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Good World War 2 pictures


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Hey Mike, are those big pouches carried on the front of their harness for ammo?

I've always assumed that's what theyr are for, but now I'm wondering how the small Enfield clips would go in there.

As a kid I used to have a lot of WWII lead figures and the Brit/Canadian ones where my favorites mostly because they looked like they were carrying a lot of stuff. (Kid's thinking, you know)

Gyrene

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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Mattias:

Gyrene,

Those pouches are supposed to hold a Bren magazine too. Unless I remember it all wrong each man in the UK rifle section carries at least two Bren magazines, plus the three man Bren group sharing about a dozen magazines among them.

M.<hr></blockquote>

They were also used to carry No.36 grenades, 2 inch mortar bombs, or ATR rounds. They were too small to carry Sten mags, unfortunately, but section commanders had no where else to carry them. Sometimes they used the smallpack strapped to their side, but I think the most common methoed was to put the Sten mags in the basic pouches and simply leave them undone.

A larger pouch was designed during the war, but very few made it to frontline troops by VE Day.

Rifle magazine was usually carried in bandoliers - you can see them in the photo. The entrenching tool was seen as useless, and full size General Service shovels (which were really spades, but hey...) were thrust into the webbing as shown. (See the first two men in line)

It's a great picture though and typical of many others like it, showing infantry on the move in NW Europe.

[ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Michael Dorosh ]</p>

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