It Wasn't Like That in My Day! The Days When We Had Kit That Would Last!

Now more reminiscences from former soldier Chuck Unsworth

Recent comment by Coroners has highlighted the failure of supply of soldiers’ personal protection items.  That failure has lead to avoidable deaths and injuries both in Afghanistan and Iraq.  This is appalling but, to any soldier, unsurprising.  Historically our armed forces have had to fight three foes – the Queen’s Enemies, the Politicians and the Ministry of Defence.  It’s difficult to assess which is the most formidable, but MoD is certainly a constant threat, whereas the others may come and go.  I’ll probably address these serious matters in a later post, but today I wanted to discuss Personal Kit.  This is not battlefield equipment, it’s the things like the basic issue of clothing or uniform, and boots and so on.  As an aside, it is utterly scandalous that even now, our people fighting in both actions have found it necessary to purchase their own boots rather than wear the inferior issued items.

Hanging on the back of my garden shed door is my somewhat worn and battered Denison Smock.  For those who don’t have a clue as to what that might be, it’s a canvas, camouflage, zip-up jacket with crotch flap and knitted cuffs.  These were issued to paratroopers during World War 2 - and for many years subsequently.  Stitched to the front are four large conveniently angled pockets with press-stud flaps.  Useful for shooting or a touch of autumn gardening, it’s windproof, capacious, nicely aged, and very comfortable.  Mine was issued in the 1960s and is probably one of the last remaining examples.  It has survived about fifty years of abuse and is still used regularly.  I sometimes see them offered for sale as ‘collectors items’ at ridiculous prices.  I cite this as an examplar of a ‘decent bit of kit’.

Now, popularity or otherwise of personal kit such as this is a real indicator as to how well MoD Purchasing is working.  It’s not only about volume, it’s also about quality.  Soldierproof kit has to be practical, of sound construction and materials, and extremely robust.  Items which always seem to disappear or be in short supply at the Regimental Quartermaster’s Stores tend to be the successes.  Where a QM [quartermaster] has large stocks of an item you can virtually guarantee it has not met with soldier approval.  Of course, here we’re making the wild assumption that the purchasing systems of MoD are actually up to the task.  That is open to conjecture.

In any event, the wise QM indents for everything he possibly can.  Thereafter it’s often going to be a matter of luck as to what may turn up.  Sometimes there’ll be an embarrassment of riches.  One morning whilst looking out over the camp from the Mess I observed a three-tonner outside the QM’s Stores being rapidly loaded with innumerable pairs of Boots DMS, blankets, and various other – rather more prized – items.  The truck was immediately driven out through the camp Main Gate.  Shortly thereafter the auditors arrived for their ‘unannounced’ annual stocktake.  Predictably, they found everything was exactly as it should be and they then moved on to their next destination.  A couple of hours after the dignitaries and sundry bean-counters had departed the truck reappeared and all the ‘excess’ kit was put back on the shelves.  Inevitably, excess stock was as grave a transgression as deficiencies.

So I was not entirely surprised at William 29’s ‘discovery’ the other week of vast amounts of extraneous kit hidden away at an old establishment, although one might question why proved necessary to have two spare Padre’s Field Boxes.  Perhaps the QM felt that on active service one might get worn out pretty quickly - nothing reinforces one’s religious beliefs quite so much as the sound of approaching gunfire.

During my service, and I do not think things will have changed greatly, all the Quartermasters talked to each other regularly - as a sort of unofficial Audit Victims’ Support Group.  They could ‘disappear’ or ‘make up’ each other’s allocations at a moment’s notice.  They were networking and accounting geniuses.  Not only could they keep track of their actual stocks, but they also could provide superb documentation for their ‘official’ stocks.  In garrison towns such as Aldershot it was simpler.  Whole convoys of kit could be moved around with no questions asked.  Thus a highly sophisticated bartering sytem between QMs had developed.  I don’t think many of them gained financially, but the mark of a good QM was his ability to supply.  If he could do that efficiently it would do his career path no harm. 

Anyway, at the end of his service a soldier has to hand back, account for, or - in the case of deficiencies - pay for, each item which has been issued to him.  Naturally there may be excess kit, some of which is attractive, some less so, but there are no refunds.  The one piece I chose to have ‘lost’ when taking my leave was my Denison Smock.  So, which is The Really Popular Item for today’s soldier?  What will be stowed away in his garden shed in years to come?  For that matter, which bits of today’s personal kit will stand such a test of time?  And which items will the soldier have had to purchase in preference to what is issued?

Comments

[william29]

There I was within yards of the gate at Chelsea barracks, when the stentorian tones of the bloody Q bloke suggested we needed a talk. I had my guards form 7 (release) all signed up, he suggested that I was in possession of one G1098 watch (Hamilton) that I was not entitled too. I would dearly love to find the rotten bugger who bubbled me, we had been together for a long time. I am sure that had I been sober I would have wept ! This coming just a few short hours after a T leaf had half inched my best ammo boots double tapped (inch thick soles). I had left them in my office and after hand over left them in the keeping of the guy taking over. Honest they were like black diamonds !!

[william29]

Thinking about old kit, had me in the attic rummaging through an old box. Buckshee/liberated items - a prismatic compass and a pair of Mk2 binos- on the starred list. Button stick, buff bayonet frog, stable belts, which appear to have shrunk. I must be related to a magpie ! The prismatic compass must have been defective - it managed to get lost ! It is now on my study desk. And yes before you ask I have been at the window, I'll do a resection on the location next!

[Mick says: And you blame the government because the guys in 'stan don't have enough kit!]

[William29]

I would not have mentioned the items if they had been stolen, as an engineer myself I often talked with the REME lads, where the items I mentioned were passed to me after write off. Hence my description as buckshee.

[william29]

Through lack of clarity on my part I gave a wrong impression. The Compass that I acquired was an older mark not in service - it is calibrated in degrees, and was more of a curio than practical use we had long since gone over to mils. I cannot say how these old bits of kit were around but they were.

[Mick says: Don't worry William I was only joshing!]