The Pattern 1944 Web Equipment

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.