I won this belt on ebay a little while ago. It is stamped S.E.N. 1952 / J.A. 2394 / 075 along with the government issue arrow marks and features a heavy (brass?) buckle. The weird thing about it is the fact it was 85" long which is a whopping 7'1" (for our metric friends that's 2.15m) Now I can't imagine a soldier having an 85" waist, and I don't see how it would work as a double-wrap belt because the keepers are too narrow and there are no holes for the first 'wrap'. It has been made by joining two lengths together and the join looks to be original, so I'm wondering if it was actually a strap for securing something such as a trunk? I've tried searching for information, but I've turned up a blank so far.
Anyway, I hope it doesn't turn out to be some super-rare thing, as I have converted it to a standard length belt. This involved cutting the original stitched joint, cutting the belt itself just after the keeper, and then stitching the two pieces together using the original holes in each piece. These holes didn't line up very well, but with the help of some black waxed thread, a needle, a steel thimble and some brute force, I managed to
bodge stitch it....
I'm really happy with the way it looks and feels. It's like wearing my own little piece of history!
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