Why Soldiers Brought These Weird Items To War

There’s another reasonable reason to avoid new boots before a combat. New boots shall always been worn in first, I can imagine soldiers just didn’t want to suffer blisters in the middle of the battle.

My dad was a WW2 and Korea vet. and he always believed in carrying a acorn on him was good luck.

Aw you missed out Unsinkable Sam a cat that lived on the Bismarck before it sank and went on to survive 3 more sinkings which gave him the name "Unsinkable Sam."

My grandmother’s father was in the US Navy during World War II. He said that his ship’s mascot was a monkey and one day a sailor was woken up by the monkey. Irritated, he threw it out at sea. As if being stranded at in the middle of the ocean wasn’t cruel enough, the fact that Monkeys can’t swim only confirms the poor thing drowned.

I had 1 superstition. At the time, I was authorized 2 different combat patches. I decided to wear the most current patch. Over the next week, i lost 2 friends and another seriously injured. I put the old patch on, didn't lose anyone else the final 8 months of that deployment.

6:12 The epitome of the feline maxim "If I fits, I sits".

Weird rituals can calm the nerves and instill confidence which are always great for survivability.

About the new footwear: another reasons soldiers may have declined new boots was because of the fact that they could’ve come from a dead soldier. *All Quiet on the Western Front intensifies*

Soldiers are probably the most aware of how random everything is, and how minimal is their own will in the grand scheme of things, a bullet or a shell can drop on you any moment, even if you're doing everything as you should. So it seems normal to boost yourself with the thought that something takes care of you in a way. So that you can carry on in this dangerous environment, doing what you have to do, without bothering yourself too much with the primal fear of death. "random thing can happen to me anytime, but i'm good, i can continue, i have that thing boosting my luck, random is in my favour."

There was one that’s particularly interesting There was a WWl battlecruiser by the name of HMS New Zealand, which was given a Maori piupiu skirt and a heitiki pendant to be worn by the captain during battle. HMS New Zealand only suffered minor damage from the Battle of Jutland.

That trench foot, looks like my feet after I take a shower💀

I like how the Itals sprinkled the dirt of their birthplace on them before battle. I haven't been to the state I was born in since I was 4

In iraq we told our guys not to heat up their MREs for good luck because someone said that heating up mres pisses off the locals and they might put an ied on your path

Praying sometimes works because it calm your nerves like “Please Lord, give me the strength to survive another day”

I Kept a $2 bill on me for good luck. I also continued to wear my old boots but it was because they were worn in and comfortable, not because they were lucky.

Avoiding new boots is also a good survival strategy: if you had newer boots than the rest of your squad, the enemy might assume you were an officer.

nahhh, piggy was just emergency food XD

It isn't just footwear. You only take equipment you know and trust into battle.

2:00 "3 on a match and you'll wind up in the booby-hatch."

I had to have a chicken foot on the end of my gun tube of my tank and we always scored high on gunnery tables