Belgian Puttees, Surplus

A real blast from the past! Wrapping puttees around your ankles really is a chore to put hair on your chest. The Belgian military kept these in their inventory for a long time but finally decided to get rid of them. An almost direct copy of the British model, as is the Belgian way.

Back in the very early 1900s, puttees were a fashionable piece of men's clothing and remained in military use for a long time after they went out of civilian fashion. For example, the Brits still wore puttees in the Falklands War in the early 80's and consequently suffered horribly from trench foot. Of course, the main problem was the Boot DMS with it's brilliant tongue design.

These are about one meter long, 15 cm wide pieces of wool, with cloth strips on the ends. Wrap these around your ankles and enjoy such classics as Puttee Itch and Puttee Burn if you are weak. See the pictures for instructions in how to wrap them correctly. This model is a very generic short puttee. There are also three to four meters long variants for true gentlemen, but these are, sadly, hopelessly out of fashion today.

Unissued goodness.