Boots AND ALL

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 4, 28 February 1944, Page 10

Boots AND ALL

A KORERO Report

«« -q oots-boots-boots-boots, marching I) up and down again ” have always been a subject of especial interest to the soldier. In the days when Kipling wrote his well-known songdays when, despite Napoleon’s metaphor an army marched on more than its stomach—they were often the subject of lurid comment. Indeed, Kipling suggests that hell is composed not “of devils, fire, dark or anything, but boots-boots-boots-boots.” However, the complaint was levelled not so much at the quality of the boots (though here too there was caustic criticism) as at the quantity of them —the maddening monotony of endless lines of marching feet.

To-day there can be little complaint as to this monotonymechanized columns have replaced the old “ line of route ” — and, as to quality, the modern soldier, still vitally interested in what goes on his feet, finds little wrong with the way the Army shoes him. In fact he often goes as far as to say that the Army boots are the most comfortable in the world. He has his likes and dislikes ; one make he swears is better than another, and he wonders why, when he is attempting to obtain that paradeground gleam that will reflect the face of the inspecting officer, one boot seems to polish better than its partner. Here the real remedy probably lies in the application of more elbow grease.

But he will admit that he is well shod and point proudly to his strong black Bostocks — half-soled three times” which, next to his rifle, he acknowledges as his best friends. True, he likes to relax in civilian shoes on leave, but when he’s on the job his “ Boots, soldiers, for the use of ” are definitely hard to beat. This general satisfaction with the quality of Army boots is explained by both the improved methods of manufacture and the more detailed examination of footwear carried out by Services inspectors before the boots are accepted. There are more boot-examiners in this war than the last, and they are more exacting. And, though the specifications have altered but little since the last war days of the “ Bill Massey,” the modern boot is truer to size and more solidly and comfortably constructed. Thus any soldier with normal feet can achieve his heart’s desire — pair of boots that fit him.

And there is quantity too. New Zealand factories have made, and are still making, hundreds of thousands of pairs of boots from New Zealand leather with New Zealand labour. Of all the articles of Army clothing* the boot is unique in that it is almost wholly a New Zealand product. The lining, a fundamental part of your battle-dress, must be imported, but your boots, with the exception of the eyelets and the nails,

are “ Well Made, New Zealand.” Sheet steel for toe and heel plates is imported, but cut in Taranaki, and, though the cotton from which laces are made in Auckland must be imported, the leather thong that laces up the Army boot is as much a New Zealand product as the upper and sole leather.

Not only is the boot New Zealand made, but our production has been able to meet the demands of all the Services. This has required an amazing expansion and modification of the footwear industry. Ten or twelve factories produced industrial boots before the war. To-day thirty to thirty-five are making footwear of all types for the Services, and at their peak period were turning out 20,000 pairs a week. Even Mount Eden prisoners were producing Army boots at the rate of fifty pairs a week and making a good job of them. A trade school was established in Auckland (the centre of a third of our production) to train operators. The Services and the manufacturers were constantly in conference modifying old specifications and suggesting new ones.

Now the factories are making black boots for the rank and file, tan boots for officers, flying-boots (sheep-skin lined) for the Air Force, dress shoes for the Navy on leave, boots for the Women’s Land Army, shoes for W.A.A.F.S., W.A.A.C.S., and W.R.E.N.S., sandals for the tropics, deck shoes for troop-ships, cooks’ boots for Navy galleys, and field boots for the Marines. These are but

a few of the varieties produced. In truth New Zealand’s footwear production is effectively showing that our army marches on its feet.

The battle-scarred boots on the title page saw action in Greece and Crete. They were an odd assortment. This is the story of the new, shiny, creaky boots that replaced them and many another battered boot whose job had also been “ Well Done, New Zealand.”

The tanned hides come from the tanneries as half-skins each of about 20 square feet. The upper leather is from the same type of hide as the sole, but is more pliable because of different and more intensive treatment in the tannery. First to the clicking department, where the uppers are cut out with a sharp knife run round the edge of a steel-bordered pattern. This is skilled work, for not only must the cutter be able to use each hide to the utmost advantage, but he must also be able to pick flaws in the leather. Five years is the apprenticeship period, and even then many more years’ experience are required to make the expert.

Three and three-quarter square feet of leather go into the uppers of each pair of boots, so that each half-hide produces about 6| pairs. There are six patterns to each upper.

The men cut out twenty-four assorted pairs at a time, ranging from size 5 to size 10, and these are differentiated with colour markings. In another department large presses are cutting out the sole and heel leathers from heavier hides. The outer sole is usually from the back hide of an ox, called a “ bend.” The shoulder and belly hides provide the inner and inner runner soles. The bends are cut to different lengths by a guillotine and are graded as to quality and the size sole they will produce. Then a heavy pattern knife of varying size and shaped like a sole is placed over the leather. Down comes a heavy press, cutting out the sole. The odd pieces of leather, cut out by a similar process, provide the heel lifts.

To return to the uppers. Each of the six patterns is fed through a skivingmachine, which shaves oft the edges so

that the sewing-seam will not be too thick and press on the wearer’s feet. The next and most important process is assembling the patterns—a process known to the trade as “ closing the uppers.” Now the boot begins to take shape.

The work is done on large sewingmachines, mainly by women. First the two main quarters are sewn together. Then the tongues are attached and the inner lining of soft crome-tanned hide is sewn in. You don’t see this lining in an Army boot. It’s down under the tongue covering the fore part of your foot.

Now, as the upper is assembled, the eyelets can be put in. This is done by an automatic machine which drives the eyelets through at regular intervals. Heavy wax thread is run round the uppers below the tongue in double rows for extra strength and for additional water-proofing. As one sewing is completed another boot goes into the machine before the thread is cut.

The majority of the workers in this department are girls earning from £3 7s. 6d to Z 4 ss. per week. They take to the work very well according to the factory manager, and are very skilful in handling the machines. In this factory over one hundred girls are employed, and before the war there were even more of them. About two hundred and fifty men are employed whose wages range from £5 12s. 6d. to £7 per week. On the next floor men are engaged handling the heavier machines which attach the soles to the uppers. A last

is fitted into the boot and the inner sole temporarily tacked on. An amazing machine then takes over and tacks the front of the upper to the inner sole, slamming in tacks at the rate of 130 a minute. An even more complicated machine drives in the heel tacks twenty at a time, and with a clear run can handle twenty-four pairs of boots in five minutes.

The normal Army boot —“ Rank and File ” the trade call it —is of the screwed and stitched variety. This means that, after the inside runner sole has been tacked to the inner sole it is firmly attached with screw wire. Another machine drives these screws in and cuts

them off from- an endless thread. This is the strongest method of attaching soles known to footwear-manufacturers. Last, the outer sole is tacked to the runner, heavily stitched and screwed for the last time. After this second screwing the boots are fitted sole up on to lasts in a levelling machine which runs rollers round the sole edges and up and down the instep to reblock the boot into shape. Next those important heels that never (or hardly ever) wear down. They arrive in one piece to be attached to the boot. Downstairs the four lifts have been nailed together and the heel-plate attached. Now the completed heel is fixed to the boot by a machine that does the job in one operation, driving in fourteen nails at a time and handling a thousand pairs a day.

The heel and sole edges are now trimmed on a revolving knife and smoothed with sandpaper. The important burnishing of the sole and heel edges is done, after they have been inked, with a hot iron plug whose oscillating motion prevents the heated iron from burning the leather. The heels are burnished with brush and pad.

The heel socks are put in and the dressing is painted over the finished boot. For the benefit of the unbeliever as much dressing is applied to the left as to the right boot, and vice versa. The boots are then placed on racks and wheeled away for packing.

That, is the story of the birth of an Army boot. And if it sounds easy you had best remember that 150 operations go into the making of each boot you wear—lso complicated and skilled processes done by specialists who are so highly trained for the process they perform that they may not be able to handle the machine controlled by the man next door to them, a fact guaranteed to give any factory manager a headache, especially when trained staff is irreplaceable. The whole industry is highly mechanized, and so much so are the different departments dependent on one

another that a glut in one section or a breakdown in another can throw the whole routine out of gear.

It is a tribute, then, to the manufacturers and their staffs that they have changed over to war production so smoothly and so efficiently. It is a tribute to the chrome-tanned leather they use that its soft, pliable strength is reckoned the finest in the world. But the best tribute to both tannery and factory is the shiny, creaky boot, comfortable and strong, which keeps New Zealand feet well shod the world over.