British Infantry Rifles

[Targan]

I used a lot of tape on my webbing, and as mentioned by Leg the padding things out with bits of scrim trick works well too. All the old hands that I encountered in the infantry treated webbing set up and maintenance like an art.

[Legbreaker]

It is an art. It's amazing how many just throw it together and wonder why it all comes unstuck in the field and why they're always developing sores and blisters.
Boots are the same - they have to fit well and be kept supple with leather dressing / polish. A soldiers feet also need serious attention, airing them out as often as possible, changing socks as often as possible and treating even the smallest problem immediately.

It's the attention to these sorts of detail which seperate the real soldiers from the pretenders. Much of this attention to detail tends to be ignored in the field by novices though and reserved for the parade ground.

A soldiers weapon must be maintained properly to function correctly. The soldier himself should give his body the same attention or they're going to fall in a heap eventually.

[Targan]

Boots are the same - they have to fit well and be kept supple with leather dressing / polish. A soldiers feet also need serious attention, airing them out as often as possible, changing socks as often as possible and treating even the smallest problem immediately.

Sorry, continuing to stray OT here. It is a point of some humour among my family and friends that since the army all I have ever worn on my feet is boots. I do own a pair of running shoes but I honestly couldn't say where they are in my house. I wear boots when out walking, boots at the office, boots when going out socialising. I'm more than happy to pay good money for decent boots.

I guess at some point in the early 90s I got it stuck in my head that boots are what real men wear and that was that. For many years I cycled to work every day and wore boots riding my bike. Although I'm not quite the 'action man' I once was i still feel that one advantage of always wearing boots is that my feet are very used to it and I can leap into action at any time with little fear of injuring my feet. There are a number of occasions over the years where unexpected accidents would have resulted in broken toes or other foot injuries had I not been wearing boots.

My current daily wear boots are 8" Magnum Interceptor waterproof boots. Very comfortable, reasonable ankle support, have prooved to be quite durable so far.

[Legbreaker]

You know I'm exactly the same. Although basically confined to the office I wear almost nothing but boots when I'm not barefoot. Good solid boots with decent ankle support and a strong hard sole.
I wore my old issue black GPs into the ground but still have my browns for when I'm out bush cutting firewood or whatever. They're a good 16+ years old now and still going strong due to the regular dressing they get (although the tread is a bit worn). Oddly enough I've still got (and wear) some of my issue socks which still don't have any holes in them despite being nearly 20 years old.
They just don't make things like they used to!

[Targan]

I wore my old issue black GPs into the ground but still have my browns for when I'm out bush cutting firewood or whatever. They're a good 16+ years old now and still going strong due to the regular dressing they get (although the tread is a bit worn). Oddly enough I've still got (and wear) some of my issue socks which still don't have any holes in them despite being nearly 20 years old.
They just don't make things like they used to!

Hah! Same here. I still wear my Army issue browns when I'm in the bush but the soles are well worn now, sadly. My last pair of issue socks finally died eight or nine years ago.

[Legbreaker]

I heard a medic say once that he could tell a newbie from an old hand just by the condition of their feet. Anyone who'd been in the infantry less than about 6 months could barely walk with tinea, blisters and raw flesh while the older soldiers never seemed to have an issue (except maybe tinea they'd picked up in the communal showers, but even then it was under control).

[HorseSoldier]

It is an art. It's amazing how many just throw it together and wonder why it all comes unstuck in the field and why they're always developing sores and blisters.

Back in the ALICE kit days everything was supposed to be tied on or dummy corded with 550 cord, at least in some units I was in. Some of the more enterprising guys would replace the metal ALICE clips with nothing but 550 cord to minimize rubbing and hot spots.

The thing I see today with the MOLLE stuff is a lot of my Joes get issued a rifleman's kit vest and use it as is without any thought given to whether the pre-assembled set up works, is optimal for them, etc. Most of them don't even have a concept of what an optimal set up is, with kit or weapons, and have to be beat over the head with the right thing to do, rather than what looks cool or is easiest/most comfortable.

[Legbreaker]

In the early days we'd buy (later it became standard issue) a padded liner for inside the belt. Eliminated any issues with the clips rubbing completely, and added a couple more inches of width to your waist which also meant a few more inches of belt space for pouches, etc. For a thin man like myself (at the time) those extra few inches were a godsend!

[James Langham]

If I recall correctly, the Cold War Territorial SAS units were tasked with a bunch of stay behind/infiltration missions in the Warsaw Pact rear -- calling air strikes and artillery on high value targets in the deep battle area, recovery of aviators and other isolated personnel (taking over the role of, if I recall correctly, MI 9 in WW2), and some tertiary derring do with raiding/sabotage of rail lines, bridges, etc. Not having to cover down on contingency missions and having a fairly specialized remit was (I'm guessing) hoped to overcome the difficulty of keeping reserve special operations effective.

Similar with at least some of the US reserve SF units. At least one battalion, maybe the whole group in 11th or 12th SFG (US Army Reserve) spent several decades training to do the same sort of role in Norway if the balloon went up. The other USAR group and two NG groups switched around some on area orientation and such but guys from the former USAR side of SF I've talked to made it sound like there was always a reserve SF unit slated to support NATO's northern flank.

Might be worth checking my article on 27SAS too.

[James Langham]

Updated article

Updated version adding sniper rifles, a note about SF rifles and a few minor edits.

[pmulcahy11b]

It is an art. It's amazing how many just throw it together and wonder why it all comes unstuck in the field and why they're always developing sores and blisters.
Boots are the same - they have to fit well and be kept supple with leather dressing / polish. A soldiers feet also need serious attention, airing them out as often as possible, changing socks as often as possible and treating even the smallest problem immediately.

Although I'll admit to getting trenchfoot in Basic, I learned a lot from that, and from that point always had lots of dry socks and if I had room, another pair of boots. I didn't use foot powder because when combined with sweat it turned into scratchy sand. I bought moisturizing cream instead. A lot of people laughed because I polished my boots in the field or or laved them with Neat's Foot Oil, but it kept my boots in good shape. Back at the unit, I washed them with saddle soap quite often. The only real problem with my boots I had was right boot sole wear (I pronate slightly).

And I wore my LBE in a strange way, high on my waist, almost to the level where the web belt was at the bottom of my rib cage. It just felt the most comfortable to me there.

[James Langham]

New version

Now with two new rifles and SMGs (hence the change of name). Pistols and MGs to follow.

[Badbru]

James, Illustration (Pic) 24, RUC member is NOT holding a G3 as the text says. That weapon is an HK33 in 5.56N.

Otherwise excellent. Also there was a typo "was" instead of "way". I suspect spellchecker incorrectly interpreted some othe typo.

[James Langham]

Thanks

James, Illustration (Pic) 24, RUC member is NOT holding a G3 as the text says. That weapon is an HK33 in 5.56N.

Otherwise excellent. Also there was a typo "was" instead of "way". I suspect spellchecker incorrectly interpreted some othe typo.

Thanks, I should have looked more closely at the pic, wherever I got it from had it listed as a G3 so I just used that without looking carefully. At least that is easy to change.

If there is only a single type that is almost unique for me!

Thanks for the comments, both will be corrected in the next version.

[headquarters]

good

quality stuff.

Cool pics too. would have taken a fairbit of google fu to aquire I imagine.