Can someone please give me the proper military names of the following headgear. I know the first one is the forerunner of the beret it is a Cap GS.
2) Side or field service cap 3) OR peaked cap? 4 ) Sun or pith helmet (in the Indian army they were known as topee or topi - but this actually just means 'hat' in Urdu) 5) Looks like the Brodie helmet (also known as shrapnel helmet)
I believe they are as follows (briefly) :- 1) General Service (GS) Cap - replaced FS cap in sept. 1943 2) Field Service (FS) Cap - Introduced with Battledress - based on Victorian Forage Cap. 3)Other Ranks Service Dress (SD) cap - Generally the pre war pattern except for some senior NCOs and CMP. 4) Solar topee (frequently lost overboard from troopships heading east !) 5)(probably) Mk11 Helmet (Helmet buffs get quite prickly if the WW2 helmet is referred to as a "Brodie" which was the early WW1 "rimless" design. Strictly speaking, it ceased to be a Brodie once the Mk1 appeared. A few were re-linered and saw early WW2 service. Rich.
Brilliant response folks, I hadn't a real clue. The guy 'arresting Hitler' in 1939 only wished he had. That was L/Bdr Willie Dysart. Rommel and Co captured his troop in the Western Desert on January 29 1942. That was just before the Afrika Korps went on to capture Benghazi the same day. Brit POW's were handed over to the Italians to process, after all Rommel was only there to help the Italian Army. L/Bdr Dysart was the only gunner who managed to escape before the rest of the troop went off to be abused in the Italian POW camps.
