Historical RAF Uniform Question

[brakedwell]

Same when I was at Swinderby (1956/7}, but there was plenty of talent available at the Co-op Ballroom in Lincoln!

[sisemen]

Here we go...1972 or thereabouts. Zipped "battledress", working No 1's and a hairy battledress to boot.

[Pontius Navigator]

Originally Posted by BEagle

lightweight No 2 trousers with stable belt loops and stable belt

The latter being 'optional' at own expense but deemed an item for when in Stone Tropical rig.

And belt loops - essential if the belt was going to be smart and an embuggerence factor when it came to dropping one's drawers as the belt then was side buckled. The loops of course were not a standard part of the kit so you had to have them made at own expense.

[plasticAF]

V Neck Jumpers

Seems we're moving back to them

[Pontius Navigator]

KD or Stone

Now KD is yet another area where some 3* or 4* must have had a deal with a cloth manufacturer.

My first 'set' bought in UK was a complete hotch potch. I remember buying the shorts at an outfitters in Sleaford - RE City? - which came below the knee and had cross over waist straps. The shirts were a different cloth and a different colour.

Then had a 'proper' set made in Aden. Of course the Malta uniform was different from the Cyprus and Cyprus from Aden and Aden from Singapore.

My next set was from Butterworth. The Australian CO had decreed that the RAF and RAAF would have different coloured KD. I managed to persuade the tailor to make me an Aussie set as it was the same colour as the RAF Singapore items.

Airmen were issued with an entirely different colour and pattern. Then that was declared obsolete and a new set came out without shoulder patches, Then not long after it went Stone.

Around 1972 we were given buckets of cash (in Akrotiri) for buy shirts, shorts, bush jackets, No 6s etc but of course there was no cloth. The enterprising Mess then sent to Hong Kong for bolts of cloth which were dropped off on the home bound trooper.

Not content with this revolutionary re-issue from KD to Stone there was another plot in 1984. I had had to buy a new set of Stone from Au Wai Lam that were delivered to me VAT-free in ASI and naturally a different pattern to the others

We were then visited by a WRAF Blunty Wg Cdr who told us that we were going to have blue tropical kit. We laughed, oh how we laughed. She assured us that the shelves in stores at Lyneham were groaning with the stuff.

I wonder what happened to that pipe dream?

Now, in Cyprus, the preferred rig seems to be desert combats and not shorts. We couldn't wait to get in to shorts in the summer.

[ricardian]

Now, in Cyprus, the preferred rig seems to be desert combats and not shorts. We couldn't wait to get in to shorts in the summer.

Akrotiri 1965-67. KD was to be worn from a particular date, regardless of what the weather was on that date. All the married, living out chaps arrived on site wearing KD shorts and that dreadful blue RAF raincoat. It looked like a convention of flashers

[Pontius Navigator]

Ricardian, agreed, I managed to aquire a KD raincoat.

Actually it was an RNZAF issue pac-a-mac style and absolutely perfect for those tropical downpours. I still had it in Ascension some years later. I used go to the mess in flip-flops, the mac, and a brolly with boots, socks, and a towel underneath.

[J.A.F.O.]

siseman

And that's at the Group "Standardisation" Unit.

[Wensleydale]

Ricardian, agreed, I managed to aquire a KD raincoat.

I remember the spoof orders for new personnel to report to stores for ridiculous items such as tartan cotton and DPM paint: one of these items was the "KD Greatcoat". After some preparation by the section practical joker, one young man was sent back to the squadron with a storeman's brown overall coat complete with sewn on brass buttons!

Another green-horn was sent to be issued with his KD NBC kit - the "type with shorts rather than trousers" as was explained by his flt sgt.

[Shack37]

All the married, living out chaps arrived on site wearing KD shorts and that dreadful blue RAF raincoat. It looked like a convention of flashers

Ricardian.......that was very, very nearly a coffee/keyboard moment.

[Samuel]

RNZAF uniforms were essentially similar to those of the RAF although KD, which was officially "stone Grey" wasn't issued to those in Singapore, rather we were given money to have it tailored by "No1 Jimmy". Given the different levels of cloth quality, there was a considerable variation in colour after washing a few times, with the result that the CO Tengah politely suggested to the CO 14 that 14Sqn were excused parades!

We also wore that ridiculous tropical blue cotton chip bag hat, which had even more variations. Look at the CO [ S/LGeoff Wallingford] in this photo and compare!

[BEagle]

I used go to the mess in flip-flops, the mac, and a brolly with boots, socks, and a towel underneath.

Yup, sounds like a flasher to me.....

Who remembers the 'sweater cashmere' mess kit spoof of around 1980? This was the 'new mess kit' for officers and had 'moleskin facings', gold wire wings / brevet and gold rank badge shoulder boards....

I think it was organised by 115 Sqn around 1 Apr; they would sneak into the OM with a 'letter' for the noticeboard wherever they went for flight calibration duties. Detail was very good - even the visiting OM tailors' price lists were carefully amended to include 'sweater, cashmere, No. 5 dress'....

Caught out quite a few people!

[Pontius Navigator]

I loved those ankle socks. What started off as a small band of knee cap between the sock and the 'shorts' getting larger and larger. I remember not a few 'shorts' with the bottoms turned up and the pockets showing below and no socks at all in Ascension.

[goudie]

An old sweat told me that during the war, on arrival at Cape Town they had to go ashore wearing KD. The trousers were multi purpose, inasmuch one could convert them from 'longs' to 'shorts' by a series of folds, then securing them by buttons around one's thighs! The folded space between the buttons was used to carry one's personal items.
The RMAF wore jungle green, in the '60's, which looked very smart but for some reason we changed to kd which was of rather poor quality.

[langleybaston]

Fascinating and very informative. As MoD civilians attached RAF Nicosia 1961-64 we were sent to a Nicosia tailor for complete KD kits at own expence. The shirts, shorts and KD longs were of superb material, and lasted me well into the 1970s in UK. Socks were long and khaki wool, with white longs as a flashy alternative. No tie ever contemplated.
I remember Mick Martin, the staish [of 617 fame] asking where Met. got their gear.
This would be as he was cadging yet another fag whilst pretending he wanted a briefing. The office kept fags and matches handy, with him in mind.
The SWO changed his KD at least once and often twice each day.

[sisemen]

Samuel - What's that 7 foot bloke doing with a 4 foot bloke's uniform?

KD was to be worn from a particular date, regardless of what the weather was on that date

Back in the 'old' days that's exactly what used to happen in the UK as well. Summer would generally arrive unannounced and early some years and we sweated away in hairy battledress, and weren't allowed out of doors without the jacket.

Multitudes of complaints eventually, sometimes, got the Staish to relent and orders were issued to the SWO to get the SRO out pronto. Once the restrictions were relaxed to summer dress (hairy battledress, shirt sleeves neatly rolled to the elbow and tie tucked in somewhere mid chest) that was the cue for it to start snowing!

Flexibility is the key to airpower

And that's at the Group "Standardisation" Unit.

It was standardisation JAFO. The 2 navs are in zip ups, the 2 AEOs are in No 1s and, knowing my place, a very, very young Sisemen is in hairy blues (but once commissioned I tried to make sure that my "uniform" was as individual as possible!)

[Pontius Navigator]

Siseman, you forgot we had to wear ties.

Then the rules changed and you could remove ties outdoors but had to wear them indoors.

Then you could remove your jacket but had to roll your sleeves up.

We started to keep our sleeves down when jackets were removed. They then ordered us to roll our sleeves up but instituted a trial of sleeves worn down. This was at Akrotiri and the trial extended to just 3 people; the PA to the Stn Cdr, OC Ops Wing (Gp Capt Mike Beavis) and one other. It was deemed a success and we were all allowed sleeves up or down

Some years later on a particularly hot summer the staish at Waddo allowed the women (not WRAF) to forego tights. 'Advisor Airwomen' said this was not permitted and they had to wear tights again.

Remember also in the Cornish Riviera the groundcrew used to go in to KD.

[Dan Gerous]

I went through Swinditz in 76 and we were issued 4 shirts with collars attached, a thunderbird jacket and a wooly pully. As has been mentioned a dark blue shirt came in around 78, for engineering trades, but you had to change 2 of your normal blue shirts for 2 dark blue ones. A fiddle we used to work, when somebody was leaving the airforce, they got to keep the shirts, along with other stuff, and if they didn't want to keep them we'd scrounge them and change them for new ones. I think I ended with 4 of each. I seem to recall we called the dark blue shirts, "Navy" shirts, as they looked the same as the Navy's shirt. Also at the same time they changed the colour of the safety wellies from black, to the light brown that the Navy also used. We suspected that this was to stop us wearing the black ones with uniform outside the work area. The SWO at Lossie was forever nabbing guys for wearing the safety wellies with their No.2's. I left in 85 and there was a new style of shirt coming in with a larger collar that looked horrible, and I called this the "Elvis" shirt. It was about this time that the V neck wooly started to appear, which again I didn't think much of, and this may have tempted me to start wearing the Thunderbird jacket, if I had stayed in any longer. The Thunderbird jacket was a horrible looking thing and I avoided wearing it unless ordered to. Later on as a Cpl, I would sometimes wear it if I was on some duty or other outside of my normal work area. I think there were a lot of people who didn't like the Thunderbird jacket, but strangely after the Falklands war it started to become popular with a certain faction who had never worn it before. Of course it couldn't possibly be anything to do with the fact that you had medal ribbons on your No2 jacket!

[sisemen]

Siseman, you forgot we had to wear ties.

Oh no I didn't

(hairy battledress, shirt sleeves neatly rolled to the elbow and tie tucked in somewhere mid chest

[Halton Brat]

I am considering launching a law suit against MOD in respect of the scarring suffered by my 16yr-old body (Halton 1971) due to:

a) Permanent collar-stud indentations to my neck.
b) Severe chafing to the inside of my tender thighs due to the highly abrasive Hairy Mary trousers, even though I shaved them (the trousers, not my thighs).
c) Major bruising to my head inflicted by FS K-- D-w-b-ry (RAF Regt), using the cap-badge end of my beret as a weapon. We youths had drawn SLR's from the armoury for the first time, & the good FS (who had been fired from the SS for cruelty) demonstrated how to 'clear & make safe' the weapon upon receipt. I duly pulled back the cocking handle & looked inside, and could see nothing at all (working parts now to the rear). I approached FS
K-- & said stupidly "excuse me Flight, there are no bits in my gun".
Well, my memories of the next 30secs are a blur of shouting & pain, as FS K-- used his well-honed martial arts skills on my head with my beret.

I am truly a damaged individual.......

HB