BEagle,
One reason might have been that they were still wearing the wartime UK issue KD. This was rubbish.
Warmtoast's first pic (and Sgt Moon !) is more like it ! But look at his second - the Sgt in the foreground has had his KD slacks pressed (just look at that crease !) And the Nav. looks like a Painter and Decorator.
Seeing all our chaps working stripped to the waist makes me think of the way we're now supposed to lather ourselves with Factor 15 before venturing out in the Mediterranean sun. Dr.LeFanu (D.T.) some years ago mentioned this: one of his patients, an ex-desert rat, observed that he'd been chasing Rommel all around the N.African desert for a year or two shirtless and had no skin trouble of any kind in the following 30 years.
My theory is that they were not motionless on a lounger, but active and so presenting fresh areas of skin to the sun every few seconds.
Danny.