CANADIAN WWII .38 WEBLEY R.A.C. TANKER PISTOL HOLSTER

CANADIAN R.A.C. (ROYAL ARMOURED CORPS) TANKER P37 PATTERN PISTOL HOLSTER WITH CLEANING ROD

The Canadian tanker holster was made to hangs from a belt, comes with a cleaning rod and also has six bandolier type slots for six individual rounds. 

This repo holster has a ink-stamped "C-broad arrow", indicating it was issued through the Canadian Quartermasters Office and a ink-stamped maker's mark "Z. L. & T. Ltd" Zephyr Loom and Textile Limited was Canada's primary WWII web equipment manufacturer

Canadian R.A.C. (Royal Armoured Corps) Pattern 1937 holster is a short drop version. 

The standard-issue Canadian military handgun during most of WWII (until the 9mm Inglis-made High Power was adopted by the Army in late 1944) was the S&W Military and Police revolver, chambered for .38 S&W/.380.

History of the Holster:

The "long drop" configuration was the initial design - supposedly to get the holstered pistol down off the waist to minimize "hang-ups" in the hatches of armoured vehicles, but that configuration proved less than satisfactory, since the holstered pistol down on the thigh was just as likely to get snagged, but was actually in a worse location for reaching down to clear the hang-up. Accordingly, the design was modified to a much simpler "short drop" configuration for ongoing manufacture. In fact, many of the earlier pattern holsters were modified to the shorter pattern.