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Feet don't fail me now! Military Footwear


Sabrejet
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Nothing much special, but these are my pair of 44 double buck, rough out boots.

 

I was amazed by all the mint footwear you guys have!

 

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craig_pickrall
Nothing much special, but these are my pair of 44 double buck, rough out boots.

 

I was amazed by all the mint footwear you guys have!

 

8-10.jpg

 

 

Those boots may be a little more special than you realize. That small rivet next to the bottom lace means that they were manufactured as field shoes and later converted to double buckle boots. They are some of the first DB's made.

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There are reportedly a large number of DB boots which seems to have been dubbed/painted a reddish brown color to make them more durable against wet and cold conditions...

Some say this was done by the French Army, other claim it was done in the US....

 

Does anyone know???

 

 

Johan,

 

I've always been a foot gear collector and at one time I had several hundred pair of Double Buckle Boots from a major surplus find. In that lot were 50-60 mint pair that had the brown sprayed type finish applied. Inside many of these boots were small slips of paper stating they had been "Reconditioned" by Endicott Johnson in 1951... I tend to think that boots with this type of sprayed coating were just WW2 manufactured boots reconditioned for postwar issue during the Korean War.. In all my years of collecting I have never yet found a set of Buckle Boots with this finish that actually came from a WW2 vet's wartime service...

 

Kration

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Those boots may be a little more special than you realize. That small rivet next to the bottom lace means that they were manufactured as field shoes and later converted to double buckle boots. They are some of the first DB's made.

 

I have a pair like this, always wondered about the rivet as my other pairs don't have it :thumbsup:

 

Rich

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craig_pickrall
Kration said:
There are reportedly a large number of DB boots which seems to have been dubbed/painted a reddish brown color to make them more durable against wet and cold conditions...

Some say this was done by the French Army, other claim it was done in the US....

 

Does anyone know???

Johan,

 

I've always been a foot gear collector and at one time I had several hundred pair of Double Buckle Boots from a major surplus find. In that lot were 50-60 mint pair that had the brown sprayed type finish applied. Inside many of these boots were small slips of paper stating they had been "Reconditioned" by Endicott Johnson in 1951... I tend to think that boots with this type of sprayed coating were just WW2 manufactured boots reconditioned for postwar issue during the Korean War.. In all my years of collecting I have never yet found a set of Buckle Boots with this finish that actually came from a WW2 vet's wartime service...

 

Kration

 

 

Several years ago the late and great webcat / Carter Rila reported that red stain was added to the DB boots to make them easier to polish. Peace time Army you know. Paint it or polish it.

 

Here is a pair I have in new condition so you can see the stain fairly well. It is even on the buckles. These ae actually early production DB boots but there is no way to determine when the stain was added.

 

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Here's my pair Craig. WW2 production but they too have had a reddish-brown coating added, though it's worn off a little revealing the rough-out finish beneath.

 

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combat-helmets

Here's a recent Ebay haul that was my best deal in a while.. :w00t:

 

When was the last time you saw these: USMC M52 high top roughout boots. These are a tiny pair of mint unissued , Endicott Johnson made, 1954 dated size 5D. Along with those, I got an even more rare pair of mint unissued low top USMC roughouts, black, dated 1956. size 6E!

You just don't see the black low tops hardly at all, and that was the pair I was really after! I got these for the equivalent cost of 2 cases of beer..

 

Question: when were the low top boondockers phased out, and were these black ones ever worn in action, Korea-Vietnam?? I know alot of these were polished, so I am not sure of their use history???

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and the low tops..

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more..soles of the low top boondockers

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soles of the high top roughouts

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craig_pickrall

Two nice pair of boots. Congratulations!

 

The high tops were used in Korea. When I was a kid my next door neighbor had been a Corpsman at the Frozen Chosin. He gave me some of his stuff. Included was a P41 shirt stenciled with his PO1 Corpsman rate and his high top boots. Both had been worn at Chosin. I wore the boots long enough to have them resoled twice before they finally fell apart and were thrown away. Had a minor basement flood and his shirt was damaged and I threw it away also. Wish I had them both back now.

 

No idea when the low tops were dropped. I assume they were used by mechanics and similar type jobs. More like work boots than combat boots.

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combat-helmets

Thanks Craig. That's my feeling on the low tops also, but it's not substantiated..

If you look at the later manufacture date, it was well after the introduction of the high top combat boots,

So I also figured these were for utility duty more so than combat, but they are cool as hell!

I also have a mint pair of high tops, 1954 dated and size 10E stashed away...

 

I love the post Korea early Vietnam marine items.

Just great items and tougher to find than the KW and VN gear.

That's what makes it so fun to collect!

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Johan Willaert

Just added this wonderful pair of unissued WW2 Service Combat Boots aka Double Buckle Boots to my shoe closet...

 

Made by the Craddock Terry Shoe Company with a contract date of Jan 8th, 1945...

Green canvas legging lining...

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Wow...they don't come any better than that Johan! :o The date of manufacture is my birthday (+8!) which is an omen, so I suggest you bring them with you to Grandcamp-Maisy on the 5th! ;)

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Johan Willaert
The date of manufacture is my birthday (+8!) which is an omen, so I suggest you bring them with you to Grandcamp-Maisy on the 5th! ;)

 

Too bad my shoe size isn't 9 1/2 or I could have worn them in Normandy.... :pinch:

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craig_pickrall
Just added this wonderful pair of unissued WW2 Service Combat Boots aka Double Buckle Boots to my shoe closet...

 

Made by the Craddock Terry Shoe Company with a contract date of Jan 8th, 1945...

Green canvas legging lining...

 

Great looking pair of boots. Congratulations!

 

Craddock Terry Shoe Company was headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia with factories spread around a large area of Virginia. I do not recall now what presence they had in other states. The company went out of business in the 70's I think and then came back to life for a short period. The last version of the company was nothing like the original. There are many buildings in Lynchburg that were either factories or warehouses. Some are restored and have become condos, one is a hotel, there are some that manufacture other non-shoe related products and some stand vacant. There was a museum that got sold off when the original company went under. There is a fair chance that your boots came from that museum since they are in such great condition. CT made paratrooper boots too. After the museum was sold I found out about it. A pair of paratrooper boots were used on the sales flyer for the auction.

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Mountain

 

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Short

 

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sole variant

 

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Abn.

 

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rough out

 

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Tall

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post war

 

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Early Tall

 

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