Hi guys. Can any uniform experts advise me if Officers, and particular Airborne Officers, wore ties with their Battle Dress? I can find pictures of Brigadiers and high rankers with ties on, but I’m wondering if Platoon and Coy Commanders wore them too? Alex.
Yes officers wore ties with battledress, it tended to depend on what the Colonel would allow, which was posted in Standing Orders. Try googling ParaData lots of pics of Paratroops including officers.
Thanks for that. Yes I did have a scan of the usual web pages, looks like most of them have the scrim scarf over the top.
Not surprising they wore scrim when you look at the photos. They all seem to wear light colour ties . A bit like camming your face but leaving your throat white. Things haven't changed much but uniforms are more casual of late.
My time was well post war, but, yes, officer's ties were lighter than soldier's ones. Oddly, when soldiers tried to bleach their ties to a lighter shade, they turned light blue! I rather doubt that junior officers bothered to wear ties when in combat; face veils more likely. Chris
My father wore a KD coloured tie with his - closer examination revealed it to be a US Army Other Ranks' tie made in Boston! I have no idea where he got it.
Wasnt at Anzio was he? A lot of trading went on during their months with the Americans, or to use their wording..... Yanks. The Americans would give anything for a bottle of booze whereas it was on issue to the Brits.
Re post #8 above Anzio 6th March 1944: Rum is a frequent issue and I’ve no doubt is essential to the front line troops who have hardly been dry since they landed and fight from foxholes two feet deep in water often frozen over in the mornings. Also thank you for the usual packet of saccharin's, worth their weight in gold. If only milk could be compressed so efficiently. For wherever you go sugar and milk are two priceless commodities. One can always scrounge the tea or coffee from somewhere but the rest is as rare as diamonds and almost as valuable. Even the Americans can’t help there. A bottle of whisky will buy almost anything from a Jeep to a 10lb tin of butter but it won’t buy milk!
Officers with ties in battledress and American Comradeship at Anzio (photograph). Your sad tale reminds me of an incident which occurred in a fellow troop, where large numbers of men suffered mysterious stomach trouble. This was traced to their proximity to an American unit. The men had been swapping their beer for American K and C rations, both highly concentrated. Accustomed to quantity rather than quality they suffered exceedingly after wolfing the American dynamite.