Colditz - ITV
I watched Colditz last night and could recognise many on the POW threads and it was interesting to see how MI 9 was drawn in to story line. One thing however jarred. Shirts.
The shirts they wore all seemed wrong. I asked our resident guru and he suggested this might be a good topic.
Danny, just watching Colditz on ITV 3, can you tell me if you had collar attached shirts in WW 2 and if the shirts had two button down pockets.
I know the ones we had in 1961 were double cuffed, collar detached without pocket and bib style front.
to which Danny replied:
We (officers or airmen) never had collar-attached shirts in WWII, always collar-studs and separate collars. Van Heusen also did (officers) blue shirts with detachable collars and (button-on) cuffs, but these may have only come in post-war. The advantage here was that you could make a shirt last quite a long time by washing your collars and cuffs (or getting the batman to do them) in your room washbasin.
I do not remember any pockets on blue shirts with or without buttons.
We had 3 issued in 1960, one on, one in the laundry and one to put on. Six collars, all heavily starched and changed every 3-4 days. NAAFI did a line in plastic collars. They looked very realistic, shiny like the starched ones but wipe clean.
Danny went on:
My first blue collar-attached shirts were unofficial nylon things and I think I bought them in 1960.
This would go like wildfire on Open Post, if you put it on !
As well as the wrong RAF shirt, Army OR didn't get shirts until 1943 or 1944 and always wore blouses to the neck.
Danny also mentioned tropical dress but that is a whole different game.