Thought this would a good place to share my Waterproofs, they came with a Falklands group belonging to a member of 2nd Para, I bought in the late 80's.
Have a few other items still kicking around. Anyone know what the marking means?
Thought this would a good place to share my Waterproofs, they came with a Falklands group belonging to a member of 2nd Para, I bought in the late 80's.
Have a few other items still kicking around. Anyone know what the marking means?
Not me, but it's a great set there.
A great find for a uniform collector. These are usually given the "Falklands" tag because that's where most images of these in the popular press come from. In reality they are what is described as "Arctic kit" and are used anywhere where "brass monkey weather" prevails. The most common users tend to be units like 3 Commando Group mostly made up of Royal Marines. They are quite rare for several reasons;
1. They are not permanent personal issue. They are issued for particular deployments and are supposed to be withdrawn on return to a temperate climate.
2. Because of the adruous nature of the environments in which they are used, when they are withdrawn they they are often unfit for re-issue and end up being destroyed (and of course this type of material cannot be recycled for the textiles).
3. The scale of issue is comparitively low.
4. Any body who has the jacket anyway, tends to resist any attempt to withdraw the issue usually by conveniently "losing" the item after which he will use it until it really is unfit for anything but the bin.
As for the marking I think it is an early form of "zap" number.
A zap number is a covert personal identification number used to identify an individual soldier within a unit over the radio without actually giving his name. This is used routinely but the most obvious use is when he becomes a casualty. Today the practice is standardised accross the Army and is made up of the soldiers first and last initials together with the last four digits of his service number eg mine would be MB0737. Before standardisation zap numbers were organised at unit level sometimes even down to company level and there were many different configurations which caused confusion on a major formation radio net. So, my bet is early pre-standardisation "zap" number.
Alternatively it could be a callsign but the arrangement makes me doubt that.
I hope this helps.
Regards
Mark
PS Just for interest the correct official abbrieviation for Second Battalion The Parachute Regiment is; 2PARA.
Last edited by Watchdog; 04-13-2018 at 09:37 AM. Reason: typo
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Mark Thank you for the detailed reply, you always shed more light on these items.
When I purchased the group it included an DPM Arctic smock and DPM Arctic pants, the pants had velcro splits to the lower leg.
I unfortunately parted with these, but to a friend, so I still hope to regain them someday.
At the risk of stating the obvious, that feature alone marks them out as an additional "over trouser" designed to be worn on top of other clothing in the "onion skin" style and the velcro splits are to allow the trouser to be donned whislt still wearing boots.
Regards
Mark
PS Futher to my comments on "Zap numbers"; at the time that these were first used they did tend to be used at sub-unit usually company level and were often just a two digit number so one can see how quickly this became a problem with wider use. In the case of a two digit number it could often be mistaken for a soldiers' "last two" (digits of his service number) which if it ever was would be pure coincidence. The zap number was often painted on the butt of a rifle or other weapon but as all British military smallarms have a butt number (armoury ID) marked on them this would cause futher confusion so it wasn't the best idea. Members of a particular unit would know which was the zap number and which was the butt number yet nobody else could! Nowadays modern standardised zap numbers can be seen on embroidered or printed "tags" on the combat uniform in the same way as a blood group and sometimes the two are combined.
Last edited by Watchdog; 04-13-2018 at 05:10 PM. Reason: typo
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Picked this one up yesterday.....its VERY light (in colour)...I've put a standard (if there is such a thing) helmet cover on top to show the colour difference
It looks like it's been washed to within an inch of it's life...but I don't think it's been washed at all......its the Tea-Bag style cloth.....and looking again at the pics the colour of the background looks darker than it actually is....honest!!
Pics taken in natural like...no flash either)
Very nice set up Jerry... needs to do his trouser pocket up , scruffy git lol....He would get a 6 & 10 for that..
Just scored a Dutch made pair early 90's more a brown dominant type
(glad to be back after a catastrophic pc screw up!)
Here's the print subtleties between the two Dutch & UK versions at the same print area. Both made by the Dutch maker Seyntex and at about the same manufacture period.
Trousers are UK DPM as the above post. The chunk of blob (parka) is the Dutch DPM.
Last edited by reneblacky; 07-07-2018 at 06:48 AM.
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