It's cold in them thar hills !
dubbleyew eight,
Yes, of course, ambient temperature drops off at 1.6ºC/1,000ft, so at 12,000 (and there was no point in taking a VV any higher), 30ºC on the ground (a fair winter daytime temperature in East Bengal and the old N.E. Frontier Province) would be 11ºC. Considering that most of our 'ops' were short-range, and the VV (in formation with a bomb load) was no 'homesick angel', our problem was to get up to 12, never mind stay long enough to feel cold.
I never wore anything other than bush jacket and slacks (admittedly with a lot of top-hamper), and never had a Sidcot suit (other than the one issued at ITW and handed in before coming out).
My guess would be that the Sidcots would be old stock hoarded at Peshawar from the good old days, when they cruised over the hills in the open-cockpit Wapitis and Harts, "Subduing the Tribes" (with a marked lack of success, seeing that we're still at it).
How the poor devils, who presumably were issued with the things at OTU in 'Pesh', managed to survive when they climbed (fur collar and all) into a red-hot cockpit on the ground, is beyond me.
Your Spitfire chaps in Darwin seem to have been a valiant lot. Staying up there till they froze to death ! Now that is really "above and beyond the call of duty", and no mistake ! Our engineers may wish to comment on the engine problems. Me, I just had a few hundred hours flying the things, so will butt-out. But could the stories just possibly have had sone XXXX input ?
Cheers, Danny