Brittish BD "Loyals"

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Leigh, good eye. I had not noticed that

Here are a printed pair given to me by a Veteran friend who has since sadly passed away.

Cheers, Ade.

[Johann Anton]

Hi Leigh, What does "Blanco'd" mean? Good eye on the div patches. I've nicknamed this blouse "Two Left Feet"...Ha, ha...

[Marc Sherriff]

Ah ah, as I suspected these are the rarer silk woven version, which I think did not come in pairs with the KC. Glad to be wrong tho.

[sabertasche]

Thanks re the crossed rifles

Greg

[leigh kitchen]

Blanco was a preservative paste used on webbing equipment, it was still in use in the British army in the 1970's, although I would think only for recruits to some units by then.
As well as white, it existed in different shades of green, grey, khaki etc, different units chose different colours.
The blanco was applied to the webbing with a damp brush, worked over & into it until everything was a uniform thickness & colour.
You find rank chevrons blanco'd white by NCOs to smarten up the dowdy herringbone pattern, applied with a match stick so my father told me.

[Johann Anton]

If anybody is familiar with Brit ammo boots, I purchased this pair a year or so ago, from the UK. These were obviously used as service duty boots, and not as his dress pair. Can anybody date the age of these boots?

[Johann Anton]

Soles. Both arches are stamped with a large 9

[max7474]

They are standard British army issue and could date from the war upto the present day. The studs are identical to those issued today for wear in no 1 and no 2 dress. I had an identical pair in 1991 which were modern issue while a friend of mine who had small feet was issued a pair date stamped 1956 which were of much better quality leather but had been in storgae for 40 years as fe people had such little feet.

The pattern of the studs (there should be 13 arranged in 4 lines from toe - 2, 3, 4 and 4 at the instep) suggest that these are relativly modern.

If you were to go the RMAS today you would seem identical boots on the OCdts.

Alan