Help:french Or Brit 1940 Soldier Uniform?

[cllmda]

Hello everyone!
ive come on this forum hoping someone could help me with a very simple query for anyone knowledgeable about ww2...I have a photo of a soldier taken in France in 1940 and am trying to figure out (by the uniform etc) if he's british or french...It was taken in may 1940 in Arras, France at British army GHQ there...I dont know if its a brit soldier or a french army "agent de liaison" as many were posted there...Apart from the soldier himself sitting on his bed one can see his coat ,weapon and helmet hanging on the door as well as some maps on the wall...cllmda@msn.comIf anyone thinks they can help me id be glad to send you by email the 2 photos(ill try to add them on here but dunno if ill manage it or not..) and your help would be very much appreaciated![attachmentid=1304][attachmentid=1305][attachmentid=1306]

[angie999]

Very difficult.

It looks like British battedress to me and I don't thin there was a French uniform like it in 1940, but I cannot spot anything else which is obvious.

Did French greatcoats have brass buttons? British ones did, as in the picture.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Thats a British Battledress and no mistake. The Jacket on the guy gives it away. French jackets were lnoger than the British counterpart.

Also, the fact that he is reading "LIFE" magazine also tells you he was an English reader. Doubtful that very many French enlisted men knew English. I am not saying it is impossible but improbable.

[sapper]

British. I do know, I wore the scratchy heavy damned thing.
Sapper

[sapper]

By the way, there is no mistaking that the coat hanging on the door is a British army greatcoat. absolutely typical, again something that I wore.
Sapper

Also the "puttees! and I can recall quite clearly that the army boots had to have exactly 13 studs, I got sent back once for an evening out, for not having the right number
Sapper

[angie999]

(jimbotosome @ Nov 30 2005, 03:14 AM) [post=42289]Also, the fact that he is reading "LIFE" magazine also tells you he was an English reader. Doubtful that very many French enlisted men knew English. I am not saying it is impossible but improbable.
[/b]

With a room of his own and all, I had supposed him to be an officer.

[sapper]

In one picture, in the background is a standard British army gas mask hanging on a peg.
looks mighty like the Regimental company clerk. definately a private soldier, but no uniform insignia...That is odd! This is the same uniform but with the open neck "Walking out style"
Sapper

(angie999 @ Nov 30 2005, 05:40 AM) [post=42301]With a room of his own and all, I had supposed him to be an officer.
[/b]

That's a good observation. In addition, not many privates and NCOs would be studying a map and plotting strategies.

[sapper]

Without doubt a private soldier, and for me, absolutely typical of the company clerk, who's job it was to keep the maps up to date. He is not plotting anything, just marking up the maps, presumably to idenify where the units are, or were. The uniform for an officer was quite different, certainly nothing like the one that this man, and I wore. Heavy, itchy, very heavy when wet, or DEW soaked in early morning actions in the grass, or corn fields.
Sapper