Common Aussie 37 gear

[AIF]

Righto so heres a couple of examples of what I mean.....

[reneblacky]

Hi Rene, nice kit bag love the hand painted eagle, Now i dont want to shoot you down on this one, although in my opinion I think this bag only had one owner, I think one of the big serial numbers is a stuff up and they have put a 4 where the 9 should be or vice versa and one of these guys was the owner, the smaller number would be the shipping identification number, Im sure If it was reissued the original owners number would be scrubbed out to save confusion, I have a few Australian ww2 Army kit bags and a RAAF one also and they all have this, I just had a check and the guy with sevice number 404245 was KIA pretty sad that. Give me 1o mins and I will see if i can dig mine out and show you

Cheers AIF
You are more than likely correct

[reneblacky]

Righto so heres a couple of examples of what I mean.....

Nice to see some variations, I have two others (found on the side of the road!!) and one is blue with a Tassy serial no. on it TX.... and a brown one similar to your Jewell one, they are both in the bowels of my lot yet again!

[AIF]

hahaha yeah mate, god do I know that feeling takes me forever to find just a single item amongst all the boxes, It never ceases to amaze me what people will throw out, I found one of my kit bags at the local tip, before they closed down I used to head over every weekend and see the guy who worked there and he would keep anything military related aside for me and the stuff that came through the place was amazing, one time I scored a 1944 dated kakhi 3 button shirt and the matching 1944 dated shorts, another time a whole box full of photos and paper work to an Australian officer who served from 1939-46 started out as a lieutenant end up as a lieutenant colonel, Its really sad to think that the families have no value of this stuff, but luckily there is guys like us who do value it or a lot of good history would be lost forever.
And sorry If Im hijacking the thread mate but I have found another interesting Kit bag I would like to show you, this is known as a sea kitbag or kitbags, sea as the army called it, its a lot smaller than a standard one and is made of kakhi coton, It was used to carry toiletries and the rubber soled deck shoes and any other essentials needed on the voyage overseas, this is the only example I have come across, It is named to a Thomas Hart who served with the 2/26th Infantry battalion from jan 1941-Nov 1947

[AIF]

Sorry still getting my head around this uploader, Im used to using photobucket, anyway her goes hopefully it worked this time....

[reneblacky]

Not "37 but I'll keep my Aussie gear here! and this pair have been donated to a dear friend.
Pattern 44 Jungle Boots Made by "Blundstone" as factory issued

[qotd]

Lovely boots, I am jealous of your friend!!!!

[Nige H]

Cheers, specopaust

The SMG pouches is something I don't have

Rene,
quite a few of the Thompson pouches went to the U.S. via a Lend lease deal, there were two different versions made of the same item, and were locally produce by company's in Australia, its appears from my research that all Aussie made Tommy gun pouches went to the U.S.M.C.



2nd pattern U.S. Govt Contract model with longer flaps and Blackened LIFT the DOT fasteners.1st pattern U.S. Govt contract model with Blackened Durable DOT fasteners and shorter pocket flaps (Repro by Me)

Again these were not that well made when compared to U.S. produce web gear of the period, these pouches were very crudely stitched together and made entirely of canvas. All of the Unitied Carr Fasteners were of the Australia pattern and manufacture.

Nige H

[Nige H]

Hi specopsaust,
just to say I'm with jimpy on this one if you could do a copy of the web gear manual I'd be very interested, as most of these Aussie pattern items I've never seen.

Nige H

[reneblacky]

More to the list

This one is also being donated to my dear idiot friend!(in a nice way and don't pole axe me) don't know why I do it! but it must be done