Battle Dress was the specific title of a military uniform adopted by
the British Army in the
late 1930s and worn until the 1960s. Several other nations also introduced
variants of Battle Dress during the Second World War, including
Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa, and after the Second
World War, including Belgium, Norway and The Netherlands.
From the early 1930s, the British War Office began research on a replacement
for the Service Dress
that had been a combined field and dress uniform since the early 1900s.
Initially conducted on a small scale over several years, some of the
ideas tested included deerstalker hats and safari jackets. After extensive
field trials of other uniforms.
Battle Dress was adopted just prior to the Second World War. The uniform was
designed with the needs of mechanized infantry in mind, and
was inspired by contemporary ‘ski suits’ that were less restrictive to the
wearer, and more suited to vehicular movement than Service Dress.
It consisted of two main items of clothing:
-
Battle Dress Blouse - a waist length, fly fronted garment
with two breast pockets and a collar done up at the neck.
-
Battle Dress Trousers - loose fitting wool trousers, with
buttons for braces as well as belt loops, two hip pockets, a rear pocket, and
two external pockets; one on the (wearer's) upper right thigh, designed to
hold a First Field Dressing, and a larger pocket on the upper left
thigh, commonly called a "map pocket".
As well, a new headdress called the Field Service Cap was
also introduced at this time, to replace the unwieldy peaked Service Dress
Cap.
Battle Dress was issued widely beginning in 1939 in the British Army (as well
as the Canadian Army, who produced their own copy of Battle
Dress after the outbreak of war), though shortages meant that some units of
the British Expeditionary Force went to France in Service Dress.
Battle Dress inspired the military combat uniforms of other
nations such as the United States, which copied the Battle Dress Blouse
directly with the M1944
"Ike" Jacket (also known as the E.T.O. (European Theatre of
Operations) Jacket, though a similar pattern was produced in Australia for US
personnel in the Far
East), Germany (whose copy of Battle Dress was called the Felduniform
44) and France (Modèle 1945, 1946 and 1949 patterns).
Waist-length denim jackets (known popularly as "jean
jackets" in the United States) were inspired by the Battle Dress; another
example of
military clothing inspiring popular fashion.
|
