Landships II

huhncc · Major

British Artillery Crew uniform?

Centurion · Legend

huhncc wrote:

I noticed in one of the excellent models pictured on this site a British gun crew with blue "under shirts". Was this standard? I will be modeling some 18prds soon that have crews with what looks like undershirts on and suspenders down. I think the blue would add some color and character. Thanks, Chris

With the massive increase in the size of the army in 1915 ( 'Kitchener's new army') the pace of recruitment outran the production facilities for khaki cloth and some were issues with uniforms made from blue serge. Doubtles the same would have applied to vests (undershirts). As soon as possible Blue uniforms were replaced with Khaki but doubtless some blue vests would have been retained as 'extras' by those who already had them. The returned blue uniforms were sent off (via Red cross channels) to Germany for use by British POWs. BTW in the British army suspenders were (and doubtless still are) called braces, suspenders being used for keeping one's socks up

huhncc · Major

Thanks! What was that quote? Winston Churchill: "Americans and British are one people separated only by a common language."

Rhomboid · Field Marshal

The attachment shows a gunner in shirt sleeve order with "grey-back" flannel shirt - these were sometimes produced in other colours such as brown. The illustration is from Mike Chappell's "The Somme 1916, Crucible of a British Army".