Great War Artifacts.... P'08 Ammunition Pouches and Entrenching Tool Carrier

I got into doing blogs because I had a lot of Great War reproduction gear to show and talk about. This was my way of relaying back into the world all that I had learned since I first started searching for information on the web. I have been fortunate to have become involved with What Price Glory, a reproduction outfitter, by researching Canadian equipment for them. Now much has been produced that illustrates the changing equipment over the course of WWI.

For those who have discovered me through this blog look me up also on :

http://leathersatchels.blogspot.ca/

http://greatwarreproductions.blogspot.ca/

http://greatwarcommemorations.blogspot.ca/

In this blog I want to feature all the original treasures I have acquired since I started collecting six years ago. This way I might share details that others, like myself, would wish to see if they don't have the same artifact. It also gives me a chance to have a fresh look at things I've become too familiar with.

The first artifacts I acquired were my grandfather' ammunition pouches. He had served with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and so he'd received the British P'08 equipment. When my uncle died and his estate was being cleared up I began dreaming about these pouches. I knew they were in one of the thousand boxes in my uncle's basement. One day I drove over and arrived just in time to see someone toss the pouches in a garbage-to-go pile. "I'll take those," I said. I was enthralled. 

An old photo shows my grandfather with his machine gun crew. These same pouches can be seen showing  the start of the wear and tear visible today, and in good seeing conditions, with a magnifying glass, the same missed stitch is visible on the upper strap. Holding these artifact today I realize my grandfather was not the old man I knew but an eager teenager about to enter a world beyond sane imagination.

These are the early '08 style ammunition pouches without the small straps on the left side to guard against further loss of cartridges. They are woven magically with three internal pockets in every pouch and a puckered taper. Stitching is reduced to a minimum so mass production was easy, a must in an era of industrial warfare. When you compare these to the leather gear the other armies were still using, and reflect on the brass snap fasteners, then you have to feel something of the sense of modernity that these young men must have felt. This was their modern era and it held all the promises of the future. They were at the cutting edge of an empire holding its place in the world. But then German youth felt the same thing.

Here are two more details:

I also saved the entrenching tool carrier, a lined pocket with the wear marks of its original occupant.

Traces of my grandfather's number, A11123, can still be seen. The inside shows the maker's stamp with a date on the lining.

I find there's something disconcerting in the almost domestic attention to cloth details in the uniforms and equipment. It is easy to forget that these artifacts were going to war.

Subsequently I have bought an entrenching tool head at a garage sale for $8.00. It was a strange moment to bring these two pieces together and find that they fit one another perfectly. The tool nestled into the carrier as though it was crawling back into bed, still warm after 100 years.

There are a few more oddments of my grandfather's which I will show in a future posting. This brief introduction indicates something of the curious happenstance which can be so gripping.