Australian Army uniforms; Page 3

	South Australian Farrier Sergeant of the Adelaide Mounted Rifles, wearing the tunic, belt and Martini bandolier in the 1880s.This portrait in 1899 George GOODALL wears the uniform of the time, which, was a locally made brown wool tunic and breeches. The belt is in brown leather, as is the bandolier which carries the individual rounds for the .303 Lee Metford. The brown leather equipment was worn by mounted soldiers, while the infantry militia, known as the Adelaide Rifles wore black leather equipment.	Once a soldier was placed into hospital his uniform and kit would be removed and cleaned and stored, he would then be issued a set of clothing to be worn in the hospital. This clothing consisted of a blue button up jacket and a pair of blue trousers, both in a flannel wool. The front panels were lined in a coloured cotton, and the buttons were a simple cream or white bone. The German helmet is a souvenir	This WW1 digger is wearing the standard Australian pattern tunic and breeches of WW1. The tunic is dated 1916 and the breeches are dated 1917. The helmet is a second pattern Brodie, with the leather chinstrap and 'leatherette' liner. The leather equipment being worn is a purely Australian made set.
image and text of above photos from Grants Militaria
	Front view of two diggers of the 5th Division, 4172 Private (Pte) George James Giles, 29th Battalion (left) and 4015 Pte John Wallace Anderton, 32nd Battalion, just out of the trenches, in full kit (with mud), including webbing with ammunition pouches and entrenching tool. The gas mask (small box respirator) is worn at the 'alert' position in front of the chest. Pte Wallace has a cloth over his rifle.
	Back view of two diggers of the 5th Division, 4172 Private (Pte) George James Giles, 29th Battalion (left) and 4015 Pte John Wallace Anderton, 32nd Battalion, just out of the trenches, in full kit (with mud). Pte Wallace has a cloth over his rifle. Pte Giles has a knife, fork and spoon in his puttees. The entire complete uniform and rifle of Pte Giles are held by the AWM.
	Australian Infantryman wore Pattern 1908 web equipment, and carried wire cutters and other tools The blouse or tunic, were made of all Australian wool. The blouses were loose fitting to allow movement and air to circulate freely. There were four large pockets in the front of the tunic as well as an internal bandage pocket on the inside left front skirt. A belt was sewn on about the tunic which had a simple brass buckle to the front, this belt was made of the same material as the rest of the tunic. At the rear of the tunic it is heavily pleated with a double fold extending down the spine, this fold and some extra material across the shoulders were to protect those areas from the sun. image and text from Grants Militaria
	Australian soldiers volunteered and joined British troops who went to Archangel and Murmansk, in June 1919, to assist the British, American, French, Italian, Polish, and Serbian soldiers, who had been there since 1918. The soldier here is wearing a standard Australian tunic and breeches, made in England to Australian specifications. The wool vest, is from Australia, and made of sheep skin with the fur still attached. The vest was made to be reversible, and was intended to give some comfort in the cold European winters, this is not an issue item by one supplied by friends or relatives in Australia. The fur cap, is a British made item for Arctic use. Made of seal skin fur, and Bedford cord, it is lined with a heavy cotton and quilted, it is very warm. image and text from Grants Militaria
image and text from Grants Militaria	This Light Horseman is wearing the standard pattern tunic supplied to Australian soldiers. The equipment worn is the Pattern '03 bandolier equipment. All pieces are Australian made. The waist belt has a simple open face buckle with one tongue, on the belt is a bayonet frog for the 1907 pattern bayonet. Also on the belt are four ammunition carriers. The two nearest the centre of the belt carry 10 rounds each, these pouches are duplicates of the pouches on the bandolier, excepting that they each have a belt loop. Next to these pouches are two 15 round ammunition pouches. These have small leather tongue that closes the pouch by attaching to a stud pillar on the top of the front flap. On the rear of these pouches is also a belt loop, and also a brass 'D ring', for attaching a great coat carrier for the dismounted infantry. the rear view shows the other equipment. Over the right shoulder and hanging at the left hip are two haversacks. The large haversack is the pack for this equipment, the Pattern 1903, Commonwealth Pattern, haversack. The pack is made of a canvas material, with a two inch shoulder strap with one simple brass friction buckle. On the rear of this pack is another pocket, this is to hold an emergency ration tin.
image and text from Grants Militaria	The other small haversack is the carrier for the gas helmet (PH gas hood/helmet), this was a flannel hood with eye pieces, the material was impregnated with a chemical that would neutralise the effects of the gas. Over the other shoulder is the 'mounted' pattern bandolier. This has 9 pouches, each holding 10 rounds each, thus a total of 150 rounds of .303" were carried; each soldier was also expected to carry a further 10 rounds in the haversack. For the light horseman a further 90 rounds would also be carried in another bandolier slung about his horses neck. The water bottle is a blue enamelled steel, with a cork stopper, it is covered in wool, and carried in a leather frame work, also of the Pattern of 1903. There is a thin leather strap which loops from two brass rings on the carrier, about the soldier. On this strap is a wide cotton or web shoulder pad, to spread the load. Although all the leather pieces of this equipment are Australian made, the web shoulder section of the water bottle carrier usually carries an English inspectors mark, as these were imported from Britain, due to Australia's inability to produce this type of product.

Australia adopted the English web equipment, Pattern of 1908, shortly after the British army adopted it. Large quantities of P'08 were sent to Australia in 1912. And in the beginning of WW1 it was found that the supply and production of the web equipment could not be relied upon to fill Australia's needs. Even before Australia's entry to the conflict of the Great War it was seen that Australia may not be able to rely upon supplies from overseas. So a localised attempt at reproducing the successful pattern of British web equipment was trialed. The Australian Government sent out contracts to reproduce the P'08 in Australian produced leather, almost as soon as the P'08 equipment was developed. Several tests were carried out, but at the beginning of WW1, attempts were made in earnest. The Australian P'08 Leather Equipment was an identical copy of the web equipment, early attempts varied in the type of ammunition pouch closures and securing methods. Some of this equipment found its way to the battlefields for testing, photos exist of Diggers wearing versions of the leather equipment in the early battles around Pozieres 1916, numerous photos also exist of Australians in training camps in Egypt, and England, wearing an early version of the equipment.

In 1916 a report of the leather equipment (known as Australian P'08 Leather Equipment ), condemned it as lacking when compared with the web P'08. The major complaint was the equipment stretched and slipped when wet. This problem was attended to by adding tongues to the two inch buckles and also the one inch buckles on all the equipment. Despite these modifications the leather equipment does not seem to have enjoyed much popularity, in the Great War, after 1916, mainly because the British web was readily available and already tested. The leather equipment continued to see service, but to a lessor degree. Commonly this equipment is called 'Pattern 1915', or P 15, as this is generally accepted by most collectors as the date of its first appearance in any great numbers. Most examples today show manufacture dates of 1916, and re-issued dates of 1917 and 1918, mainly to Commonwealth Military Forces units.

wording and photos from Grants Militaria