WW1 US suspenders question MILLS

[Kukke1976]

Hello guys,

I just bought these suspenders for my US display.

Both the suspenders and the cartridge belt are original,both from Mills.

My question,do you have different sizes for suspenders...?

I bought this sucker for 175 euros but it doesn't fit

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I have set the straps to their maximum but as you can see I'm still a way short.
If I attach all the straps to the cartridge belt it would end up just under his armpits I think... A hell of a site on the battlefield

Any thoughts? Any way to make it fit? With additional straps or something?

Discard the suspenders and use a haversack/backpack? A cheaper solution...?

Regards

Kurt

[Svt40]

That is the only size they had for the M1907 suspenders. They only fit on men who were shorter than 5'7" IIRC.

What the soldiers did most of the time was modify them by only using one strap in the front and poking a hole through the other strap and hooking the loose strap into the hole elongating the straps to a more human size. Hard to explain easy to understand when you see pictures of it Google M1907 suspenders and you should find a picture of a modified set.

I only have the M1918 suspenders which seem to have fit the human size issues much better than the M1903 or M1907 suspenders.

For your display a haversack would be much more common to see in use.

[Kukke1976]

Thank you for the quick response Svt40,

I will have to take a look at the options... I could go for the haversack,which is cheaper but then I have to sell the suspenders...
Or I might try the option to modify them,I'm not sure yet... Not very keen on punching a hole through the straps,should I deceide to sell them...

Regards

Kurt

[Kevin Treadway]

suspenders

Funny this came up. I just bought a minty pair of Mills suspenders along with a snap cartridge belt. I was after the belt so didn't pay much attention to the suspenders. When they arrived, the suspenders were configured just as described, with one of the hooks in a hole punched in the strap so that only one strap hooked onto the belt. I couldn't figure out why. I dressed up a mannequin and removed the hook from hole using both hooks as originally intended and sure enough, they just barely fit on the display, (a USMC 1910 khaki uniform). Now I know why. Kevin