Puttees

[Piorun]

Link for Piorun-Antony showing short puttees in use 1982.

Thanks, Wardog I'll have to find another joke now! I should have stayed in the forces, it seems, as, at least, I wouldn't have had to blanco these damned gaiters with their fiddly little buckles that you couldn't get frozen fingers around . . . . . !!

[Rayessex]

Agree with you Andrew,

short puttees were called short puttees because they were, ere, short!! about 3ft long.

Mine were even shorter about 1 wrap of the angle, amazing what a pair of scissors and a bit of Velcro can do! They were great bits of kit in that they stopped Bugs going up your trouser leg and chewing on your whatsits. Also great for climbing obstacles as they also stopped Twigs, Branches and fence posts going up the trouser leg and tripping you up. Often used in first aid as binding for makeshift splints on damaged limbs (obviously you used the injured persons not your own).

Ray

I loved my Puttees, well you ever tried securing an injured person to a stretcher using a Boot combat high!!!

[David B]

Go on, they were worn India to stop cobra bites. Seriously though, how tight are they wound, as too loose they surely sag after a while, and how were they

finished off ? just tucked in at the top. In the navy we wore short gaiters - blancoed of course which would dribble all over your boots when wet, but at least they

were comfortable with wide bottom trousers.

David

[max7474]

They were finished off with a thinner length of cloth tape about 2cm wide that was wrapped around the top and tied off.

[RobL]

Or tied off at the bottom if you're mounted ie Cavalry

[Tinhat47]

For a long time the cotton tape puzzled me, because it seemed like there were very few pictures where it was actually visible. Later I realized that men were folding their trousers down over the top part of the puttees, hiding the tape. Was that a standard order or just a matter of personal preference?

[Andrew Upton]

For a long time the cotton tape puzzled me, because it seemed like there were very few pictures where it was actually visible. Later I realized that men were folding their trousers down over the top part of the puttees, hiding the tape. Was that a standard order or just a matter of personal preference?

Bit of both - you see them done all sorts of ways in period photos. One layer of tape visible, trousers bloused over the top hiding them from view altogether, the tape not overlapped so it forms a thick band at the top of the puttee - and that's before you get into the variations of where the pointed ends finish on the leg, or indeed if the soldier put them both on spiralling clockwise or anticlockwise (all I've seen in period pictures)!

[PhilB]

I`m posting these two photos on behalf of another member. The first is from the Somme Dec 1915.

[dycer]

I asked Phil to post these two photographs,partly in answer to how they were tied and to try to forward the debate on whether puttees were comfortable to wear.

The Sergeant had been in France since 1914,so presumably had mastered a method of tying which was both comfortable to him and conformed with any dress regulation requirements.Unfortunately he left no correspondence to say if he felt them to be a help or hindrance.

I have no idea how long the two men had been in the field but they appear to be wearing ankle length short puttees.There reasoning fail me.They are not holding up their socks,so my only suggestion is that the puttees were worn in an attempt to stop water getting into their boots but I am not certain how waterproof puttees were,although I accept several layers would act as a waterproof barrier.The puttees do,however,seem to worn for choice so presumably the men were comfortable with them as a piece of kit.

George

[Andrew Upton]

I have no idea how long the two men had been in the field but they appear to be wearing ankle length short puttees.There reasoning fail me.They are not holding up their socks,so my only suggestion is that the puttees were worn in an attempt to stop water getting into their boots but I am not certain how waterproof puttees were,although I accept several layers would act as a waterproof barrier.The puttees do,however,seem to worn for choice so presumably the men were comfortable with them as a piece of kit.

George

They're not bad waterproof wise, but short puttees are more to stop stones and other bits and pieces getting into the boot.

[Chief_Chum]

Hi George,

The short puttees were worn with 'hose tops' (long woollen socks with no feet which were, in turn, worn over the socks) by most kilted troops. Occasionally you do see Highlandes with long puttees and no hose tops but they are the exception.

With the Khaki Chums I have worn long puttees (and occasionally short ones) for literally thousands of hours, often for weeks at a time on projects such as the BBC series, 'The Trench' and the Canadian CBC project 'The Great War'. I now co-own a business which hires uniforms, equipment, weapons and props for film, TV and threatre work so I also teach other people how to tie long puttees on an almost daily basis.

I have never found them uncomfortable, nor have I ever spoken with an old soldier who found them uncomfortable either. As long as they are worn properly they are fine.

Long puttees were worn from top-to-bottom by mounted troops and bottom-to-top by dismounted (although there are plenty of photos of dismounted Yeomanry wearing theirs top-to-bottom as unit custom).

To put them on properly, the best way is to start by rolling them backwards so that the thin tape is on the inside with the inner surface of the puttee is rolled on the outside.

Once they are rolled, men wearing Service Dress Trousers (not breeches) should pull the trouser leg up at least 4/5 inches which will later form the turnover at the top.

The puttees should then be rolled around the boots from the inside to the outside (ie clockwise on the right foot and anti-clockwise on the left).

Only four eyelets should be showing. If you have more the puttee will sit too high and will slip off the boot when you are walking or marching.

The first turn should be fairly tight and should wrap over the same point twice before you start winding up the leg.

(Old soldiers who served in the 1920s and 30s will tell you that the spacing should be an inch for each turn but they wore their puttees much lower than the Great War men)

The spacing should vary between 1.5 and 2 inches for each turn, depending on how tall you are.

Keep the pressure quite tight but without cutting off the circulation.

Beware of "letter boxing" - gaps where the puttees gape (make sure you always wear the same puttee on the same leg as they will bend to fit the shape of your leg).

The crucial point is that the top of the puttees should end just below the knee. This is very important as, if they are not high enough, they will slip down as you walk.

They should certainly be well above the top of the calves as the bump of the calf helps to keep them up.

Once you have reached the knee, make sure the last turn sits smartly over the previous one.

The wide part of the puttee is finished in a 'V'. The line of stitching across the widest part of the 'V' should be in line with the OUTSIDE trouser seam, the 'V' pointing backwards. With plenty of practice you will be able to get the puttees to land on these marks every time. (One Great War veteran showed me how to get both sides right, then wind back down and mark the tops of the boots with razor blades so you always know where to start them).

Once the wide part of the puttee is in the right place, the thin tape should be wound over and over on the same spot (so only one thinkness is showing). The thin tape should be tied off next to the pointed end of the puttee so, once the tape will not go around one more full turn, fold it over itself, just past the pointed end of the puttee.

Fold it over at least twice and push any remaining tape behind the 'V'.

Finally, pull down the turnover you pulled up at the start. This should just about cover the thin tapes. Service Dress trousers were ALWAYS worn with a turnover. The turnovers often pull out when they are being worn which is why they often look like they have none in photographs but they would all have had them to begin with. (Breeches have no turnovers).

Some units introduced a system of crossed puttees to signify certain roles. In the 1/5th Suffolks, one cross was for a Lewis Gunner, two indicated a Trench Mortarman, three a Runner, etc. The crosses are easy to do but, once you have tied your puttees in this way, they will rarely ever stretch back to their original shape.

Properly worn, puttees are very comfortable, support the legs when marching, and protect the tops of the boots and laces in sticky mud.

However, be warned, when you take them off after a lengthy time your legs will start to itch like crazy. If you can ignore it for 24 hours it will stop. If you scratch them you will still be scratching days later... !

[dycer]

Blimey Taff,you need a maths degree to tie them properly.

It's fair to say then, the Sgt.has tied them on properly,found them comfortable and could march for miles?He probably did so to have the photo taken.

George

[barry73]

A nice example of a Major in puttees with tape showing

[Steven Broomfield]

Old soldiers who served in the 1920s and 30s will tell you that the spacing should be an inch for each turn but they wore their puttees much lower than the Great War men[/i])

Thanks for that: I've always wondered, because looking at photos fo the period it almost looks as if they're wearing plus fours, compared to their forebears.

[Chief_Chum]

"He probably did so to have the photo taken."

Hi George,

I doubt it was just to have his photograph taken.

To be honest, once you know how to tie puttees it is very hard to tie them badly. Most photographs show puttees being properly worn, after all recruits put them on and take them off at least once a day and there is no way that instructors at Depots would tolerate sloppy, badly tied puttees.

Put simply, if they are badly tied, too loose, or not high enough, they will fall down.

Some badly tied puttees in studio portraits can often be pinned down to new recruits who were too keen to have their photographs taken in their new uniform before perfecting the art.

Obviously there are also plenty of roughly tied puttees showing in photographs of the front line as puttees, boots and socks were removed every day for the feet to be inspected and, once you have a ten foot length of sopping wet puttee, caked in thick mud, it can be a struggle to re-tie!

The photo of Major Giddings shows long puttees being worn in the correct way with shorts; wound up the bare leg. He could do with getting those short tapes sorted out of course!

Steve,

The "plus fours" look is dead right for the inter-war period. In fact Officers actually wore barathea plus fours with their Service Dress tunics. The puttees were worn lower, with tighter turns, and the turnover on the trousers was much deeper. Along with the ugly post war OR cap it's an altogether less pleasing look that the Great War soldier.

[Steven Broomfield]

Steve,

The "plus fours" look is dead right for the inter-war period. In fact Officers actually wore barathea plus fours with their Service Dress tunics. The puttees were worn lower, with tighter turns, and the turnover on the trousers was much deeper. Along with the ugly post war OR cap it's an altogether less pleasing look that the Great War soldier.

My old dad joined up in '38, and I remember him telling me that puttees were a 1" gap (if that's the right word). I believe I read somewhere that inter-war golfing trousers were copied from officers' trousers with puttees, but with the puttees replaced with socks, obviously.

Off-topic, but of interest, he told me he learned to drive on an Albion lorry. Having seen his driving in latter years, I can easily believe it. (He drove Tank Transporters in the Western desert, and spent a while, post-war, as a London Bus Driver - scared me witless every time I went out with him).

The story, however, was this: when learning a hill start, the instructor would take the learner driver's 'best' SD cap and place it immediately behind a rear wheel. Any slipping on the hills start and you had to fork out 2/6 for a replacement.

He was very good at hill starts!

[Rayessex]

when learning a hill start, the instructor would take the learner driver's 'best' SD cap and place it immediately behind a rear wheel.

Hello Steve,

Off topic again sorry, but still goes on remember my Sergeant instructor asking me to remove my watch, and placing it under the rear wheals.

Ray.

Well I said still goes on, but that was in 1978, seems like yesterday, and he was wearing short Puttees at the time so not really off topic.

[SiegeGunner]

When I was a kid, the President of my Dad's rugby club was called Major Puttee - and he was short ...

[Mk VII]

The short puttees being worn by the kilted soldiers are very similar (if not identical) to the ones worn by all the British Army in the 1970-80s period, until high boots began to come in. Re-enactors wearing kilts will usually use these, as they are still cheap as chips.

Some kilted units went to the war wearing field shoes and spats, later exchanged for the boots-and-short-puttees combination.

They are also wearing English soldiers' tunics, not the special one with the cutaway skirt at the front intended to go with a sporran. This is commonly seen, as supply problems meant kilted regiments often got whatever was in the supply chain.The one on the right appears to be wearing his smoke helmet bag in a sporran-like fashion.

[Wardog]

I think it has been said before on the forum that short puttees in the Great War were long ones cut to a shorter length and not manufactured short. Is that true? Cheers, Paul.

[Andrew Upton]

They are also wearing English soldiers' tunics, not the special one with the cutaway skirt at the front intended to go with a sporran. This is commonly seen, as supply problems meant kilted regiments often got whatever was in the supply chain.

That's not strictly true - excepting certain units who bought their own equipment, all Scottish cut-away tunics started out life as ordinary tunics. It wasn't until post-war that a version made with the cut-away as standard was issued. Modifying the tunic to have the cut-away was officially banned around late 1914/early 1915, not least as removal of the front skirts took off the field dressing pocket at the front!

[4thGordons]

I seem to recall reading a comment by US troops serving with Australian's during the assault on the Hindeberg Line, that they were lucky as they had their long canvas gaiters, the Australian's in their puttee's would often get caught in the wire, the American's gaiters didn't get caught as easily.

So though long (and short) puttees may have had their usefulness as "compression sock's", bandages, and a quick item to clean rather than having to carry spare trousers, in modern combat areas with barbed wire their utility may have been less.

Cheers,

Hendo

This is interesting as I was under the impression the accepted wisdom was the reverse suggesting that in action most US units discarded their canvas leggings (a pain to do up/undo and really quite fragile) and adopted puttees in their stead.

Certainly most of the "in action" type pictures I have of the 33rd Div (who fought with the Australians at Hamel etc in July) seem to be wearing puttees. The picture reproduced in Charles Messenger's book of the King inspecting US troops after the July action shows them in the gaiters, but this is a post action parade and that might be expected (they do look smart!) - however later pictures showing the King decorating members of the US 131st Inf after Chippily Ridge shows them wearing puttees. A quick flick through American Battlefields in Europe (AMBC) shows very few examples of men outside the US in gaiters also although these pictures too almost all date from later in 1918.

I'd be interested in the quote if you can put your hand on it - not least because it is probably from one of my "local" units

Cheers,

Chris

[PhilB]

Any comment on what the officer in the centre foreground is wearing?

[Mk VII]

Either riding boots or leather gaiters made to look like riding boots but much more comfortable (anyone who has had to walk any way in riding boots will know why ... they're not for walking in)

[PhilB]

It may be a trick of the photo, but the officer on the right appears to have quite light coloured puttees - an affectation?