Boots boots German boots

[Gunner Bailey]

I was looking at the volumes produced in relation to the number in the German Army. On the face of it it looks like huge over production.

[David Filsell]

Yes horse hide was used - not least in WW2 for the leather flight jackets used by per suit pilots

[mebu]

just seen this in Intelligence report, II Anzac, Sept '17

BOOTS. Prisoner stated that in Germany boots for civilians are being soled and heeled with wood. Leather is very scarce and dear. Military Wellington boots are being procured largely from Sweden. The leather is good but the workman ship poor.

Peter

[centurion]

just seen this in Intelligence report, II Anzac, Sept '17

BOOTS. Prisoner stated that in Germany boots for civilians are being soled and heeled with wood. Leather is very scarce and dear. Military Wellington boots are being procured largely from Sweden. The leather is good but the workman ship poor.

Peter

In fact it was illegal to use leather for civilian footwear without special dispensation (I suspect if the customer had a von in their name that would do it)

[mebu]

Interesting re footwear. Illustrates the rules and regs with the situation there. Another story from the same report: prisoner says that in his region it is illegal to pick potatoes....one's own.....before September 20th. Told of soldier home on leave, decided to pick spuds anyway because family hungry. Policeman comes into field and tells soldier off. Soldier hits policeman.

Peter

[centurion]

Interesting re footwear. Illustrates the rules and regs with the situation there. Another story from the same report: prisoner says that in his region it is illegal to pick potatoes....one's own.....before September 20th. Told of soldier home on leave, decided to pick spuds anyway because family hungry. Policeman comes into field and tells soldier off. Soldier hits policeman.

Peter

The key phrase is "in his region" many controls on food and food production were set at state or even lower level and there seems little evidence of what today would be called "joined up government". apart from possibly 1936 -45 Germany has always functioned as a federation. Farmers were supposed to turn their crops into central warehouses for redistribution but many peasant farmers used to a self sustaining independent life tried to keep stashes back for themselves and this may be the effect of rules attempting to make this difficult. Potatoes rather than grain were the main basic food stuff of Germany. It had been hoped to bring in additional supplies from the conquered lands in the East (Poland etc) but Copper was the main ingredient of fungicides used in Germany and copper was reserved for brass production (cartridge cases). As a result there was a major outbreak of the potato blight (exactly the same disease that hit Ireland many decades before which spread to Poland and further East so that potatoes became scarce (and peasant farmers more inclined to horde them). Agriculture and Economic Development in Europe Since 1870 edited by Pedro Lains, Vicente Pinilla is a good starting place to look at this together with reports by the Allied Commissioners just after the Armistice.

[bob lembke]

My father told me that his first pair of boots (German boots, at least pre-war, were dated) were older than he was. He joined the army

(3. Pionier=Bataillon) in early 1915. He said that the hob-nails kept the soles from wearing out, but the older boots had hardened soles and the

hob-nails tended to fall out, so you carried a few in your pocket.

I mention this because of the mention of men going thru boots in a matter of months. Of course the Ersatz boots used later in the war would have

worn out more quickly, but a well-made leather boot should have lasted several years' active wear, unless especially abused.

The adoption of the half-boots and puttees later in the war (a la storm-troops) saved a lot of leather, aside from making the men more nimble on the battlefield.

Bob Lembke

[bill24chev]

My father told me that his first pair of boots (German boots, at least pre-war, were dated) were older than he was. He joined the army

(3. Pionier=Bataillon) in early 1915. He said that the hob-nails kept the soles from wearing out, but the older boots had hardened soles and the

hob-nails tended to fall out, so you carried a few in your pocket.

I mention this because of the mention of men going thru boots in a matter of months. Of course the Ersatz boots used later in the war would have

worn out more quickly, but a well-made leather boot should have lasted several years' active wear, unless especially abused.

The adoption of the half-boots and puttees later in the war (a la storm-troops) saved a lot of leather, aside from making the men more nimble on the battlefield.

Bob Lembke

Bloem mentions that many of his company wore out their boots on the march throgh Belgium and

down to the Marne.

British sources on the other hand say that the many reservists broke their new boots in on the retreat from Mons.