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RAC-H2A
RAC Royal Armoured Corps Helmet
Tank Oversuit
Strengthened epaulettes were fitted at each shoulder, secured with press studs. The cloth was strong enough for them to be used in the extraction of a wounded man, but their general lack of bulk made a firm grip very difficult, and only a very strong man would have been able to drag the dead weight of a casualty from a tank using the epaulettes alone. Unlike the 1942 suit the oversuit had no internal rescue harness.
The Royal Armoured Corps pattern steel helmet was an improvement over the earlier fiber types, offering both considerably greater crash protection and unlike its predecessors, ballistic protection as well. The shell was the same as that used for the dispatch rider’s and Mk III Airborne helmets, the three differing only in their liners. The RAC helmet used the same type of liner as the Mk II general service helmet.

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MKII-H1A
Mk II Helmet



BEF Infantry, France 1940 (p 22)
As the BEF is pushed back to the French coast in May 1940 an infantryman (who also appears on the front cover of this book) waits for orders, with rifle slung. Although not yet issued to the BEF in its entirety, the battledress uniform in its original specification as manufactured from late 1938 was in use with most front line units; note the uncomfortable unlined collar of the serge blouse. An Mk VI respirator haversack carries the gas mask in the alert position; this particular model was introduced in 1939. Passing through the rings of the respirator haversack are the white tapes of the Cape, Anti -Gas, seen rolled behind the soldier’s head and resting above his small pack. A hessian cover with additional "brush loops" is fitted over the Mk II helmet (manufactured from 1938) to camouflage it and prevent reflections. Such covers, echoing practice during the Great War were unofficial but were made up by certain units during the battle of France; one original example is known with a painted hessian divisional flash sewn on. Helmet nets were also beginning to be issued and saw limited use in France; but most helmets were worn uncovered and uncamouflaged - which is somewhat surprising; as the paint finish on many early helmets was "eggshell" or satin rather than matt, without the addition of sand to coarsen the finish and kill reflections. Note that this respirator haversack has been "blancoed"- scrubbed with the same water-dilute powder preservative as the webbing harness. Later in the war hessian covers were sometimes seen worn over haversacks to prevent heavy soiling during exercises; the haversack could not easily be laundered without appearing conspicuously washed out thereafter.

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Questo messaggio è stato modificato da Blue Sky: 31 dicembre 2008 - 16:28

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RAF 1941

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Royal Navy

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ROYAL NAVY 1940

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Royal Navy 1940

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Royal Marines!