Brodie Helmet

Certain artifacts scream to be acquired, and few more forcefully than a rimless Brodie. This is the earliest of the British helmets created in the Great War and it has that recognizable shape which says "our side" if you're born in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Britain. By contrast the German helmet shape now says "Nazi" and so has tainted the German helmets of WWI, even though Jewish soldiers fought for the Kaiser in such head gear. We are as prone to give all kinds of meaning to object shapes as we are to words. This says "good", that says "bad".

I found this one on top of a box in the junk yard of an antique shop that has its wares stacked in heaps. For $35 I bought an icon, something that is more a relic than an artifact.

Being as it's old and has been knocked about fo 100 years there was no liner. So for $65 I bought a reproduction liner and now it's good to go for another hundred years.

This detail shows the rippling in the pressing of the steel on these old helmets. They were remarkably crude being stamped out in the millions in a very short time in 1916. Subsequently the pressings became cleaner and a rim was added around the raw edge to reduce injuries from flying helmets. As protection they worked against shrapnel and falling debris, but these were not bullet proof.

I picture the helmet, below, with the lace of my grandmother's bridal dress. (1923) These are the kinds of artifacts that are kept for 100 years. In this juxtaposition I imagine all the young soldiers who got married days before they went to the front. Many did not return. And like words being strung together to make a sentence two or more artifacts together can tell a story. When we know the language we can see the meaning. 

Great War Water Bottles and Canteens

I've waited a long time to get one of these bottles in my hands. This first artifact is the Oliver Pattern bottle and its leather carrier lent to my by a friend in Ottawa. Now at last I can scrutinize the stitching, both inside and out, and take all the measurements I want to take.

The Oliver Pattern bottle was the much dispised one pint glass bottle the Canadians were expected to use in the Boer War. These were too small and fragile, and were ceremoniously broken on arrival in South Africa. They were replaced by a round British canteen. Needless to say such reviled items are hard to come by. These bottles are of the era only and are not rare army issue.

The carrier is of a thin but stiffish leather that holds its form. These next pictures give some closer details.

Most notably the seam is sewn about 1/16" from the edge. The hole in the bottom allows the bottle to be pushed in or drawn out without an air lock, for it is a snug fit. 

I've measured the leather thickness to be about 3/32" or 6 ounce, but the bottom circular piece looks to be pushing 1/4"! This enables the stitches to go through at an angle and be lost in a slice.

Below I've given my page of measurements. 

In another blog I've put forth the challenge to try making one of these. I'm starting to post more patterns and measurements to help in this endeavour. Check back at the blog http://leathersatchels.blogspot.ca/

and find the Oliver Pattern post at the top. Send me your finished pictures and we can have an online exhibit. Here's my slightly oversized first version in comparison followed by my latest.

The Oliver Pattern bottle and carrier did not make it to the Great War of course. Instead the Canadian army used one of the kidney shaped blue British canteens, seen here.

The blue enamel canteen inside looks like this. The photo does not do justice to the delicious colour.

Here are details of two cork stoppers.

And details of the maker's mark and date, next my own hand-stitched reproduction.

Canadians used this canteen system until such time as they adopted the P'08 pattern cotton webbing. I don't have an original of this to show but I do have my own reproduction made up of assorted pieces I scrounged when I was beginning this collecting. The canteen itself is the same.

And finally it takes its place on the right hip.

Great War Artifacts: Bayonets, Scabbards, and Frogs

This is where it all began. Over forty years ago a friend of my mother's gave me her father's old triangular bayonet. I recall she said he had worn it in the Boer War. This bayonet is earlier than that, though her father was old, but whatever it's origin it was a stunning gift to a thirteen year old, then crazy about the Napoleonic wars.

This is the old classic, above, the Lee Enfield 17" bayonet. I've got a feeling this one was spray painted silver at some point, perhaps to be a Roman sword in a school play. What strikes me about it is that when the blade is drawn the steel sings. The sound is identical to the sound made 100 years ago. It is like listening to an old wax cylinder of the past.

Here are more pictures and details. 

The entrenching tool handle, or helve, will eventually be joined to the frog.

Here, above and below, are proofing marks.

The next bayonet, borrowed from another friend, is the earlier Lee Metford. This appears in my Oliver Pattern photos from the 1890s. The scabbard is like a shorter version of the Lee Enfield's. The frog has an extra loop worked into the leather for a "trenching" tool. I gather this is a particular Canadian detail.

I made careful measurements of this and created my own prototype mock-up. Then, along with photos, a package was sent to the reproduction company What Price Glory to enable them to do a reproduction. Below is my effort and the reproduction that came of it.

Here is a detail of the layering of the leather.

Another frog that I'm borrowing is shown below. It's Canadian of the 1880s as well as I can identify it with an online search ( meaning I really don't know ).  According to the pictures it takes the same bayonet as seen above.

As I've said I enjoy the unexpectedness of discovery. I was talking with a cabinetry customer of mine one day and he admitted to having an old bayonet. His family had used it for fifty years to dig up dandelions. ( Do I detect survival due to civilian use here? What else would one do with an old bayonet but use it to dig up dandelions?)

Basically, for a trade, I liberated it from the garden gnomes. Here it is amazingly unspoiled.

This is the notorious Ross bayonet which wouldn't go through a German greatcoat and which attached to the rifle which jammed in the mud of Flanders.

The hole on the back loop of the combined scabbard / frog is roughly made. I've seen such holes many times. I presume scabbards were stored hanging on nails, perhaps for quick self-defense in a surprise trench raid, or against rats,....or against dandelions. Note the same hole in the previous frog.

These details show the Ross Company stamp, and a date ( 1909 ) and "C" broad arrow on the leather of the scabbard.

Here I compare this Canadian bayonet with the British Lee Enfield. They certainly have different levels of lethality, if I can create such a word.

The backdrop to all these photos is the VERY large backpack of the previous posting,

And finally the bayonet and scabbard join the entrenching tool handle in the frog. This frog is one I made a few years ago out of old bits. I saw one of these for sale once for almost $400. These are rare because there's nothing else to do with them.

Great War Packs

This post is on the standard packs and kitbag, except for the last entry. I hope my photos might add something visual to anyone who is searching for good pictures. I realize my commentary may be pretty sparse on vital information so I recommend that you discover the wealth of knowledge online in the Karkee Web site.

Here's my P'08 Small Pack, an easy purchase because there are so many of them kicking around. By contrast a bayonet frog is practically unobtainable.

I bought this Large Pack, below, to fatten up my original artifact collection. WWIl large packs are essentially identical, an easy route to completing a set. The cross-straps are WWIl.

I see these kit bags, below, regularly. This supports my contention that items which gain a civilian life have a better chance at surviving. What is one going to do with a bayonet frog after all? It will be chucked out as useless sometime, just as my grandfather's ammo pouches almost went to the dump.

Here's a most interesting borrowed item. It is a VERY Large pack made out of two strips of 12" Mills webbing sewn together. Tho overall dimensions are 18" X 24" X 5". The side strip is woven to that dimension.

For me the most fascinating part of this pack is that the strap system is the 1916 Pattern Canadian yoke. The British rejected this but here it remains in service riveted into the doubling of the webbing. Since it is a very comfortable configuration it must have made a very serviceable pack. I wonder how many were made. This one certainly seems to be an official construction and not something jerry-rigged from parts. Does anyone have photos of something like this in use?

I've used the 1916 yoke shape myself in this 14" X 18" X 5" all leather pack. Sometimes I wonder if my brain is linked to a time machine.

So now the collection of P'08 gear is really starting to fill in.