wwii axis reenactment forum

It's been some while since anyone has posted so about time someone put a posting in! Boots - I have Finnish boots - correct size but my calves are larger than your WW2 Finn (mix of weight and lots of car driving which has developed these muscles). Consequence is that the top part of the boots did not fit (I suspect I am not alone in this)

Solution - after a few minutes on Youtube, it would seem that you can stretch the leather (carefully) a bit to accommodate a slightly larger foot. No cobbler round here does this (and the foot part is ok anyway) so how can you stretch the top part?

I took one Saab wheel jack (well that particular Saab was built in Finland!), and some leather stretch spray (available from most shoe shops) and many of my wife's precious Gardener World magazines. Sprayed the boot top section, lined with magazines (to prevent damage), inserted jack and wound open - each day wound a quarter turn and kept checking fit after a few days till the boots fitted. I redid the process over a two month period (no not winding out all the time) to be as gentle as possible on the leather. Yep just tried one on and it still fits so this can be a solution - BUT gentle does it!

One option might be Laplander boots, which are suede and they are meant to wear with strong winter clothing. Or you can wear British ankleboots (Continuation war only!)

this leads from another post but I though the British ankle boots worn were the WW1 type and not the WW2 UK ammo boots (which I have for WW2 51st Highland Division bits). I will still have an issue of inserting the thick wool trousers into the boots but this can be done!

Funniest thing is that nobody seems to know where to boots were really from and what they were. I mean, they did come from britain, but they apparently were not the military type or something?

Apparently the finns also made some ankleboots before (and during?) the war.