More years ago than I care to remember, I was laying a wreath on behalf of 12 (B) Squadron at a reunion of the ‘Wickenby Register’ - the 12(B) and 626 Squadrons’ Association. The ‘old boys’ were, mostly, ‘Main Force’ Lancaster veterans! I was wearing No 1s, and over the years, my SD hat had been stuffed in Nav Bags, been folded into flying suit pockets, and (naughtily, I admit) been jammed down the side of the jet’s ‘bang seat’…and it really was in pretty rag order!
As we were lining up to lay the wreath, one of the ‘old and bold’ commented on the state of my hat!! Jokingly I said that it was my ‘Op Hat’! He smiled at me and replied…’Jim, I did 30 ops, 20 of them over Germany, and my hat was nowhere in the **** state that yours is’!!!! 🤷♂️😂
Next day an order was placed for a new SD Hat from Messrs Gieves and Hawkes!!! 😉
PS…thread drift, but I always thought that RAF SH mates, as far as their idiosyncratic selection of flying kit was concerned, were the true heirs and successors of the Desert Air Force!!! 😎