mine cracking and clicking when I walked...snap, snap, snap...

the standard Far Eastern cloth and rubber jungle boots.

Wouldn't those have been a holdover from WW2 and Malaya from the UK stores? Got pics?

[Gil Boyd]

Jim,
Here you go.............bloody useless against punji's and leaches

[Peter Laidler]

On the first tours to SVn it was just the standard Far Eastern cloth and rubber jungle boots. It's the same old story that you go to war with what you've got. What you need comes next and what you'd like comes last.

[Ovidio]

And each war, everything has to be learned again from zero...

[Peter Laidler]

Looks like they've got those old Savage wingmaster shotguns that we used to have plenty of. There were two common shotguns...... I forget which one the other was. We also had some alloy cased shot cartridges that were fully water/moisture proof, full of heavy shot, old horseshoes, nails and shipyard rivets!!

[browningautorifle]

The boots look about like the ones I was thinking of, don't know for sure they were a WW2 idea though. Looks like you might as well have worn your cummin' ashore boots though...

The Wingmaster is Remington 870 and yes, that's what that one LOOKS like to me. Savage made the 77 which was another thing, easy to break the butt in hard use I understand. Could be wrong... Looks like they're waiting for the marching band.

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
Fairly sure it was the Benelli M4 which got approval for use in Malaya by the Joint Service Combat Shotgun Program, but there were several on trial. with different choke requirements.