Army issue kit and uniform equipped the infantryman with the bare minimum for fighting and living in the trenches, but if an Australian wanted something extra he was able to barter and buy whatever he needed to supplement or replace his kit.
Despite the standardisation of army equipment, the AIF soldier always managed to stay unique. Most distinctive was the Digger’s uniform. The workmanlike woollen khaki jacket, cut loose-necked and baggy, and detailed with blackened metal buttons, topped sturdy, lace-up, ankle-length boots made entirely of leather and hobnailed for extra grip.
Puttees were long strips of woollen material bound round the lower leg from ankle to knee and were intended to stop water and mud sloshing into boots and breeches. They were cursed by soldiers as worse than useless; they cut off circulation when too tight because they shrank in the wet, and unwound when too loose, hampering movement.
The rabbit fur-felt slouch hat with its Rising Sun badge became the readily identifiable symbol of Australian soldiery, and when the AIF arrived in France their hats were reluctantly swapped for British steel helmets.
In France the Australian soldier was also issued with a wet-weather “gas” cape as worn by the British. Spare uniform, standard kit and a few personal items were packed for travel in a kit bag, a drawstring, light canvas dufflebag with the soldier’s name and number stencilled on the outside.
As well as carrying identity papers, the Australian soldiers wore two engraved oval ID discs, called “dead meat tickets”, on necklets. It was the unenviable job of the Graves Registration Unit to recover these discs from the bodies of the dead to identify those killed in battle.
© Time-Life Australia Pty Ltd 1998
(from the series Australians at War)