Puttees and Lightweight trousers

[Thinker341]

I have a plan for a squad which wears lightweights, but I was planning to wear puttees with the lightweight trousers... would it be possible to wear them with lightweight trousers I have no clue, as I dont really know how to put them on?:D

[jibjobbob]

Re: Puttees and Lightweight trousers

puttees? voluntarily? fair play to ya lol...I had these when I joined up and theyre a pain in the butt lol...be a good early look though :D

to put them on, you hold the square end on the inside of your ankle and then wrap around (clockwise for the right leg, anti clockwise for the left leg, the aim being that when its all wrapped, the pointed end is on the outside of your ankle, pointing rearwards.

You then wind the thinner band around 3 times and then tuck it behind the band in front of the pointed end of the puttee, twisting it so it lies flat, pull all the slack through, then (if I remember right) you loop it around the band 3 times and tuck the excess behind the pointed end of the puttee.

the whole thing needs to be tight enough to stop it coming loose, but loose enough to avoid cutting off the circulation (and they do lol)...ideally wear with a pair of DMS boots and look forward to having wet feet in the winter :D

should look like this when all done:



originally trousers were tucked in as well, but most guys used to buy the elasticated twisties from the Naafi (most surplus places still sell them) and bloused the trousers over the top of the puttee...lot easier

[Thinker341]

Re: Puttees and Lightweight trousers

cheers pal! I was thinking of the long ww1 style puttees, but im sure you put it on the same just wrap it more :L Is it alright if i have high ankle boots, and one last one would it be better to make sure my trousers are quite tight before hand by grabbing the front of the trouser and holding it around the back, or do I just wrap it around with the looseness you get naturally with the trouser? :D

[jfox61]

Re: Puttees and Lightweight trousers

Thinker, the puttees are identical to the WW1 type, same length, colour and material. just that the WW1 squaddies wrapped the differently.

What era are you planning on modelling yourself on? You would only tuck your lightweights into the puttees if you were a sprog. Old sweats would use twist ties or, as myself, and I am guessing, Bob probably did, strong elastic bands. No such thing as twist ties when I was in. As says it was easier, but also looked much better too.

[Terry Mcann]

Re: Puttees and Lightweight trousers

Yep,tuck your trs into the putties and they will pull up.

Thick elastic bands are much better also then trouser twists and are usually free!!!

Was led to believe that the WW1 putties are longer as they wrap up higher up the leg so need more material??

[jibjobbob]

Re: Puttees and Lightweight trousers

Looking up on a Great War Forum, the 'long puttee' was 9ft long and bound up to just over the calf muscle. The modern day 'short' puttee was about 3 and a half ft long, plus the thin band (remember holding them up in the air on more than one occasion thinking 'ffs' at putting them on lol) they probably are the same material (wool) and colour as the originals though.

Lol @ elastic bands hehhehe....totally agree that only fng's wore trousers tucked in, I think twisties came in around 1989ish? (just as the DMS boot and puttee was going out and those bl**dy awful 'highleg DMS' came into service) *shudders*

Do you have a certain look youre trying to do?

[jfox61]

Re: Puttees and Lightweight trousers

My bad on the length. You are correct the material and even manufacturer were the same though.

[jibjobbob]

Re: Puttees and Lightweight trousers

No worries,

Id agree that the material and manufacturer was the same, in fact considering when the short puttee came into service, Id not be suprised if some old ones were reused to make the newer style.

So much gear is in storage, About 15 years ago I had a mate in RAF stores who was involved in the annual inventory check, when 3 crates of horseshoes dated 1918 were found packed in greasepaper. These were unwrapped, checked over, counted against the records and put away again...crazy lol