58 pattern webbing

British soldiers wearing various configurations of 1958 pattern web equipment while on exercise in 1987
Queen's Dragoon Guards soldier wearing 1958 web equipment in the lead-up to the Gulf War; the web equipment saw its last major operational use in British service during this conflict.
Rear pouches of a Sierra Leonean soldier's 1958 web equipment

1958 pattern web equipment[1][2] was a modular personal equipment system issued to the British Armed Forces from 1959[1] up until the mid 90s. It replaced the 1937 pattern web equipment that had served the UK's Armed Forces through the Second World War and the first decade of the Cold War and also the 1944 pattern webbing which was used in jungle conditions starting from the mid-1960s.

It was in turn gradually replaced in the 1990s by 90 and 95 pattern personal load carrying equipment (PLCE),[3][4] though usage in Ministry of Defence-sponsored Community and Combined Cadet Forces persisted into the 2000s.[5] Although replaced, the belt in particular seems to survive as an unofficial form of dress (replacing the general issue Working Belt) by older soldiers when worn with Combat Soldier 95 clothing.

  1. ^ a b Instructions for Assembling Web Equipment Pattern 1958. The Infantry Directorate, The War Office. 15 October 1959.
  2. ^ Army Code No. 14715, Web Equipment Pattern 1958, Instructions for Assembly. Ministry of Defence (Army), Directorate of Stores & Clothing Development. September 1965.
  3. ^ "Webbing, 1958 pattern (Light Fighting Order)". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  4. ^ "Webbing, 1958 pattern (Skeleton Order)". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Chapter 1. — Turnout, Section 4. — Preparation and Packing of the 58 Pattern Equipment". Army Code No. 71462, The Cadet Training Manual Volume I 1990 (Reprinted incorporating Amendments 1 – 6, June 2001). Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom). June 2001.