ww2 war british by lone star

from flames of war,
 link below
Khaki drab Battledress and “Battle Bowlers”, the iconic British helmet, are the trademarks of the WW2 British soldier, the “Tommy”.

 The British Battledress uniform was officially introduced just before WW2 in 1937. It had taken the British Army from 1932 till then to design, test and approve the new uniform. Not all units had received them prior to the BEF heading to war in France in 1939 and some units of the BEF were still wearing a uniform seen in the previous war.

Also in 1937 the webbing equipment issued to the British soldier was redesigned (called the “pattern ’37” funnily enough) and this along with the Mk II helmet, a variation of the WW I design, was what your average Tommy wore into battle.

This Tommy is shown just as you would see him in France 1940 and the main features to note are the chest mounted gasmask bag and the lack of an entrenching tool. It was quickly found that wearing the gasmask bag on the chest wasn’t too comfy when you dove for cover so after this campaign it was shifted to a side bag. He carries the trusty Lee–Enfield SMLE Mk III rifle which was also the same as used in the previous war in France and to go with it, that fearsome long bayonet!

The colour of British webbing and equipment gives rise to many moments of angst as to what’s the “correct” colour and it shouldn’t really! You have a wide latitude to choose from. The webbing, as originally issued to the soldier, was a pale khaki colour and was meant to be coated with “Blanco” a green boot polish type substance used to protect it from the elements and help camouflage the soldier. In practice this meant that it varied from a medium green to light green and pale khaki for those troops who didn’t have time before being sent into combat to, put any Blanco on, didn’t have time to put much of it on or had even just faded over time.