Webbing the new Leather
The Industrial revolution made it possible for fabrics to be made much stronger and more durable than previously possible. This led to certain nations introducing these new woven materials into military certain applications. Both Britain and the United States began to revise their combat equipment at the start of the 20th Century both nations conducted studies into soldier’s endurance and load carrying capability’s. As a result the first designs for military equipment came about which had some founding on medical science and research. Webbing and Canvas has many advantages over leather, which was the main stay for a soldiers fighting gear, up until this time. Leather hardens when exposed to being moistened and then dried out; hide also splits and cracks with age for the same reasons as the natural oils in the leather dry out causing a progressive deterioration of a soldier’s equipment during combat. From a manufacturing point of view webbing and canvas were easier to machine and there is no wastage due to natural defects as you would find in hide.
The Colours of War
There has been much debate over the years as to the right colour of U.S. Army combat equipment and the short answer was no standard colour for one year or item. The U.S. Army and state department issued colour guidelines to manufacturers and quartermaster Depots as to which particular shade of Olive Drab (O.D.), as part of the technical specification for the contract for that particular item. Here is a rough guide.
This was used throughout the First World War up until about 1944. The colour was whitish yellow almost natural cotton in colour; this became more of a mid green in shade after 1941 and was used by some manufacturers until the end of World War Two
Most of the large manufactures used this shade up until 1943. This is a slightly deeper shade with more of a brownish yellow colour and was the most commonalty used during the First World War and interwar years.
This shade was introduce in 1944 and started out as a light brown colour eventually being standardised as a dark olive green by the end of WW2. This colour became standard on all new production items and was used up until the adoption of the M1956 field gear.
The colours in reality
A 1917 Manufactured Colt Pouch
B 1918 Manufactured Colt Pouch
C 1944 Manufactured Thompson Pouch
D 1942 Manufactured Pistol Belt
E 1944 Manufactured Folding E-tool Cover
F 1945 Manufactured Bladder canteen Cover
Transitional colour schemes on WW2 Production
Due the experience of fighting in the early part of WW2 it became obvious that the yellow (O.D.) shades of clothing and equipment had little or no camouflage properties in combat conditions. As a result when a contact was renewed for production of equipment the colours specified for these items were reviewed this was a continuous process throughout the Second World War. The result of this was a large number of items manufactured in more than one of the above colours due to the end of one batch of old stock in original colour being used with a new batch of a material in the new contact shade. This led to web gear being made in more than one colour and this was common by 1944 with 3 colour changes in an eighteen month period. The colours used also depend on which contractor made the item originally as I’ve some items in my collection which are O.D 7 Dark Olive with a date of 1942 and vice versa 1944 date items in OD 9 Dark Khaki.
Production and specification changes to fabrics used in construction of Equipment 1909 - 1945
Most equipment manufactured in the years 1909 to 1917 for the U.S. government was made from a flat panel of cotton webbing which was woven to the width required for each item. Webbing is basically a fabric with a coarse weave which is made by being woven out of heavy weight cotton flax thread. This type of woven material first appeared in the 1880’s and was produced on Shuttle looms, the first major application for such fabrics was fire hoses but it was not long before this type of woven fabric was used for straps and cartridge belts. The main pioneer in the United States was the Mills Woven Webbings Company who developed a new range of special woven fabrics for the Government at the start of the 20th Century. The Mills Company had the ability to make complicated woven designs using the latest card index shuttle looms. This used a “punch card” programming system; which made it possible to weave into the webbing as it was manufactured, loops and puckering on pockets as seen on the M1910 pattern Rifle belt. However weaving everything to the required width for a certain piece of equipment was both time consuming and expensive. So by the time the United States entered the First World War, there was a serious need to increase the volume of production of combat equipment to cover the new requirements. This led to the use of “Duck” cotton canvas in a higher number of Field Gear items by 1918, canvas is made in the same way as webbing but is a flat weave fabric which is the full width of the loom. The advantages of canvas was, equipment could be manufactured by factories which did not have there own shuttle looms, and due to the width of fabric many items could be made at the same time or different items made from the same roll of material. By the end of WW1 the U.S. Army had redesign most of its equipment to make it easier to manufacture ,so that cotton mills could concentrate on fabricating the raw materials for other contractors to actually make the finished items. This trend continued throughout the interwar years into WW2, with more items being made from canvas as the war went on. This was possible due to the use of progressively heavier weight canvas fabrics in the manufacture of items, which in turn made it possible to substitute the use of webbing in there manufacture. As with the colours used in there construction, there was a period of overlap in contracts place with manufacturers and so many items were made using both canvas and webbing in the same year. May combat items were redesigned during the middle of 1943 and this included Field gear so as a result by the end of World War two the “G.I.” Combat equipment was more canvas than webbing based.
1a 1918 production item in 12oz O.D.3 with O.D.9 Tabby webbing tape edging
1b 1945 production item in 16oz O.D.7 with matching diagonal cotton edging tape