A Beginner's Guide to British Wartime Battledress - Reenacting Tips

Hi guys, bringing you a video today based on a question received on the Home Guard video I recently uploaded, the one man's kit video on the Home Guard uniform and equipment, which regarded British battle dress patterns and it, the question started, the way the question was phrased perpetuated a myth of British battle dress, British manufactured battle dress, but there were only two patterns, quote 1937 pattern and quote 1940 pattern. Now this is not particularly in-depth video on battle dress, this is a short video geared towards reenacting, reenactors, living history, whatever you want to call it, the three, outwardly three basic patterns of battle dress uniform you see. There are variations within the patterns, there are also extra items made for the commandos and parachutists, so pairs of trousers specifically designed for their use and so on. We're not going to be going into that today, we're going to be going over the three basic patterns. There were variations within these patterns, we're not going to get into those, we're just going to look at the outward differences because that's obviously the most important thing for living history and reenacting from that point of view is the outward appearance. There are variations in inward, inside, the number of inside pockets and things that these came with and so on for the jackets and variations in buttons and all sorts of different things. We're not going to get into that, we're going to look at the three basic patterns and just have a look at those and differentiate them just to dispel the myth of there only being the two 1937 and 40 pattern battle dresses. First of all we're going to have a look at the blouses. So this is the first battle dress pattern introduced by the British Army, Battle Dress Surge. This is a reproduction, it's the only reproduction item we'll be looking at in this video, all the rest is original. This is a panther store reproduction, it's a very good, very accurate reproduction so it is suitable for the point of looking at the pattern. As I say, the first battle dress pattern introduced, this is commonly referred to as 1937 pattern along with the actual 1940 pattern which we'll look at in a minute. Both of them are quite similar. So you have the pleated front pockets, all the buttons are are concealed so you have a piece of drill underneath which the button buttons through. Same on the front, it's a fly front so you've got, as you can see, the buttons button through a piece of drill behind the surge there. Unlined collar is the key distinction feature of this pattern of blouse and on the shoulder here you have these little flat early shank buttons which are also used on early denim uniform as well so that's a good way of seeing these. All the battle dress blouses that we'll be looking at have button holes to button onto the trousers and as you can see they're also concealed at the back here as you can see looking underneath there and obviously concealed buttons even on the so that's the the battle dress surge. We'll have a look now at 1940 pattern. Okay so here we have 1940 pattern and this is the uniform I was wearing at the Rufford Abbey Home Guard event recently hence it still has the Home Guard insignia. As you can see, very similar to the battle dress surge uniform. One thing I didn't show you on the battle dress surge which I will in just a second is the butt buckle, that is a change. The biggest visual change is the lined collar. As you can see here the collar now has a drill lining to it. It seems strange that the original, the first battle dress surge doesn't have a lined collar because the service dress used at that point did. I don't know why they didn't line the collar but the 1940 pattern changed that. This is 1940 pattern. What a lot of people refer to as 1940 pattern we're going to have a look at in just a minute, all the exposed buttons and everything. So this is introduced in 1940 and you would see this post Dunkirk primarily up to about 1942. This was the only battle dress other than battle dress surge being issued so primarily this battle dress surge wasn't in production for very long. However these aren't hard set dates. You see battle dress surge still being worn late in the war. There's fantastic photographs of Fusilier Paine in France in 1944. He's wearing a battle dress surge blouse. You can see that the collar is unlined because he has the collar open. So anything early can be worn late war pretty much. They would still, it's just a battle dress, they're going to issue what they have in stock in store and they may still have the odd bit of old stuff floating around which would be issued out. So there's nothing to say late war you couldn't be wearing an early war blouse, trousers etc. So these are progressively introduced. They never really replace the previous patterns although obviously as the war drags on and the army gets bigger you're going to see more of the newer patterns being issued out. So if you're doing late war reenacting it's probably more sensible to get a later war pattern and so on and obviously if you're doing early war you need the early stuff. So this is 1940 pattern still has all the concealed buttons and you can see here for the for the back as well for the buttoning onto the the trousers and the cuffs and everything still have the cut slightly changed but that's not visually particularly noticeable but the cut has changed and you still have obviously the concealed buttons on the pockets and the pleats and obviously the line collar is the big change there at the top. We have different buttons on the epaulettes you now have the sort of dished in shank buttons slightly different shape and these are common to later denims and obviously also you see those used on the the trousers which we'll have a look at in a minute and the another change is the buckle. Now you can see here and we've got the slightly more complicated tooth buckle out on the waist belt and I will get the battle dress surge back in here because I didn't show you the buckle on that you can see the difference between the two of a simple sort of loop buckle on the with a sliding center pin on the battle dress surge and this later battle dress 1940 pattern you have the later designer buckle. So that's 1940 pattern and we'll have a look at the next pattern now the third pattern. So here we have what reenactors commonly refer to as 1940 pattern the other two are both collectively referred to as 1937 pattern which is incorrect and this is referred to as 1940 pattern which isn't technically incorrect the labels often and majoritarily say 1940 pattern this however the utility uniform so as you can see it's far more utilitarian there's less less cloth used the cut is reduced and you also see these labeled 1942 pattern which is when it was introduced so 42 but this by the end of the war is going to be becoming the more common because this was the one that was manufactured obviously from that point on not that the contracts that were let would stop immediately but by late war this is becoming very common so you've obviously got exposed buttons down the front this is the most visually distinctive of the three no pleats button through on the pockets and the button holes at the back for the trousers go straight through they're not concealed and obviously the cuffs button through as well so all the concealment of the buttons has disappeared the pleats have disappeared it's very simple there's less material in it you don't have early patterns of this to say there are variations within the we won't go too much into that but a visual outward difference some of the early ones have the shank button that we looked at on the 1940 pattern but by later on later production you've gone over to having the four hole buttons on the epaulettes as well and obviously still have the lined collar there so that's the 1940 utility or 1942 pattern battle dress blouse which was obviously becoming standard by late war and was worn through post-war the trousers we'll look at and before the post-war patterns of battle dress were introduced but that's a subject for another video that's three patterns of blouse the three basic patterns of blouse as i say particularly with this there are variations within this pattern but we're not going to get into that today this is just a basic look at the three major differences okay so now we'll look at the corresponding trousers from bath dress surge which is what we have here through to 1940 utility pattern or 1942 pattern whichever way you want to call it these are original pair of battle dress surge trousers as you can see following the blouse the buttons are concealed on the pockets you have a map pocket on the front of the leg here which also has a concealed button the dressing pocket is this very this distinctive design here which is small with a single pleat down the front no button and obviously have belt loops on the trousers as well and brass buttons inside for the braces you see all the brand the buttons are brass there are variations in the buttons and things and so on but we won't go into that this video it's that's not the purpose of this video it's just to show you outward basic outward differences that will help you understand the three basic patterns and then you have tabs at the ankle to draw the ankle in so you can button that tight and you see like that and so and they're quite wide cut as you can see as battle dress was in the trousers they do slim down later on but again that's that's a slight variation pattern change the labels missing unfortunately from these but you can see belt loops all the way around and these are the buttons three buttons across the back here are for buttoning the blouse onto the trousers so you have those there as well so that's the the battle dress surge trousers and we'll bring in the um we'll bring in the next pattern now okay so here we have uh battle dress 1940 pattern trousers um and the biggest visual change or as you can probably see already is you've got to change the dressing pocket big dressing pocket with two pleats down the front much bigger uh gives more room for that and the shank button similar to used on the epaulettes the 1940 pattern uniform you can see there um the the the domed the dished in shank button uh still brass buttons on this although originally this had it was one surviving uh it had at least some of them were sheridized steel so this is a sort of utility 1940 pattern before the actual utility came in so you're already getting away from brass buttons again that's a variation that happens across these you'll find all sorts of different things like that but the basic pattern the biggest change is is this uh dressing pocket there you still have the mat pocket on the leg it still has a concealed button underneath there and you still have uh the tabs at the ankle there these are button round obviously again to to draw the ankles in so there we are belt loops again around there buttoned belt loops on there um and this again there are variations within this pattern but we won't get into that um this is just to basically to show you that you still have the concealed buttons on the pockets um the the back pockets and the the mat pocket but the obviously you've changed over to this later pattern of um uh the the dressing pocket there with the two pleats gives you more room to fit the dressing in so we'll have a look now at the 1940 utility stroke 1942 pattern okay so here we have the the utility trousers as you can see very utilitarian the belt loops have gone uh all the buttons are now the the sort of plastic the early type of plastic um uh you've got obviously the dressing pocket the later pattern of dressing pocket as you had on the 1940 pattern but now the back pocket as you can see the button's exposed so it's no longer it's buttoned through rather than having that flap underneath to to allow it to um to button in a concealed manner and likewise here on the trousers the mat pocket is basically the same but you have the button through on the flap i didn't show you on the 1940 pattern but these again have the three this might be missing one actually in the middle but yeah just two remaining you've got the two buttons there for buttoning onto the the blouse um obviously and same inside all the buttons are the same now this this no longer brass it's plastic material and you've got the the four of those sorry eight six of those uh two for each uh fastening on the brace and braces in there or suspenders as the u.s they'd be called in the u.s um so that's the utility pattern trousers and i think as i say the labels easy to look at on these it's external i'll bring that up to the camera you can see there they're actually dated 1946 so these this wartime pattern was manufactured right through until 1946 when 1946 pattern took over but that's again a topic for another video so it's sort of i hope we've rattled through that fairly quickly and just given the basic outline of the three different the three basic patterns as i say there's there's more to it than i've shown in this video um but for reenacting purposes it helps to dispel that myth of of hopefully helps to dispel that myth of there just being the two 1940 and 1937 patterns which it's not quite as simple as that and it's more complicated than i've even shown here as i say but this will hopefully help people getting into british reenacting uh see the the three patterns three basic patterns a little more readily more easily so i hope you found that interesting and as i always say until next time bye for now