Puttees

[mcderms]

Can anyone tell me how you tie puttees on? Is there a trick or are they supposed to slip off and trip you up all the time...

[johnreed]

Puttes are for Infantry left leg wound from the boot up anticlockwise right leg wound clockwise. Mounted troops start just below the knee again in the same direction as per infantry left anti clocwise right clockwise. The end of the puttee is shaped like a V the apex must point to the rear on the outside of the leg.

Jophn

[Andrew Upton]

Can anyone tell me how you tie puttees on? Is there a trick or are they supposed to slip off and trip you up all the time...

This is a good detailed description (with good illustrations) on some of the different ways puttees can be worn:

http://www.oryansroughnecks.org/how4.html

[tocemma]

Blimey,

Is he Japanese? Last time I saw that it was in a first aid at work course... I woudn't do it that way unless you like B252's. Winds equal with the 'point' facing rearwards and centred on the outseam.

Tocemma

[FROGSMILE]

Blimey,

Is he Japanese? Last time I saw that it was in a first aid at work course... I woudn't do it that way unless you like B252's. Winds equal with the 'point' facing rearwards and centred on the outseam.

Tocemma

There seemed to be 2 ways common in WW1, the fairly straight forward wrap by winding and overlapping by half the depth in each circumference and another method whereby a crossing effect was achieved at front cente, but I do not know how this was achieved. It looks rather like the effect seen sometimes in bandaging and you ofen see it in contemporary photographs.

[Andrew Upton]

Blimey,

Is he Japanese? Last time I saw that it was in a first aid at work course... I woudn't do it that way unless you like B252's. Winds equal with the 'point' facing rearwards and centred on the outseam.

Tocemma

It does actually say that that step can be eliminated, but it actually seems like a goog idea, as it would keep the trousers flat and pressed in place more tightly than if you just wound them straight on.

There seemed to be 2 ways common in WW1, the fairly straight forward wrap by winding and overlapping by half the depth in each circumference and another method whereby a crossing effect was achieved at front cente, but I do not know how this was achieved. It looks rather like the effect seen sometimes in bandaging and you ofen see it in contemporary photographs.

'Tis quite easy in theory - all you do is twist the puttee through 180 degrees every now and then as your rolling them on (so exposing the normally unseen reverse) and then twist it back, until you achieve the desired effect, mixing and matching rows of twist and flats - less easy in practise...

[T8HANTS]

You don't have to twist the puttee to cross them at the front only. If you use the twist method like putting a pugaree on a pith helmet you need to twist front and rear. For the front of a puttee come up off the boot using about a third of the overall length. Now at a much steeper angle bring it up around the shin, back behind the calf and down at the same angle to make a nice chevron effect. Do this once more time ensuring that the points of the chevron are centered on the leg and the angles of the two chevrons are the same with about three-quarters of an inch between the two, check there are no gaps or nasty folds in the puttee and finish off in the normal way. Remember on a long puttee you must use the same one on the same leg at all times as it will develop a bias that helps to make it look neat.

Gareth

[FROGSMILE]

You don't have to twist the puttee to cross them at the front only.

Gareth

Thank you, very interesting as I always wondered how it was done.

[janwbay]

Can I ask why they were worn? Was there an advantage to them, rather than socks? I have often wondered about them, and have enjoyed reading the above threads.

Thanks

Janice

[T8HANTS]

It was a way of preventing dust principally from going up the trouser leg and entering into the boot. They were developed in India, where a combination of dust and sweat would make grinding paste, which gentlemen find could cause chafing, n'uff said on that.

You still wear socks under the puttee, and if you do not get your puttee fixed properly, it will rub against the skin and cause "Puttee Burn". The worse thing about puttees is taking them off, then the itching starts!! Wear mine all day, hate taking them off to drive home from a show.

Because the short ankle boot was worn some form of cover for the top of the boot and a method of keeping the bottom of the trouser tidy was required. leather and later canvas gaiters were tried, but were never satisfactory. Short puttees reappeared in the 60's to be swept away when the Army rediscovered the high boot post Falklands war. High boots were being worn at about the time of the Boer war, but they appear to be Yeomanry only.

Gareth

[janwbay]

Thanks very much for the information Gareth. It is really interesting. I always thought there was a link to India, as the word does sound Indian.

regards

Janice

[Old Tom]

Hello,

I did not follow this thread when it was current. A late comment. Those things the army wore in WW2 and up to the 60's were called 'anklets' not gaiters. If you were lucky and had a pair that fitted i.e, just tight enough to hold the trousers, they worked well.

Old Tom

[Wesley]

....and another method whereby a crossing effect was achieved at front cente, but I do not know how this was achieved. It looks rather like the effect seen sometimes in bandaging ...

'Fish-tailing' - at least that's what the nursing old guard used to call it in my student days. Dead easy to do, but almost impossible to describe without the use of demonstration!

Gives a firm, non-slipping bandage (and I would assume puttee) and is a technique rarely seen in today’s NHS, probably for reasons of a budgetary nature as it requires almost twice the amount of bandage compared to the 'round & round' method.

[T8HANTS]

There was a wonderful form of leg immobilising bandage I occasionally had to do back in my nurse training days called a Robert Jones, where you did one turn and then a full twist repeated all the way up the leg. You had to get all the twists even and in line, that was the most enjoyable bandage op' I ever had to perform, the patent hated the thing. Used miles of crape bandage as well.

Gareth

[Peter Doyle]

Interesting thread this - shows that practice makes perfect! My own attempts would make a Sergeant Major roll over and die!

Peter

[ExREME]

Ankle Puttees were worn in the immediate post WW2 period (and possibly earlier) when shorts were worn. In 1960 in Cyprus for example the dress was , socks, hose tops (in Regimental colours) Boots and short puttees simply wrapped round the top of the boot/ankle and as staed earlier to the right for the right leg and vice versa, once they had been put on once you know where to start so that the end was on the outside of the leg. We also wore Corps tabs at the top of the hose top.

[Wesley]

Gareth - I too remember the Robert Jones bandage, two layers of thick cotton wool sandwiched between crepe bandages, named after a famous orthopaedic surgeon and took an age to apply!

But enough derailment of the thread…back to puttees…..

[philsr]

I used short puttees in the 70s with the then current DMS boot.

These were wound round the ankle to seal the trouser to boot joint, and I have to say that I liked them after I had been shown how to put them on.

The trick was to just show one width of material and finish with the 'V' in the right place pointing to the rear.

The Boot Combat High that replaced the DMS boot did away with puttees, we all had the buy 'Trouser Blousers' instead.

As an aside, the post Falklands Boot Combat High was the worst boot that I ever came across.

Apparently it has improved since, but I still buy my own.

Philsr