New Made Item: During both WWI and WWII all Armies were issued with small spades known as entrenching tools. These useful little spades were ideal to dig in and even to act as a hand weapon if the occasion arose.
In WW2 Britain issued a khaki/brown web carrier expressly for the purpose of attaching the entrenching tool to every infantryman. Consisting of an 8 inch by 8 inch double ply pocket to retain the blade with a brass mounted neck strap to wrap around the haft to secure the spade into the carrier.
The top of the Carrier was fitted with two brass buckles intended to interface with the over-the-shoulder cross straps once they had passed through the brass buckles attached to the rear of the waist belt of the infantryman.
This is a useful carrier that is rarely seen today that can complete any collection or can be used for historical military re-enactments. British WW2 E/T Carrier.