The British Army jungle sleeping bag is a lightweight bag for sleeping in when the weather is warm such as in the jungle or the summer in the UK. It is considerably lighter than the arctic sleeping back we looked at here and compresses down into a much smaller space when not in use. The sleeping bag itself is made in green nylon and is of a conventional shape, with a hood to protect the user’s head:

A cord goes around the hood and can be drawn tight to help keep the heat in:

Note also the zip, which goes around two sides of the bag and allows it to be easily opened up to get into or out of. A label is sewn into the bag which indicates that this bag was manufactured in 2005:

The bag is carried in a compression sack, that helps squeeze air out so it becomes one small compact package:

The compression sack has a lid that is secured with plastic fastex fasteners and can be tightened with friction buckles:

Undoing the buckles allows the lid to be moved to one side to access the bag:

Again the compression sack has its own label:

Many soldiers do not use the issue bag as they find it hard to fit the sleeping bag into their bergen with one, one users explains:

Shove it in the bivi bag shove it at bottom of Bergen everything else on top should squash it down enough. If everything else is in a dry bag not really an admin nightmare. Jungle bag not really much use outside of summer if you feel the cold. Though saw someone happily snoring away in one in December in Hankley Common though he does like his pies

The jungle bag is really too thin to be used in the UK unless it’s the height of summer. Another soldier recalls:

I used one of them on an ex at Garelochead in April, had a bivi bag and a poncho liner too. Still too bloody cold. Sure it saved a bit of space in my bergen but I wish I had taken my old doss bag instead. Think it’s just suited for summer use really.

Another soldier concurs:

I did Offa’s Dyke (south to north Wales) over ten days in late August, mostly camping in a tent, and the jungle bag wasn’t warm enough. I ended up wearing long johns and trousers, and covering myself with a softie, and while this was warm enough, it wasn’t physically comfortable. I was reasonably well-fed and had hot tea, but due to my small size (5’4″) I suffer from the cold generally. I clocked 36degC body temp at the time, admittedly, so something else may have been wrong. If you are generally at the ‘vulnerable-to-cold’ range, then you want something warmer.

In the actual jungle however the bags could be very effective, although one problem that can arise is they can become sweaty:

In da jungle, I always use a cotton liner bag with hood, as well as a jungle bag – if only to soak up the sweat to stop it from making the bag cold later on. I also carried a really light-weight pure wool pully as part of my dry night kit.