BRITISH ARMY'S BOOTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 99, 2 September 1942, Page 3

BRITISH ARMY'S BOOTS

WEIGH ILB LESS THAN IN 1918 1 lie british Army is 011 the march in boo;s which weigh lib less than in 1918. Their average weight in the ;ast war was olbs a pair; their average weight to-day is 31bs Utozs. The achievement is the total result of a number of tiny reductions. Material is a little less thick. In 1914-18 when the Army got its first machine-made hoot uppers had a .thickness of 2 millimetres.- To-day it .may be 1% millimetres. There are still toe-caps, with a rein lorccment of cement under them: but' tli: v old toe-case has gone; and that was in solid grain leather oi\ not less than one-tenth of an inch. Outsolcs, too, are not so heavy. There are fewer metal studs and tin; metal for heel tips and to plates is also lighter. Finally there was the new design for the Army boot of this Avar, incorporating the. ideas of a famous orthopaedic surgeon who is also a knight. The new boot grips where it ought to and gives room Avhere room is needed. And the result, almost accidentally, is yet another reduction in weight. The sum total is a boot which is not only less heavy and more com, J fortable, that is to say less tiring to thickness of a millimetres. To-day wears longer than its clumsier predecessor . I