Originally Posted by racedo
Okay these are worn by the SLF that don't like to land in aircarft.
A friend is looking for a genuine WW2 one.
Anybody have any ideas or are their only replicas available ?
Actually, during WW2 it wasn't unknown for Denison's to be begged/borrowed/stole by aircrew as a means of camo if having to bail out.
Grp. Capt. Pickard of the famed Amiens Mosquito raid was a well known aircrew Denison smock wearer.
However, genuine WW2 Denisons are now
VERY collectable and fetch lots of money. Not unheard of for to see nice examples go for £7-800+ on ebay, which is where you need to be looking for them these days. There are none left in any of the surplus dealers, and the odd one may turn up in a few specialist militaria dealers such as Blunderbuss or such like, but again they will be lots of money.
Also, does he want a 1st pattern or a 2nd pattern, or not bothered?
There are replica's made, for the re-enactment lot, but these are mostly very inaccurate. There was a firm doing some really good ones a while back but not any more and these now are even fetching silly money on ebay as well.
Also, need to be careful not to pay lots of money for a post war one an shady militaria dealer is 'selling' as a WW2 version
Best place to try and find one, would be at one of the big militaria shows in the UK, such as Beltring in July or Stoneleigh in a few weeks time.
See here for details of the Stoneleigh Show on 1st Feb 09.
Milliatria 2009 | Europes premier military show and Militaria Fair for military collectors