Description

This Pattern had its origins in two requirements for lighter patterns of web equipment, one for temperate zones, the other tropical. The result appears to have been a convergence of these designs. In 1945, the course of the War changed, Germany collapsing more suddenly than was expected, leaving a war in the Far East. The newly designed pattern was then pressed into service for that campaign, which was envisaged as lasting until 1946. Pattern 1944 therefore became a "theatre issue", for units serving in the Far East. It also doubled in the role of a "unit specific" Pattern, being routinely worn by Airborne troops and the Gurkhas, often in temperate zones. All this makes Pattern 1944 W.E. rather different to other Patterns, before or since.