2 para Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 ay alan love the belt mate , once a para eh! :cool2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan869 Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Love the pics,do you still have the bergen and belt kit? Yes, it´s all down in the cellar. Thought I´d get the complete outfit for posterity:embarrassed: As far as I know there is only one thing missing now and that´s the clasp knife with string landyard that we wore with the smock. The smocks I´ve got have 2 different patches. An original 10 Para and an older 44 brigade patch. Don´t think I will alter them. Would like a couple of blue patches but not the modern nylon stuff. The original ones were a heavy cotton. The 2 on the smocks are of the same quality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotch Harry Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Excellent,and from the pics the kidney pouches look like the early 1st type as well so a double bonus. Found the Denim trs,no damage,couple of missing buttons but they do have the seams/crease sewn to the front. White label is mostly faded but can make out the size which is a SIZE4-im a 32 waist and just tried them on,snug fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan869 Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 ay alan love the belt mate , once a para eh! :cool2: Yeah it´s not bad for a has been. Of course the faults are there. Mess tins, you joke, no room for them. Cook and eat out of the metal mug and drink out of the plastic one;) Hexi blocks mmm, yeah alright if it was a buckshee exercise somewhere but mostly with the tactical training you ate cold. The terrible smell of a hexi could be detected more than half a mile off. The kidney pouches would be filled with powdered food of some sort. Keep you going for a couple of days if you bergen got lost. Of course all the pouches would be tied together at the bottom to keep them from moving about when we -trotted- about;) A good belt hardly moved when you were on the go. If it can be laid flat then you´ve put it together wrongly. Half moon shape to fit snug. The kidney pouches were a bit flimsy so a lot of the blokes used 58 pat waterbottle carriers for the whole belt. They could carry other things than a water bottle. Everything got -broken down- to the bare essencials so that you could fit it all in bergan and belt. Belt was strapped around the bergan before you strapped the whole thing for a jump. The boys in Grey/blue often tried to get us to put everything inside the bergan (for safety reasons) but there was no way you could manage it, so they usually gave up trying:-D I usually had the thankless job of showing some of the sprogs how to put together a decent kit for -the outdoor life- My kit was always spot on. A sluvenly para looked like a pig in drag. And as a certain Jerry Davis once said to us in JPC -We know youré a useless lot of sods and haven´t a clue but at least you can dress and act as though you knew what you were doing;)) From that day on I started to -hoodwink- my surroundings:-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan869 Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Excellent,and from the pics the kidney pouches look like the early 1st type as well so a double bonus. Found the Denim trs,no damage,couple of missing buttons but they do have the seams/crease sewn to the front. White label is mostly faded but can make out the size which is a SIZE4-im a 32 waist and just tried them on,snug fit. Don´t remember our -denims- having the sewn in creases but what the heck. The 2 pairs will be just right. Send me a PM with the damage report and I´ll get it sorted and send you my address. Thanks again, Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 para Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Yeah it´s not bad for a has been. Of course the faults are there. Mess tins, you joke, no room for them. Cook and eat out of the metal mug and drink out of the plastic one;) Hexi blocks mmm, yeah alright if it was a buckshee exercise somewhere but mostly with the tactical training you ate cold. The terrible smell of a hexi could be detected more than half a mile off. The kidney pouches would be filled with powdered food of some sort. Keep you going for a couple of days if you bergen got lost. Of course all the pouches would be tied together at the bottom to keep them from moving about when we -trotted- about;) A good belt hardly moved when you were on the go. If it can be laid flat then you´ve put it together wrongly. Half moon shape to fit snug. The kidney pouches were a bit flimsy so a lot of the blokes used 58 pat waterbottle carriers for the whole belt. They could carry other things than a water bottle. Everything got -broken down- to the bare essencials so that you could fit it all in bergan and belt. Belt was strapped around the bergan before you strapped the whole thing for a jump. The boys in Grey/blue often tried to get us to put everything inside the bergan (for safety reasons) but there was no way you could manage it, so they usually gave up trying:-D I usually had the thankless job of showing some of the sprogs how to put together a decent kit for -the outdoor life- My kit was always spot on. A sluvenly para looked like a pig in drag. And as a certain Jerry Davis once said to us in JPC -We know youré a useless lot of sods and haven´t a clue but at least you can dress and act as though you knew what you were doing;)) From that day on I started to -hoodwink- my surroundings:-D happy day's and i'd do it all again tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan869 Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 happy day's and i'd do it all again tomorrow Yes. we had some great times. Every man in the stick gobbing on the despatcher half a second before leaving the aircraft. They really did think we were a bunch of animals:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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