title: Tommy: The Collector's Historical Perspective to the British Soldier of the Second World War: Uniforms, Weapons and Equipment of the Airborne Forces
author:  David B.. Gordon 
description: A detailed account of how Tommy was equipped for World War II.
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  Ben Elton
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  The First Casualty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Ben Elton © 2005
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ONE
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Ypres, Belgium,
  
  
  
  
  
  October 1917, before dawn
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  _The soldier was laden like a pack mule_.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Besides his knapsack and his water bottle, he carried on his back an iron bar
  around which was wound a mass of barbed wire that must have weighed a hundred
  pounds. Hanging from his belt and webbing were two Mills bombs, a hatchet, a
  bayonet, a pouch of ammunition and various entrenching tools. In his hands he
  carried his rifle. In addition, the man was wet through and through, every
  stitch of cloth and every inch of leather as sodden as if it had been
  deliberately immersed in water, so that it all weighed three times what a
  uniform, coat and boots ought to have weighed. Of course, every man in
  Flanders was as wet as that, but not every man carried a reel of wire on his
  back and so not all of them staggered as 