British soldier: Iraqi boots are best

A British soldier is wearing Iraqi army boots that he found in an abandoned barracks after his own fell apart in the desert sunshine.

Guardsman Lee Williams, 18, of the First Battalion Irish Guards said that his new Iraqi boots were “lighter and more comfortable” than the British army-issued footwear that he had been wearing.

He added that he had been forced to swap his footwear for enemy equipment because no replacements were available for his own disintegrating boots.

The disclosure that one of its soldiers is wearing Iraqi army boots is one of the most embarrassing examples so far of the equipment shortages which have affected British forces since their arrival in the Gulf.

Other soldiers are wearing patched-up combat trousers, repaired in one instance by removing a pocket, and in another case by cutting up a colleague’s spare shirt.

Soldiers also say that they are having to put on wet desert combat trousers because they have only been issued with one pair each and have nothing else to put on after washing their clothes.