Part of the standard decontamination kit issued to British soldiers included a small puffer bottle of fullers earth that could be sprayed on a soldier’s equipment to soak up chemical agents. These little bottles were carried in a soldier’s NBC haversack and can be found with varying colours of both the powder and the stopper cap:
When the DKP2 was issued it came in a heat sealed plastic bag to keep it safe from contaminants:
Wrapped around the bottle is a paper instruction sheet:
The top of the packet has a V-notch to help the user rip open the packet, even when wearing gloves:
The 1983 copy of Survive to Fight explained how to use the DKP2:
You are issued with the DKP2 which is a plastic puffer bottle containing fullers earth and is used to force fullers earth powder into places that are inaccessible to the DKP1 pad. The DKP2 is well suited to the decontamination of your webbing and over boots but it is recommended that the powder from the puffer bottle is rubbed in using a DKP1, or your gloved hand.
Kevin Mervin served in the TA and describes using the DKP2 bottle during training:
We had to blot, bang, rub the two inch pad of the DKP powder over our heads, respirators and gloves to soak up any chemical agent. We then used the DKP2 puffer bottle to decontaminate our Kevlar helmets, overboots and surrounding ground.
One interesting reference I have found is to troops using old DKP2 bottles to carry lubricating oil for their weapons, the design being able to be slipped into a pocket and brought out to oil their weapon quickly when they haven’t time to get the full cleaning kit out.
When issued these were sealed in plastic to protect them and prolong their shelf life. Each wallet opens out into a long strip:
Inside are four individual white packets:
Each packet contains a small quantity of Calcium Montmorrillonite, a highly absorbent powder better known as Fuller’s Earth. This powder is used to soak up chemical agents and decontaminate equipment. It is issued inside a small cloth bag inside each sachet. The top of the pad is blotted over the contamination, the pad is then turned over and banged hard to release the powder and this powder is then rubbed over the area. Fuller instructions on its use are printed on the packet:
These read:
Since then there have been at least two further marks of this piece of equipment, although I am not aware of how they differ from one another.
This booklet dates from 2006, as indicated by the date in the bottom right hand corner and was manufactured in Canada by a company called Anachemia. This company is a chemicals company that has contracts to produce detector papers for both the US military and the British. The NSN number on the front of this booklet has the -99- country code for the UK so we can be confident that this is a British example. Rich explains why the changes were made:
The inside of the cover explains what colours the paper would turn if exposed to various chemical agents:
The papers themselves are perforated to allow them to be easily torn out of the book and attached to the user’s NBC suit:
The importance of rapid detection of chemical and biological agents was explained in this article from the BBC back in 2003 when the fear of Iraqi chemical weapons was at its height:
The lenses were provided in the wearer’s prescription and came in a standard green plastic hard case to protect them:
The box has a /|\ mark and NSN number moulded into the top:
I am unsure if the ‘Mark 5’ refers to the case or the spectacles it contains. The lenses are actually quite a loose fit inside the box and rattle around a bit:
There is at least one variation of the box and it can be found made of black rather than green plastic. The spectacles do not have any traditional arms to go over the ears and are sprung in the centre between the two lenses:
The opposite side of the spectacles have a pair of metal pegs in this position:
A selection of corresponding holes are moulded into the S6 mask above the nose, allowing the exact positioning of the lenses to be adjusted for the best sight picture:
The two metal pegs are pushed into a pair of these holes and the spectacles are then held securely in the mask:
It has actually taken me quite a while to add these spectacles to my collection, I did purchase a case off of eBay a few years back in the hope it would come with the contents, but sadly when it arrived it was empty. I am therefore very pleased to have added another little component to my Cold War respirator haversack and it is now looking far more complete than it did when I first did a kit layout for it nearly four years ago- perhaps an updated layout is in order.
These patches were issued to troops to allow running repairs to be made to NBC suits in the field. Ideally if an NBC suit got damaged it would be replaced with a new one to ensure the best protection possible for the wearer. The military understood however that this might not always be possible in a combat situation so soldiers were issued with small packet of patches to allow them to stick them over any small rips or tears in their suits as a temporary fix. These repair patches do not seem to have been on general issue, but were distributed before major exercises as recalled by Steve martin in his book ‘Stab in the Dark’ where he recalls their distribution prior to the large Exercise Crusader:
A ‘V’ notch is cut into the packet at one end to make it easy to tear it open:
Instructions are printed on a piece of white paper and explain how to use the repair patches:
I imagine that this is the sort of item you would never want to have to use, as the last thing a soldier would want in an NBC situation is to have a failing in his suit and need to repair it! Having said that, if the worst were to happen these patches would have given men at least a chance of survival until they could get into a replacement NBC suit.
The trousers have large patch pockets on each leg:
These have top flaps secured with two pieces of Velcro:
Angled Velcro tabs are fitted to the bottom of each leg, by twisting the trouser leg and securing the Velcro a tight seal can be created around the ankle:
Black patches are fitted to each leg to allow a piece of chemical detection paper to be attached:
The trousers are heavy, so a set of straps are fitted to the rear that can be passed over the shoulder like a pair of integral braces:
These can then be passed through loops on the front and tied to hold up the trousers:
A Velcro strap also helps draw in the waist:
A label is sewn into the trousers indicating they were made by J Compton & Webb in November 1991:
This was after the initial batches produced for the Gulf War, which seem to have been made exclusively by Remploy. This suggests that it was part of a later contract and then stockpiled in case of a future conflict in the desert. These DDPM NBC suits were to be reissued in the invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s and even today are still commonly seen in service. Here we see a soldier responding to the recent poison attack on a former Russian spy in the UK, he is wearing the DDPM NBC suit with the modern GSR mask:
Features to notice are the different type of fabric used, it is far less ‘shiny’ and stiff than the later models. There is also a distinctive brown tape edging to the seams that is missing on the later pattern, which uses green. I am loathe to say that this is categorically an entirely different design to the later example on the blog- I suspect they are just variations on a theme and the softness of the fabric could be as much to this example having had a rough service life, whilst the later example is mint out of the factory. They do look very different though and it does seem that the brown edging is indicative of earlier production. Most of the other features of the haversack are the same though. The lid is secured with a press stud and two squares of Velcro:
The underside of the lid has a pair of elastic loops to allow items such as NBC gloves to be fitted here for quick use. The back of the haversack has a channel to allow it to be slid onto a belt and a pair of ‘D’ rings to attach a shoulder strap to:
A small side pocket is fitted to allow a DKP1 packet to be carried easily for easy access. The pressed metal disk below is part of the steadying system when the haversack is carried by the shoulder strap:
A piece of string is attached to the other side of the haversack and when it is carried at the hip this is passed around the wearer’s body and wrapped around this metal disk to prevent the haversack from bouncing around when running.
For more details of the exact contents I refer you back to the earlier post on the final variation of this haversack.