Patauga jungle boot
The Patauga jungle boot or French Army bush boot (French: chaussure de brousse or chaussure de brousse de l'armée française), commonly known as the "splasher" (Patauga, a phonetic spelling of the French "pâte au gaz", meaning '[rubber] paste with gas'), was a lightweight cotton canvas and rubber boot worn by the members of the French Armed Forces when deployed overseas. First introduced in the early 1950s, the Patauga boot, along with the French M1949 Bush Hat, became an icon associated with France's decolonization wars in Indochina and Algeria throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Pataugas boots were popular not only among members of the French military, but also among civilians engaging in outdoor activities. Its design was subsequently copied and adopted by several militaries worldwide.
Combat use
[edit]

Users
[edit]Algeria[1]
Angola[2]
Benin
Biafra: used by the Biafran Armed Forces (1968–1970).[3]
Burkina Faso
Cambodia: used by the Royal Khmer Armed Forces (1950–1970).
Cameroon: used by the Cameroon Armed Forces.
Central African Republic
Chad
China: used by the People's Liberation Army.
Comoros
Djibouti
Egypt
France[4][5][6][7][8]
Gabon
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kingdom of Laos: used by the Royal Lao Armed Forces.[9][10]
Lebanon: used by several Christian Lebanese Front and Muslim Lebanese National Movement militias during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1993).
Israel: used by the Israel Defense Forces and Israel security forces.[11][12]
Italy: used by the Italian Army's Lagunari Regiment "Serenissima" and the Italian Navy's 1st San Marco Regiment.
Ivory Coast
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic: used by the Sahrawi People's Liberation Army.
Syria: used by the Syrian Arab Armed Forces.
Senegal
Somalia
South Africa: used by the South African Defence Force, South African Police, South West Africa Territorial Force and the South West African Police.[13][14]
South Vietnam: used by the Vietnamese National Army and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Tunisia
Togo
Vietnam: used by the Viet Minh and the People's Army of Vietnam.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]
Palestine: used by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrilla groups and Palestine Liberation Army units in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.[22][23][24]
Portugal[25][26]
Madagascar
Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Mozambique
Niger
Republic of the Congo
Rhodesia: used by the Rhodesian Security Forces.
Notes
[edit]- ^ Windrow and Chappell, The Algerian War 1954–1962 (1997), p. 46.
- ^ Abbott, Rodrigues and Volstad, Modern African Wars (2): Angola and Mozambique 1961–74 (1988), pp. 43–44.
- ^ Jowett and Ruggeri, Modern African Wars (5): The Nigerian-Biafran War 1967–70 (2016), pp. 46–47.
- ^ Windrow, Braby and Lyles, French Foreign Legion Paratroops (1985), p. 58.
- ^ Windrow and Chappell, The Algerian War 1954–1962 (1997), pp. 43; 44–45; 47.
- ^ Windrow and Chappell, The French Indochina War 1946–1954 (1998), pp. 11; 45.
- ^ Pivetta, Soldats d'Algérie, 1954–1962, Armes Militaria Magazine (2002), p. 52.
- ^ Windrow and Shumate, French Foreign Légionnaire versus Viet Minh Insurgent: North Vietnam 1948–52 (2018), pp. 10–11.
- ^ Conboy and Greer, War in Laos 1954–1975 (1994), p. 6.
- ^ Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961–1974 (2022), pp. 11–12.
- ^ Katz and Volstad, Israeli Elite Forces since 1948 (1988), pp. 59; 61, Plate K1.
- ^ Katz and Volstad, Israeli Defense Forces since 1973 (1990), pp. 56, Plate E2; 62, Plate L1.
- ^ Heitman and Hannon, Modern African Wars (3): South-West Africa (1991), pp. 43–44.
- ^ Pitta, Fannell and McCouaig, South African Special Forces (1993), p. 60.
- ^ Conboy and Simon McCouaig, The NVA and Viet Cong (1992), p. 59.
- ^ Emering, Weapons and Field Gear of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong (1998), pp. 56–57.
- ^ Rottman and Delf, North Vietnamese Army Soldier 1958–75 (2009), p. 24.
- ^ Serra, L'armée nord-vietnamienne, 1954–1972 : Uniformes et équipements (1re partie), Militaria Magazine (2012), pp. 70–75.
- ^ Serra, L'armée nord-vietnamienne, 1954–1972 : Uniformes et équipements (2e partie), Militaria Magazine (2012), pp. 34–39.
- ^ Windrow and Shumate, French Foreign Légionnaire versus Viet Minh Insurgent: North Vietnam 1948–52 (2018), pp. 14–15.
- ^ McNab and Shumate, US Air Cavalry Trooper versus North Vietnamese Soldier: Vietnam 1965–68 (2020), p. 15.
- ^ Laffin and Mike Chappell, Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 1948–73 (1982), p. 36.
- ^ Katz, Russel and Volstad, Armies in Lebanon 1982–84 (1985), pp. 43–44.
- ^ Katz and Volstad, Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars (2) (1988), pp. 44–45.
- ^ Abbott, Rodrigues and Volstad, Modern African Wars (2): Angola and Mozambique 1961–74 (1988), p. 39; 41; 42–43.
- ^ Rodrigues, The Overseas Campaigns 1961–1974 – Guinea-Angola-Mozambique – Army (I) (2000), pp. 15–16.
See also
[edit]- Jungle boot
- Safari boot
- Palladium Boots (French footwear manufacturer)
- SAS Pataugas (French footwear manufacturer)
References
[edit]- Chris McNab and Johnny Shumate, US Air Cavalry Trooper versus North Vietnamese Soldier: Vietnam 1965–68, Combat series 51, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2020. ISBN 9781472841759
- Edward J. Emering, Weapons and Field Gear of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA 1998. ISBN 0-7643-0583-2
- Frédéric Serra, L'armée nord-vietnamienne, 1954–1972 : Uniformes et équipements (1re partie), Militaria Magazine No. 320, March 2012, Histoire & Collections, Paris, pp. 70–75. ISSN 0753-1877 (in French)
- Frédéric Serra, L'armée nord-vietnamienne, 1954–1972 : Uniformes et équipements (2e partie), Militaria Magazine No. 322, May 2012, Histoire & Collections, Paris, pp. 34–39. ISSN 0753-1877 (In French)
- Gordon L. Rottman and Ramiro Bujeiro, Army of the Republic of Vietnam 1955–75, Men-at-arms series 458, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2010. ISBN 978-1-84908-182-5
- Gordon L. Rottman and Brian Delf, North Vietnamese Army Soldier 1958–75, Warrior series 135, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2009. ISBN 978-184603-371-1
- Helmoed-Romer Heitman and Paul Hannon, Modern African Wars (3): South-West Africa, Men-at-arms series 242, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1991. ISBN 978-1-85532-122-9
- John Laffin and Mike Chappell, Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 1948–73, Men-at-Arms series 128, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1982. ISBN 0-85045-451-4
- Kenneth Conboy and Don Greer, War in Laos 1954–1975, Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., Carrollton, Texas 1994. ISBN 0-89747-315-9
- Kenneth Conboy and Simon McCouaig, The War in Laos 1960–75, Men-at-arms series 217, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1989. ISBN 978-0-85045-938-8
- Kenneth Conboy and Simon McCouaig, The NVA and Viet Cong, Elite series 38, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 1992. ISBN 9781855321625
- Kenneth Conboy, Kenneth Bowra and Mike Chappell, War in Cambodia 1970–75, Men-at-arms series 209, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1989. ISBN 0-85045-851-X
- Ken Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961–1974, Asia@War Volume 37, Helion & Company Limited, Warwick UK 2022. ISBN 978-1-804512-87-6
- Lee E. Russell and Mike Chappell, Armies of the Vietnam War (2), Men-at-arms 143, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1983. ISBN 0-85045-514-6
- Samuel M. Katz, Lee E. Russel and Ron Volstad, Armies in Lebanon 1982–84, Men-at-Arms series 165, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1985. ISBN 0-85045-602-9
- Samuel M. Katz and Ron Volstad, Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars (2), Men-at-Arms series 194, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1988. ISBN 0-85045-800-5
- Patrice Pivetta, Soldats d'Algérie, 1954–1962, Armes Militaria Magazine No. 200, March 2002, Histoire & Collections, Paris, pp. 13–54. ISSN 0753-1877 (In French)
- Peter Abbott, Manuel Ribeiro Rodrigues and Ron Volstad, Modern African Wars (2): Angola and Mozambique 1961–74, Men-at-Arms series 202, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1988. ISBN 0-85045-843-9
- Philip S. Jowett and Raffaele Ruggeri, Modern African Wars (5): The Nigerian-Biafran War 1967–70, Men-at-arms series 507, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2016. ISBN 978 1 4728 1609 2
- Martin Windrow, Wayne Braby and Kevin Lyles, French Foreign Legion Paratroops, Elite series 6, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1985. ISBN 9780850456295
- Martin Windrow and Mike Chappell, The Algerian War 1954–1962, Men-at-arms series 312, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 1997. ISBN 1-85532-658-2
- Martin Windrow and Mike Chappell, The French Indochina War 1946–1954, Men-at-arms series 322, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 1998. ISBN 1-85532-789-9
- Martin Windrow and Johnny Shumate, French Foreign Légionnaire versus Viet Minh Insurgent: North Vietnam 1948–52, Combat series 36, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2018. ISBN 9781472828910
- Manuel A. Ribeiro Rodrigues, The Overseas Campaigns 1961–1974 – Guinea-Angola-Mozambique – Army (I), Edições Destarte Lda., Lisbon 2000. ISBN 972-8496-14-1 (Bi-lingual edition)
- Phillip Katcher and Mike Chappell, Armies of the Vietnam War 1962–1975, Men-at-arms series 104, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1980. ISBN 9780850453607
- Robert Pitta, Jeff Fannell and Simon McCouaig, South African Special Forces, Elite series 47, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1993. ISBN 185532-295-1
External links
[edit]- "Pataugas" - canvas and rubber boots of the French army ("Pataugas" - les chaussures de brousse de l'armée française)
- French Pataugas/Chaussures de brousse Francaises (French bush/jungle boots)
- Bota de caça Mafipro/canvas and rubber Patauga-style hunting boot (in Portuguese)
- Israeli Patauga-style Combat Boots by Teva-Naot
- Teva-Naot Patauga-style IDF Scout Commando boot
- Palladium Boots official website
- SAS Pataugas official website
- Aigle official website
- Sturm MIL-TEC official website