It has been a while since I picked up any Canadian 37 Pattern webbing for my collection. Like my sets of Australian and South African produced webbing, the Canadian set it a back burner project and I am just picking up the odd piece here and there as I come across them. Some pieces of Canadian webbing are quite easy to find, the pouches and cross straps being fairly common. Much harder to find are the belts and entrenching tool covers. Falling between these two stool is the small pack or haversack which is scarcer than some parts and easier to find than others. The pack is identical on the outside to British production, but has a slightly yellowish hue to the webbing:

The top flap is secured with a pair of straps and buckles which in this case are just dull brass, rather than the browned ‘battle brass’ used later in the war:

The rear of the small pack has the conventional straps and buckles to allow L-Straps to be fitted and I have since fitted a pair of Canadian examples to this pack:

So far, so conventional. Where the Canadian small pack differs is inside where the internal dividers are made of a thin, single layer of webbing rather than the cotton drill used on British manufactured examples, the texture of the dividers looking very different here:

The haversack is marked under the top flap with the /|\ within a ‘C’ acceptance mark and the letters for the Zephyr Loom and Textile Company together with a date of 1943:

Like all Canadian production, this piece is very well made and has nice quality fittings, especially when compared to its Indian or South African counterparts. Canadian manufactured webbing was issued to Canadian troops, but also found its way into British and Commonwealth hands. Large quantities of Canadian produced webbing was shipped to South Africa and Australia whilst their own domestic production was brought up to speed and soldiers in the Mediterranean theatre were also issued with Canadian manufactured items so the pieces achieved a wide geographic spread and saw extensive use throughout the war and beyond.