What do you call the- things- that go around the shins onthis pictureof a World War I soldier (and many if not most other WW1 soldiers)? They’re where greaves would be if this were a suit of armor, and I assume they were for the same purpose (to protect the shins), but they don’t appear to have been called greaves.
Thanks for any info.
Puttees! Puttee - Wikipedia
Oh, yeah, in the picture those are fancy-pants gaiters, but puttees are the leg-wrap things.
Thanks!
I know them as Puttees
Puttees are just long strips of material wrapped around the lower leg. Gaiters are fully formed and attached by buttons or laces. Both serve the same purpose keeping your lower trousers , top of your boots dry and stopping your ankles and lower shins getting scratched up.
I’ve heard them referred to as leggings.
They would also serve another purpose in those who had to remain upright for most of the day. By compressing the veins they would assist returning circulation and prevent varicose veins
My grandfather, who was wearing these in his own WW1 pictures, had fallen arches. I wonder if these things helped or hurt or made any difference at all when he marched. (He was eventually reassigned from active duty to a carpentry unit [he was a carpenter before and after the war] due to his arches.)
I wore them in navy boot camp in the 1980’s. They provide no arch support.
WWI soldiers wore laced ankle boots with hobnail soles and an iron horseshoe around the back of the heel. It was the first war where they were issued backpacks instead of rolling their gear in a blanket worn over the shoulder: a horribly designed canvas bucket that made sitting down to rest impossible and with all the weight in thin straps cutting into the shoulders. Standard load was 60 pounds, but because of the lack of horses at the start of the Meusse Argonne offensive, loads exceeded 100 pounds.
Not a good time for anyone without sturdy feet.
I own a pair from WW II.
There’s a classic Canadian school reader story about a kid in the Canadian Army cadets who always had trouble with his puttees. His uniform was oversized too, and during some ceremony he injures himself when he lets go of his pants to salute the flag and they fall down. The governor general is at the ceremony and visits him afterwards and asks if he can do him a favour, and the kid asks for an official letter exempting him from wearing puttees. The kid then skips wearing puttees to next roll call, and when the sargent asks why, he smugly provides the royal letter.
The point of the complaint was that puttees were long strips that had to be rolled on just perfectly like mummy wrapping. I would think the button-up pieces that do the same job are gaiters.
