The boonie hat has to be one of the most successful items of military headgear ever designed, as popular today with soldiers as when it was introduced over seventy years ago. Over the decades the design has changed subtly with a lower crown and wider brim being the most obvious changes, along with changes to fabric to match the current combat uniforms. Tonight we have our first example in the long lived Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM):
Like other boonie hats, this one has a broad brim, with multiple rings of stitching to reinforce it:
Note also the tab and eyelet for attaching a piece of string to act as a chin strap to. The broad brim keeps both sun and rain off the wearer’s face and neck. The crown of the hat has metal ventilation grills and loops for attaching camouflage foliage to:
This example has a fairly early style of label sewn inside, it has an NSN number but is one of the early examples with this feature. It is also in a very generous size of 60:
As ever ARRSEpedia has a wonderfully irreverent description of the boonie hat:
At one time they were very hard to find and possession of one marked the individual out as either being one of them, someone who’d been to a hot posting like Belize, Hong Kong or Cyprus, or (more often than not) someone who was simply a big-timing walty cnut who’d been shopping at Silverman’s.
The variation of styles that can be achieved by their wearers is quite staggering. RLC mongs and RAF techies tend to adopt the ‘Eastwood’, whilst anyone worth their salt either alters theirs by cutting down the brim (the origins of this date back to Malaya, when peripheral vision was enhanced), or purchases a tailored SF-style example available from several commercial suppliers in that never ending pursuit of allyness.
In this photograph from Belize, these well camo-ed troops show off a selection of bush hats:
This is actually a MK 4 belt, as indicated by the stamp on the starter tab:
This indicates that the belt was manufactured by T F S Ltd, Thomas French and Sons. The MK 4 belt was introduced in the mid to late war era and was known as a stripless belt as it did not have brass tabs between the rounds of .303 but rather was a simple piece of pre-shrunk webbing. This design was filled in the factory and unlike earlier belts was not designed to be reloadable in the field. A stiffened piece of webbing is sewn to the end to act as a starter tab:
Each round of .303 fits into a little pocket on the belt:
As I need 250 rounds to fill the belt I have a way to go… The belts were packed into plywood ammunition boxes and all the packaging and belt were designed to be discarded after use. The belt is stamped every fifty rounds so the gunner can see how many rounds he has fired:
Laid out the full 250 round belt is rather long:
In this image a soldier from the Canadian Saskatoon Light Infantry fires a Vickers from an infantry carrier in Italy- note the disposable MK 4 ammunition belt:
The utility pouch is designed as a general purpose pouch that can be used for carrying extra ammunition, or a soldiers personal kit. Maximum flexibility was emphasised in the design, as seen on the rear:
Here two sets of fabric loops and two brass c hooks give the user a choice of a high or low slung pouch:
The top of the pouch has two metal D-rings that allow it to be fitted in place of the ammunition pouches on either side of the belt buckle- the rings being used to attach the yoke to:
This was a major upgrade from the old 58 pattern set and gave far more flexibility. The black plastic female Fastex fastener allows the pouch to be attached to the rucksack should you so desire.
As can be seen this is no longer always very clear, but you can make out the NSN number and the /|\ marking fairly easily.
This compass is not in the best condition as the top piece of glass with the scale on it is badly cracked, but it will do until I can find a better example to add to the collection. The prismatic compass is a radically different design, being far more complicated as can be seen when the two designs are placed side by side:
In the case of this compass the main body is made of brass, painted black with a scale around the body picked out in white:
The dial itself is made of mother of pearl to help make it easier to read in low light and this is floating in oil:
The prism that gives its name to the prismatic compass is hinged and can be folded up onto the main dial of the compass:
The prism helps the user make more accurate readings than with a standard marching compass. A small dial is fixed to the side to allow the rotating bezel to be secured into position:
A thumb ring is fixed to the end of the compass:
By pushing the thumb through the ring and making a fist, a stable platform can be made for taking accurate readings. The base of the compass is marked with details of model, date, manufacturer and the /|\ acceptance mark:
The soldier wears shirt, beret and battledress trousers to give an informal work uniform suitable for working on locomotives:
The engine itself is numbered 93257:
This was an American produced S160 locomotive, built by ALCO in January of 1944, and named Major General Carl R Gray Jr:
The S160 was a cheap mass produced locomotive produced in the USA for use on the railways of Europe following their liberation. The engine was designed by Major J W Marsh of the US Army Corps of Engineers and huge numbers were shipped to the United Kingdom before D-Day. Whilst many were stored in the open, a significant number were pressed into service in the UK, helping the vastly overworked engines of the big four railway companies. British railway men liked the self-cleaning grates of these new engines, but found the axle-boxes difficult to keep oiled and certain aspects of the design caused confusion due to the differing working practices on both sides of the Atlantic.
Tonight we are looking at one of these facemasks in detail:
The facemask is made of white fabric, with two holes for eyes, slots being provided above to allow the straps of a pair of goggles to be fitted through the mask:
The mouth piece of the face mask has a removable cover, secured with Velcro and a single button:
Each face mask comes with two spare covers, allowing them to be replaced for the purposes of hygiene as this is obviously the area of the mask that will collect most germs:
The face mask creates a layer of warm air between the wearer’s face and the frigid temperatures that protects the soldier form frostbite. A Royal Marine Daniel Murphy of Bradford explains their effectiveness:
Note also that the fabric has been treated to make it flame resistant. This particular mask dates from 1993 and was supplied in a ziplock bag:
This again has a stores label on it with details of the contents and date:
As in the case of the wristlets we looked at earlier this month, the MoD’s ‘Black Book of Kit’ includes an entry on the facemask, indicating it was introduced prior to 1991:
For the collector of British Army Arctic equipment, these facemasks are easily available online and are frequently not more than £3 or £4 for a brand new set.
In form they are nearly identical to the pair we looked at 
Although it is faint, a manufacturer’s stamp can also be seen, unfortunately I can only make out the –“& Sons” part of the name:
I am sure these pliers were a general purpose tool, rather than being specifically manufactured with the Vickers gun in mind. Having said that they are certainly part of the spares kit, as can be seen on the excellent ‘Vickers Machine Gun Collection and Research Association’ website 