Another Mystery Solved!

Have you ever been painting some portion of a miniature casting, that for whatever reason, you just cannot figure out what it is supposed to represent in the real world? I have had that problem/issue/challenge while painting up my LW British Infantry Platoons. There is a long cylinder on the rear of most figures that I have come to understand is the handle of some sort of entrenching tool. Yet, when I look at it, it just doesn’t look right. The canvas cover that it sits on looks awkward for a shovel head, and the handle itself looks too small. I painted it in the appropriate wood color, but I just couldn’t visualize what it really looked like or how it folded up for the Tommy.

Just what the heck are these things anyway? The world wonders.

And then Eureka! I found these exhibits at the Airborne Museum Pegasus Bridge and Le musée de l'Armée department des deux mondiales 1871-1945 (French Army Museum Department of the World Wars). They show the various portions of kit the poor bloody infantry had to carry into battle, including the poorly envisioned entrenching tool. And now it makes perfect sense of just what the heck that piece of wood handle is on the vast majority of LW British infantry castings. I have no idea if it worked very well, but at least I now know what it is. Another mystery solved! Isn’t research amazing?

Airborne Museum Pegasus Bridge – LW British Parachute Infantry Kit.

Le musée de l'Armée department des deux mondiales 1871-1945 LW British Infantry.