Our customer Gene Garren shows his soldier boots and portyanki from our store
Gene Garren served in Ranger, and Special Forces/Special Operations units and am a 100% service connected disabled veteran. I was also a sniper, and have a refurbished Soviet 1943 Mosin Nagant sniper rifle with matching scope. It shoots a very good group and is interesting how it zeros by first aligning the scope and the rifle bore. The fine adjustments are made with the scope and the adjustment screws on the elevation and windage knobs.
Glad to see these weapons are still around as they are fun to fire and a part of history.
Studying history, I have read where the Germans only issued boots in wide widths. If a soldier’s foot was not wide then they simply wore socks with foot wraps over them. I have reproduction German foot wraps also. The are square shape and go on somewhat differently. They are actually easier and take less practice than the Russian foot wraps. However, with some practice the Russian foot wraps 'Portyanki' are great and I like them overall better. I am sending you a few photos of my foot with both Russian and German foot wraps over socks, and the boots. Both work fine with the size 45 boots. It appears the Russian boots are issued in wide size only also.
Anyway folks are fascinated when I show them I am wearing the German or Russian foot wraps. It is a concept not at all understood in the USA. However I have walked long distances with them and they work fine.
I have a question. The tops of the boots are not leather, but appear to be some kind of water resistant canvas type material. The bottoms are of course leather. I read that in WW-II the boots were made with this material to save leather. An interesting solution for sure.
As the war progressed the Germans had to resort to the ankle boots with canvas gaiters. However, I am not sure why they did not follow the Soviet method on the tops of the boots, as the German soldiers always preferred the high marching boots, and called the gaiter/ ankle boot system “Retreat Gaiters” as this kind of foot wear became numerous starting in 1943 when after Kursk the Germans went into a long and continuous retreat. I do however prefer laced ankle boots a gaiters over the 9 inch high boots the US Army went to after sometime in the early 1950’s during the Korean war.
Article by: Gene Garren
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