Uniforms; 19th century to now, inc WW2, infantry soldiers


The raw material. Civilian.	The finished product. Digger.
We start with a poor miserable excuse of that most 'orrible type of low life, a civilian. We yell at him, we march him up and down, we yell at him, we drill him in weapon handling, we yell at him, we teach him how to wear a uniform without making it look like a pile of old rags, we yell at him, we run him up mountains and down valleys, we yell at him, we dump him in water, we yell at him, we put him over obstacle courses, we yell at him, we make him crawl through mud and barbed wire, we yell at him, we make him swim rivers in full uniform, we yell at him, we make him do parade ground drill until a thousand men move as one, we yell at him, we shoot live ammunition in his direction, we yell at him, we make him polish his equipment until it dazzles the eye, we yell at him, we make him march for mile after weary mile, we yell at him and then after what seems to him to be several lifetimes we look at the finished product and we yell at him "You are the war gods finest creation. You are now a Digger. WELL DONE".


Korea	Sth Viet Nam	East Timor

A Digger, 2002	Parade Dress Ceremonial	Officer, Ceremonial
The uniforms worn by the Diggers of WWII did not vary much from the WWI versions, at first. The peaked cap on issue to other ranks in WWI was never bought back into use. The khaki slouch hat was the only head-dress, at first. The major difference was that the stupid, woollen leg wrappings, called puttees disappeared to be replaced by longer legs in trousers and canvas over-boots called gaiters. When the focus of war changed first to the Western Desert and then to New Guinea new modifications were needed. Woollen service dress uniforms changed to heavy duty but light weight cotton drill. For jungle warfare khaki uniforms were dyed to jungle green, tin hats were returned to the Q store and replaced with cotton berets. The typical soldier of WWI did not have to move far from a static base and so was not required to carry much in the way of supplies. That changed dramatically in PNG. Soldiers had to carry nearly every thing that they used, fired, ate or needed. Kit bags, haversacks, back packs, ammunition pouches, water bottles and carry bags became larger and more numerous. Webbing, that combination of straps, belts and carry pouches became more complex. Weapons altered slightly as well. Jungle warfare needed a new approach to the length of weapons and their rate of fire, hence the Owen Machine Carbine (OMC) came to the fore and grenades came back into their own as a weapon of attack and defence. the .303 rifle remained the weapon on issue to most troops but it's accuracy and hitting power over long distances were no longer assets. The OMC was lighter, shorter, had a much greater rate of fire and was easier to fire instinctively from the hip than any rifle. The bigger round (9 mm) had plenty of knock down power over the short distances involved.