Who wears gloves?

[Dave Fielder]

Mortars tend to go into action without gloves, unless in Arctic conditions. Beyond that, gloves and boots are the most debated item of modern kit and swapping items with Allied forces is a frequent thing .. everyone else has been stuff.

[John Cook]

Presumably we are talking about late 20th/early 21st century soldiers.  The British army issued woollen glove, actually man-made of the kind that melted when they burned.  I never saw anybody wearing them that I remember, except on guard duty in barracks.  In Northern Ireland a black leather glove was issued.  I got my first pair in about 1974, just at the end of my first tour as I was leaving for Germany.  They were soft black leather, quite snug fitting, with padded knuckles, the padding being filled with lead powder which gave them some weight.  I got a second pair 'Mk 2' in 1980.  They were the similar but the padding was sponge.  Neither were very hard wearing and were only supposed to last a single tour.  They also soaked up water and didn't keep hands very warm.  They morphed into a combat glove sometime in the 1980s which was general issue.  They were also black leather but with no padding.  I used mine for gardening after I retired from the army in 1993.  If your unit was part of the Allied Mobile Force (Land) which deployed to the NATO flanks, you'd get issued mittens when deploying to Norway, and other specialised arctic kit.