'Military Lessons of the Arab Rebellion in Palestine 1936' [‎62r] (128/294)

44816-1
87
Apparatus for signalling to aircraft
The Middle East Ground Signal Code was used throughout and was most
useful. One set was required per platoon headquarters, and in a country
abounding in stones it was preferable to issue strips to infantry units
without the lead weights with which they are normally fitted. This also
of course results in a ver 3 >- considerable saving in cost as well as weight
where large numbers are required.
DRESS AM) PERSONAL EQUIPMENT
Dress generally
"Shirtsleeves" were worn throughout and jackets were never used,
though it was usually necessary to have cardigans available for nightwork
in the hills even in the middle of summer. Shorts were usually worn but
many units preferred khaki drill trousers: shorts were of course cooler
and more comfortable but gave no protection against mosquitos and were not
so good as trousers for lying or kneeling on stones and scrub. Trousers
also could be worn without puttees leaving the calves of the leg free for
climbing work in the hills. A good compromise would have been shorts
with turn-down extensions such as issued in Salonika in the Great War,
worn with stockings and ankle puttees which were always preferable to the
ordinary puttees for hill work.
Headdress
Topees were the normal wear, and the use of steel helmets was mostly
confined to the towns and to men working on trains. In hot weather in
the open steel helmets became very hot and v/ere too heavy, but they prob
ably gave some protection against some of the inefficient home-made
ammunition of the Arabs when fired at long range. Though vulnerable to
normal S.A. fire, steel helmets had a certain value to all personnel
travelling in vehicles who did not expect to have to operate far from their
transport: they had a definite moral effect and gave some protection
against stones and splinters, and on more than one occasion v/ere undoubted
ly the means of saving lives in road accidents. A very important point
regarding headdress was some sort of uniformity which would help pilots
of aircraft to recognise troops, especially as many of the rebels took to
wearing topees v/hich could readily be bought; and for this reason there
were occasions where the steel helmet or S.D. cap had its advantages.
Incidentally it is v/orth noting that topees are quite unknown among the
British civilian community of Palestine and might well have been dispensed
with by the troops had something in the nature of the Australian wide
awake" been available, which v/ould have been suitable for both day and
night wear and v/ould have been more distinctive and more comfortable than
the Wolseley helmet.
Footgear
Nailed boots were suited neither to paved streets nor rocky hillsides,
v/hile the rubber-soled "P. T." shoes could not stand up to the hard wear
required. For this sort of work in Palestine the replacement of one
pair of the ordinaiy marching boots by something equally substantial,^
but with a rubber or rope sole, v/ould have been advantageouo. _ wor
led to very heavy wear on boots, shorts and other articles of clothing
and, if peace-time accounting is to be retained, an increase in c o ng
allowance is justified and in 1936 it was eventually authorise .