Which side had the better kit? Not in general but specifically?
The British DMS boot was attrocious, with many adopting the use of NBC boots or liberating Argentine boots, which were considerably better suited to the conditions.
There were cases of Trench Foot were recorded in the Falklands due to the rubbish boots. I believe that the Boot Combat High was developed due to the experience earnt on the Falklands.
What about the Chinese fighting suit versus those lovely parkas?
The proliferation of night vision devices on the Argentine side?
The “Prince of Wales” 58-pattern sleeping bag? What did the Argentines have? (“Prince of Wales” because it only had three feathers in it)
AH the DMS Boot, I always thought I cut a mean dash in my Puttees!
Off topic, in one TACEVAL at bruggen in the 80’s one of our officers actually turned up in Puttees and shoes, I kid you not!
The Boots Combat High did come from Lessons Learned on Op Corporate, but they’d have been phased in anyway at some stage, most armies already had high leg boots at that stage.
There was a fair few NI boots (also high leg) that made their way ‘down south’ but they were softer and not so robust.
Argentine Leather equipment, images fron the book “Men-at-250, The argentine Forces in the Falklands”
By the way, this book had several ortographic mistakes and the title of “unknown” of many pictures wich are simply to identificate if the autor (Nick van…something) had put a little more effort.
Wow, that makes pattern 58 webbing look extremely Gucci…
There was also a nylon equipmente I will post it later…by the way someone had the Men-at-Arms 250 ?
Still got some of the nylon webbing, those 601 blokes that weren’t using vests had this stuff.
Don’t rate it much except for the fact that it’s water repellent - unlike 58 Patt.
Wasn’t it similar to the American ALICE kit?
Argentine 601 Cdo nylon webbing.
Belt
Yoke
This is made of two seperate nylon straps à la 37 Pattern, held together with a flat polythene moulding about 5½" long, giving an H-type yoke like the 58 Pattern.
Unlike the ALICE system the ends of the yoke attach to the belt with open hooks - a recipie for disaster if they’re not black nastied.
The yoke can also be attached to the plastic (polythene ?) mount on the rear of the pouches.
The shoulder straps are adjustable front & rear, and each have two small square rings for mounting other eqpt.
In line with the very bad skills visible in photographs, there are flat webbing loops for the lever of the ‘mini golf ball’ gren, (GME-FMK2-MO I think,) and another velcro’ed strip to hold the top of the fuse assy.
(As a quick aside, hanging these Argie grens from webbing is less suicidal than most other types as they are light asslt grens and have both a split pin and a red spring steel clip around the fuse assy & fly-off lever. But still… :shock: )
Pouches
Made of a heavy duty double layered waterproofed nylon type material, they are much more robust than the funny ALICE ones & will take a lot more punishment.
Stiching is single row 12 spi. The tops are reinforced with phosphated steel rivets.
There is a phosphated grommet in the drain hole at the bottom of the pouch which is handy as the lids are of the flap-type rather than the box ones we know & love, leading to the ingress of water & kak.
The lids are secured with a steel & nylon tongue & staple closure. The tongue does not have metal reinforcing.
The mounts on the rear of the pouches are, as mentioned above, made of a synthetic material with a facility for fixing the yoke. They are a couple of inches wide with a 1" slot to bend the belt into. They are rivetted onto the pouches through the outer layer of material only.
There does not appear to be any method of securing them in place but they fit quite tightly, and as most countries don’t carry as much on their CEFO as the Brits do, that may be enough to stop them skating around the belt.
The Boots Combat High did come from Lessons Learned on Op Corporate, but they’d have been phased in anyway at some stage, most armies already had high leg boots at that stage.
There was a fair few NI boots (also high leg) that made their way ‘down south’ but they were softer and not so robust.[/quote]
In late 70s (79/80) some of my Bn had new boots on trial in BAOR. They went through many different designs and cost. The experiences of down south hastened the arrival. A lot of us had DMs for out in the field or extensions to DMS. A lot of the RM had Scarpa walking boots.
The introduction of the Berghaus cyclops was also due to this as the large pack was sh**. It also made the company as the sharp introduction of cash helped expansion. The workforce did round the clock work to supply demand and not all came in green material.
look at the two on the right.
Always wondered why there was so many blokes cutting around with Cyclops bergans!!! I suppose they sort of became the vogue after 82. I bought a Vulcan myself.
Hello
It is very useful post for all lovers of the history of Falklands War. Congratulations.
What is interesting for me in the color plate posted above is a shovel described as “US type folding shovel and cover”. It is author’s risky wording in my opinion. This shovel is far, far, far shadow of only small selected ideas of the US M1910 e-tool as well as the same far, far, far shadow of the US M1943 e-tool. It is too little to call it “US type folding shovel and cover” because nothing is “US type” in this shovel. This is only a hybrid of only several selected small elements of two very old, WW1- and WW2-era, US entrenching tools. In my opinion it is merit-based error and misunderstanding but nobody must agree with me. 
Best regards 
Greg