WINTER TRENCH KIT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16949, 10 April 1917, Page 5

WINTER TRENCH KIT.

A WORD ON JJUOTS AND OVERCOATS. By F. A. McKENZIE, The Well-known War Correspondent. In the Daily Mail. The British soldier is better clad today thau ever before. His uniform and boots are excellent, as they need be to stand the wear and tear of the trenches. The Army boot is, for a marching or general' service . boot, the model or its kind, and no one need wish for better. You can judge for yourself the quality of the clothing by standing . outsid.3 the barrier. at Victoria Station when a leave train comes in. You will, trien see that the uniforms of the men, while deeply mud-stained lire yet whole and have kept their shape. Nothing but a. very good material would have, borne the stress of life in the mud-holes of th,e winter trenches. And yet I am bold enough to suggest that for the present work in thor western trenchces some improvements are possible, improvements that would add greatly to. the health, comfort, and efficiency- of the men. These improvements mainly effect two things—boots and- overcoats. BOOTS. I have already-testified to th« meat of the Army boot tor general work But^ it is not sufficient for the men spending their forty-eight hours in' ih'4 trenches that have been made morasses by heavy, sustained shell fire. In sections of many moderately good trenches tho mud comes up just beiow your knees. Puttees do not keep out the wet. It gradually soaks down into the boot, and even the most •systematic dressing with wale oil and daily changing of socks will not save a proportion of men from one form or another of bad feet. .Now the soldier with bad feet is useless. The authorities, recognising this serve out rubber boots for the trenches. Even if there were enough rubber boots to go round —which there are not— | the problem is not solved. Rubber boots and waders are admirable, for I salmon fishing or for spending an hour or two on wet ground. But for permanent trench use they are a delusion and a snare. For myself I would prefer regulation boots and puttees, and ■ I think nearly every practical soldier who has spent any time in really bad trenches will agree with me. It is^ very difficult to move about ti-eely in rubber boots, and it is essentiall that a man in the front lines should be able to move freely. When you.strike a really bad patch your rubber boots are apt to stick in the mud and leave you shoe Less. They wear very badly and soon give way. Even if they keep wet out there is no ventilation, and the heat of the feet causes excessive perspiration, which makes the feet damp. But usually the mud comes over the top of the rubber and the boot becomes full of viscous mud in the interstices between the feet. The work of removing this mud to make the boots available for the next party in the trenches exercises the ingenuity of many commanding officers who aie | careful for the welfare of their men. How then can the boot problem be solved? I believe that the solution will be found —so far as the trenches are concernecK—by ; making a boot somewhat on the design of either the swash-buckler or the high Navy boot. It must be a boot with a high leather or skin top that can be drawn up right up over the knees and fastened closely around the thighs by means of a strap. I am not suggesting that this kind of boct should be used for everyday in rest camps or even in support lines. But if it were issued out to the men in the front trenches and out on out-post duty it would add more to their comfort and neip more to preserve the-ir health than any other single improvement. OVERCOATS. In dry weather the British infantry overcoat is excellent. In wet weather it is apt to become a sodden and uncomfortable burden: in winter trench life in the muddiest districts it is a nuisance. The British soldier is very warmly clad, apart from his overcoat. Every man has a really good shirt, warm and substantial, a comfortable 'Cardigan jacket and tunic. He'has also often enough a leather1 waistcoat or outer coat. • Once the overcoat becomes wet, really w.et, it takes days to dry, and all that time a man has to carry about with him a monstrously heavy wet pack. But when a soldier takes his overcoat up with him in such work as we have had this winter on the Somme tihe "infantry overcoat is a curse, it becomes covered with mud and soaked with mud. Men's coats have been carefully weighed when they have been brought into hospital at the fighting front, and they have been found in several instances to reach the almost incredible weight of from 1001b. to 1121b.

To attempt to realise what this means go to the nearest greengrocer's and ask him to let you lift a sack of potatoes, -which weigh 1121b. Remember that the soldier has to carry, besides his coat, th,e remainder of his equipment. Do you wonder that men struggling through the mud have thrown their coats away, unable to move because of them.

Some commanding officers suggest that this matter could be remedied by serving Out the shorter cavalry overcoats to the men, with waterproofs. Possibly even this would be found tod cumbersome for active righting. Tiie solution of the problem is hene, too, probably to be found from the Navy. Givi them oilskins, such as the sailor has, and leave the overcoat behind. The soldier in the winter lines, with leather boots coming over his lmees and an oilskin to protect him from the wet, would be as well protected as possible. In active war it is inevitable that men should often be greatly exposed to the weather. There are worse ills than being soaked to the skin, provided you are able to dry yourself within reasonable time. But systematic soaking, day after day, knocks out the hardiest. HUTS. There is one other improvement that would greatly add to the efficiency of the fighting manl and that is a great increase in the number of huts available when men move back from the front lines. The Armstrong hut, the ] type now being erected m parts of the front that I know, will shelter a platoon. They can be warm and dry in it. What warmth and drynt'ss mean to the man back from a spell, in the mud heaps of the Somme no civjliaii can over realise. "You want to make feather-bed soldiers," I hear some stay-at-home sneer. Talk like this make's mo tired. To protect the private soldier as much as