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Acqui, on 13 May 2010 - 04:24 PM, said:
Hello Milice
Italian Army didn't supply socks to his soldiers, these where substituted, from the mid XIX cent., by the "pezze da piedi", squarded pieces of cotton to wrap up the bare foot and kept in place introducing the foot in the boot!!! Socks as we know them where privatly provided by the soldeir himself!! the only one that the REI supplied where the long, and without foot, grey green socks given to some troops as Alpini, Nco and Officers ( Officers had to buy their own privatly).
This is it!
Ciao
Remo
Italian Army didn't supply socks to his soldiers, these where substituted, from the mid XIX cent., by the "pezze da piedi", squarded pieces of cotton to wrap up the bare foot and kept in place introducing the foot in the boot!!! Socks as we know them where privatly provided by the soldeir himself!! the only one that the REI supplied where the long, and without foot, grey green socks given to some troops as Alpini, Nco and Officers ( Officers had to buy their own privatly).
This is it!
Ciao
Remo
I incidentally bumped into this posting and would like to elaborate a little on it. While going through recruit school in the Norwegian army many years ago we were issued this item - "foot cloths". This was the classic infantry foot wear and I am not sure from where they originated, the earlier Norwegian army or the British one. Anyway, this wasn't as crazy as it can sound but they took a little practice to use correctly. If used wrongly the result could be disastrous, with enormous blisters. We were also issued socks which could be used to increase the "hold" on the foot cloths, or even two sets of foot cloths used together. Anyway, these, correctly adapted, served both as a sort of shock absorbers and were cooler during summer than socks were. They were thicker, and more solidly made, than the socks themselves. Originally, I suspect there was also a cost issue involved. With experience we found that the boot itself could make the difference if they worked or not. Too large boots invariably resulted in the cloth losing its form and grip on the foot. To put them on was a whole little ceremony.
They are long gone now....
/>/>/> ..
Fred
They are long gone now....
/>/>/> ..Fred
