Help with French translation needed

petits bidons are water bottles, the small oil bottles, carried on one of the holes of the middle part of the wooden block of the cartdige pouch were called fioles d'huile

Thanks for that. I was familiar with bidon meaning a water bottle. I hadn't seen petits bidons specifically before and as the context was weapons I just wondered. Doubt was also put in my mind as both my French dictionaries against the entry for bidon include, inter alia, bidon à huile. Bidon also occurs in the correspondence when writing about cooking pots and pans to be issued to units 'les bidons et les marmites', and I wondered about this too, and thought could it meant mess tins but I would expect mess tins to be gamelles. All very interesting but bidons will be water bottles, until I'm told diferently. Thanks again.

you also have grand bidons, as for mess tins, they did not exist as such in the French army for individual soldiers, an ordinaire would share one common gamelle, this is also used for cooking, as well as the marmite of course. Here is a grand bidon, Bardin regulations changed all that a bit and you would have to look at Leopold Beyer who shows all this nicely - John I lost your e mail address in case you like I could sned you a write up I made about the biodons.

the surprising thing is that Boney looks into epinglettes and petite bidons, as well as tirez balles - but seemingly has no clue how to realize all those demands given, as like for the water bottles for the campaign into Palestine indeed he saw the need of them, but then the order to make them reached the units on their depart, when departing Moscow, only then material was given to the troops to provide the essentials, why being dormant during the whole stay, very odd.

He is what we would call a micro-manager today. One moment he's sending out dispatches concerning details of individual units, sometimes to company level, and then the next he's corresponding with another head of state. The other thing is that nothing seems to happen without an order from him and subordinates seem almost incapable of much initiative at all, in fact it isn't needed from them. They just do what they are told. Quite remarkable. I wonder what it did for their self esteem?

It is a double edged thing, I have to micromanage sometimes as well, to the most stupid things, where you assume that members of your own team by nature or common sense would do it on their own, or at least recongnize that the problem has to be solved on the spot, but then you find out, usually by accident - that obvious tasks are not done in case I am not pointing my finger at it and put my food down. Of course, in a bigger organisation, you could delegate, but in the end you have to re view and control all the time the most mundane tasks, without it, all is rotting.