Kanady vz. 60

The Kanady vzor 60 (Czech for Combat boots pattern 1960) are combat boots of Czechoslovak origin.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Overview[]

The Kanady vzor 60 are made of leather and have high top cuffs with double buckles in the US M43 style. The lace holes are seven and have eyelets. The soles are made of rubber and have unique pattern, which is not seen on other combat boots. The most distinctive feature of the soles is that they are bolted with three screws on the front as well as even nine on the back, that is, on heel part. According to this, they appear to be also based on similar Polish Opinacz wz. 58 combat boots, which also featured bolted soles, double buckle style and which, at least according to their year abbreaviation in designation (1958), appeared just two years earlier than vz. 60.^[8]

History[]

Czechoslovakia was one of the most advanced and industrialized countries of the Eastern Bloc after World War II. Although, the USSR used to control its "Warsaw Pact" allies very tightly, up to the smallest details. However, apart from political and economic issues, the satellites of the Soviet Union were free in their own development of such "little things" as uniforms, footwear and other equipment.

The Czechoslovak footwear developers were quick to adapt to the trend of transferring to high-laced boots during the late 1950s. The vz. 60 boots were introduced to service with the Czechoslovak People's Army in 1960 and their design is apparently based on the mentioned US M43 boots especially evident by the cuffs and straps being in one piece.

The vz. 60 boots gained popularity in the Eastern Bloc and as such were later used also by the army of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and saw service during the Soviet–Afghan War. The Soviet 154th OSN GRU "Muslim Battalion" made use of these boots in addition to other DRA equipment while disguising as DRA personnel during the storming of the Tajbeg Palace in Operation Storm-333.

They were being made until 1972 when they were replaced in both usage and production by newer vz. 72 (vzor 1972) boots, which were featuring the same style (fourteen holes along with double buckles), however of completely different design and buckling. The vz. 60 boots had silver (chrome lined) buckles, which were a sewn onto the side - non overlapping side of the boot (like in case of most other such boots, among others the mentioned Polish, French, Soviet as well as Yugoslavian) and straps as just an extension of the rest of the leather, while the vz. 72 (along with different soles, but with same number of layers and reinforcement screws) featured different, metallic buckles with reversible buckling which also made them specific when compared to all other such boots, since it its case, the buckles were now a part of the front, overlapping part of the boot, sewn onto the rest of leather and reinforced with a single screw while each while the straps were located in previous buckles place, that is, sewn on the side of the boot. Despite that however, the vz. 72 boots are almost always incorrectly called vz. 60, due to which many think that they are just another variant or model of existing vz. 60 boots (and due to which their actual designation is actually very little known), while they actually replaced vz. 60 in both production and usage from 1972 onwards, as stated before.

The vz. 60 boots also had submodel for officers, the vz. 62 (vzor 1962) which featured brown leather instead of the usual black and different soles without the usual reinforcement screws underneath. Both models were discontinued when the new, vz .72 boot was introduced, which was also adopted by officers thus making it universal since it finally eliminated the difference between officers and rest of the soldiers, regarding of combat boots.