Hard Kit is all other accoutrements that are not clothing, weapons or armour. This includes pots and tents, and flint & steel, and other things like that.
I'm a US Civil War reenactor, and wanted to get y'alls opinion on how fitting Civil War era "dog tents" would be for ranging.
Dog tents were white canvas shelter halves that each soldier carried. When it came time to set up camp, two soldiers would pair up and combine their halves two form a single tent, making posts and stakes from branches. The resulting tent would be just long and wide enough for both soldiers and their equipment to lay in, and be about belly-button to chest high.
In reenacting, we almost always have front and back flaps as well, but I haven't actually found any historical mention of this.
In the case of odd number soldiers, or in our case of solo-ranging, one shelter half can still be used to form lean-tos or other partial shelters.
Less relevant to ranging, but still of possible interest, during longer encampments, soldiers would often build small, simple log cabins (often partially dug into the earth,) and use their dog tents as roofs. While building a whole log cabin while ranging might be a little TOO permanent and intensive, it does make me think that the shelter halves could be augmented in various ways to make more comfortable and warm shelters if you're staying in one place for at least a few days.
To me, this seems like an ideal ranger-shelter. While this specific setup isn't quite medieval, larger white canvas tents did exist, so there's no reason this COULDN'T have existed with middle ages or Middle Earth technology. It's not as warm as modern tents, but in most climates will work well enough and keep you dry, especially when combined with a fire and/or bedroll. If you do go out with a group, it lets you split up the weight of the tent to ensure everyone carries their fair share.
One thing I might edit is the color. If I'm getting a dog tent dedicated for ranging, I would probably get one some shade of brown or green, to help blend into my environment and hide from orcs and what-not.
May I suggest looking also at WWI German Zeltbahns (the square ones, not necessarily the later triangles), the Russian WWII plasch-palatka, and the postwar(?) German civilian Kohte tents?
I think you'll find a lot to like - the shape of the last just seems begging to be made into a somewhat more refined version of the plasch-palatka / kinsale cloak hybrid.
Also, there's a neat fastening method - I'll see if I can find the video again - that shows the panels fastened together with just a wide thick tape drawn with a giant bodkin through a series of buttonholes.
At least if one is aiming more high-medieval-Kramer-Adventury vibe and less a dark-ages "Middle-earth" vibe, there's some really neat things to be found in that space.
Good luck!
Persona: Aerlinneth, Dúnedain of Amon Lendel c. TA 3010.
Elleth wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 10:25 pm
May I suggest looking also at WWI German Zeltbahns (the square ones, not necessarily the later triangles), the Russian WWII plasch-palatka, and the postwar(?) German civilian Kohte tents?
I think you'll find a lot to like - the shape of the last just seems begging to be made into a somewhat more refined version of the plasch-palatka / kinsale cloak hybrid.
Also, there's a neat fastening method - I'll see if I can find the video again - that shows the panels fastened together with just a wide thick tape drawn with a giant bodkin through a series of buttonholes.
At least if one is aiming more high-medieval-Kramer-Adventury vibe and less a dark-ages "Middle-earth" vibe, there's some really neat things to be found in that space.
Good luck!
Interesting finds! I'll have to look more into these, thanks.
.. it always seemed to me that it was begging to be a fantasy-adventurer / fantasy-world-army setup, what with being able to use pikes for poles and a shield for that top air vent cover. That might be too clever by half if it turns out you need said pikes in the middle of the night though.
Anyhow, the tent in the video uses the same linked-loop closure as on our medieval geteld tent, and it works quite well. Zeltbahns (zeltbahnnen?) use a nightmarish amount of buttons, which make them a bother to make, to carry, and to fasten together. The Russians had a better idea I think for combining all their individually carried canvas bits into a larger tent:
I imagine that connection is perhaps not quite as water tight as the button arrangement, but I don't have the experience to know if it makes a practical difference.
As to whether any of this would exist in a realistic medieval world - I'm not sure, they were a lot more materially poor than the world of machine-powered sprinning and weaving that enabled to explosion of stuff that started to appear in the 1880-1930 "golden age of camping." But Kramer's got some interesting ideas as regards "fantasy adventurer economy" if one is assuming such a world:
Napoleonic Redcoat here.
In my Period there were instructions how to make a tent from two blankets, two firelocks and four bayonets. So we assume tent groups of four..... Packing a sodden blanket into your pack must of been horrible, especially when any dry(ish) clothing would of been in there to.
The Roman army had tent groups ( Contubernium ) of eight and their leather tents broke down into one piece each (with the same group sharing a barrack room ).
So, yes. I think some sort of tarp type shelter makes sense if you're going to be out in all weathers and not making use of hospitality.
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ForgeCorvus wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 3:59 pm
Napoleonic Redcoat here.
In my Period there were instructions how to make a tent from two blankets, two firelocks and four bayonets. So we assume tent groups of four..... Packing a sodden blanket into your pack must of been horrible, especially when any dry(ish) clothing would of been in there to.
I'm currently reading a book by a Civil War vet where he mentions that the infantry would set up their dog tents using their bayoneted muskets as poles (I forget what he said the cavalry and artillery used,) and Elleth mentioned kohtes being set up using pikes and shields, so I guess using weapons as tent poles has been done for a long time. Although, much like Elleth, I do think it sounds like a rather bad idea, in case of a sudden attack.
I'm currently reading a book by a Civil War vet where he mentions that the infantry would set up their dog tents using their bayoneted muskets as poles (I forget what he said the cavalry and artillery used,) and Elleth mentioned kohtes being set up using pikes and shields, so I guess using weapons as tent poles has been done for a long time. Although, much like Elleth, I do think it sounds like a rather bad idea, in case of a sudden attack.
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I'd imagine it is less of a bad idea when you are in an army encampment with sentries, and large numbers of people. I'd guess that in that case you'd have enough time to take the tent down before running off to fight.
Dog tents are only really useful in the event that you have enough warmth from either the ambient temperature or your bedding to have two whopping great holes at either end. We have a five metre longtent set up in the highlands and despite all care being taken in selection of campsite and facing it became a wind tunnel mid way through the night when the alpine winds shifted direction. this lead to us needing to sacrifice blankets to screen off ends which in turn made the inside even colder.
I only use them now as rain covers as they do allow a decent footprint for getting you and your gear underneath them, the tarp is such a versatile bit of kit that it adapts to what you need of it rather than military regulation.
This camp got down below zero but thankfully we had ample bedding and firewood
The same tarps set up with one as a groundcloth and one to keep light rain off our heads, a far better use of the two tarps when sleeping three people. We had no nearby trees so used our spears as the two upright poles but they can be pulled free within just a few seconds.
Another open field set up with a plow point and a low slung tarp making best use of what tether points we had. Again you see the spear used as an upright (gotta have butt spikes on all spears!)
A very cold camp, the same two tarps but set up as plow points with a central fire to heat into the tents. Usually we use our spears as the slanted ridge pole for these but there was nearby timber.
But the white fury of the Northmen burned the hotter, and more skilled was their knighthood with long spears and bitter. Fewer were they but they clove through the Southrons like a fire-bolt in a forest.
... and interestingly, the "Type I" ACW Shelter half and the German WWI Zeltbahn I was referring to appear to be basically the same thing. If I'm finding the right ACW dimensions, they're a bit smaller (~62"x57"/157x145cm) compared to the zeltbahn (~67"x61"/170x155cm), but neither is roomy. The ACW one uses stitched grommets instead of metal ones, and isn't dyed, and has natural bone buttons instead of stamped metal - but otherwise the patterns look almost interchangeable.
edit 1 - another difference I was just reminded of: the zeltbahns have buttons on both faces of the cloth. The button on one side face serves as the anchor/reinforcement to its partner on the other. I don't have an ACW shelter half to compare, but it looks like those only have buttons on one face? This does mean ACW halves need to assembled "back to front" - eg,one with buttons facing out, the next w/buttons facing in, the next w/buttons facing out, etc. Not a big deal, and probably the better answer if one is using buttons. Twice the buttons means twice the material cost, and I suspect most importantly, twice the rubbing surfaces of metal or bone on the cloth of your shelter when everything is folded up.
The later ACW patterns (Type IIIA especially) look like the product of a good deal of trial-and-error simplification. Unless one wants to piece together big tents out of these things. I think you've probably found the much better starting point. Nice find, thank you!
They do seem to imply a society with mechanized weaving (hence the Napoleonic use of tented blankets as mentioned above) - but any economy that can turn out sails could make these. I'd love to see a "medieval fantasy" version done in dusky brownish hemp.
edit 2 -
Eofor - cool!! I love those pictures!
I do think the larger tarps without so many buttons are more appropriate in our pre-industrial "period" than the shelfter-half patterns. That said, the latter are surprisingly versatile. There's one technique of taking a third and fourth square of the TypeI/square zeltbahn pattern, turning it 45 degrees, and making a "bell" for each end of the tent. Or assembling arbitrarily large structures by buttoning more and more of them together.
... but all of that speaks to a more regimented, uniform society with uniformly produced material goods than one sees among the Third Age peoples... book orcs (as distinct from movie or generic derivative "d&d fantasy" orcs) excepted. Interesting parallel there, I'd not previously considered it.
edit 3 - since I keep thinking about this today...
... I'm increasingly thinking shelter halves / dog tents aren't a thing at least for Third Age Dunedain rangers.
For shelter-halves and shelter-quarters to exist, you need a political power (and measuring system!) common enough to say "I need ten thousand squares of tight-woven duck. Each must be exactly four ells to the side, each must have exactly so-and-so many buttons on each side, each button exactly one thumb across, placed exactly so far apart. Each must have so-and-many button slits, placed exactly...." so forth and so on.
In our world in the west, I think after the decay of the Roman legions we don't see that kind of uniformity again until... Cromwell? I could be wrong, military history's not my strongest suit, but I don't think we see anything like that for most if not all the medieval era. More, Tolkien himself is quite hostile to such regimentation, he calls similar regulations in the wartime Shire under Sharkey as "orc-like."
Movie Gondor could pull it off judging by their uniform armor, but I don't think book Gondor could. Likewise we do see very regularly-sized tents in Theoden's encampment in the WETA films which one could argue were Gondorian in origin... but I don't think book Rohan would look like that. Rather we'd see a number of mostly improvised shelters for the lower sorts, and perhaps some larger Geteld-like tents for the higher sorts. Each would be a handmade one-off for the person having it made, each sized slightly differently, etc etc. (Assuming Tolkien wouldn't lean into central asian horse culture and give them yurts!)
Ithilien Rangers might have something purpose-made from Gondor's army (What was Byzantine tentage like? The degree of uniformity there might give a hint)... or perhaps something more purpose-made improvised from Gondorian sails?
In Eriador I'd expect we see simple wood shelters like the half-faced structures of the American frontier, possibly tarps for less permanent structures, and just stretched blankets or cloaks for temporary shelters.
But that's just a guess.
Persona: Aerlinneth, Dúnedain of Amon Lendel c. TA 3010.
