I wore battledress from 1956 to 1968 and though I wax nostalgic about it today‘s combats are a vast improvement. In winter it was worn as normal working dress and walking out dress as well as battledress in the field. It was of heavy wool and when new was very difficult to press though after a while it did hold a crease well. It consisted of heavy ankle boots (jump boots for Airborne), trousers held up by suspenders and puttees (a long length of cloth wrapped over the top of the boots and bottom of the trousers) with the trousers bloused. The blouse was ensured by wearing weights. In addition to a rear and side pockets there was a an exterior pocket on the left thigh but of course you couldn‘t put anything in it without destroying the crease of the trousers. As a dispatch rider I wore high motorcycle boots and khaki wool riding breeches instead when in the field. We wore a khaki shirt and khaki tie with the collar points of the shirt held in place with a spiffy, a thin spring-loaded contraption to hold the points in place. The tunic was waist length, had interior pockets and external pockets on each breast with a lanyard over the right shoulder and tucked into the pocket. A 37 pattern web belt with brass corps buckle was worn with the tunic slightly bloused over it. Highland units wore the tunic, belt, boots and puttees with knee socks and the kilt. a dark blue (maroon for Airborne, black for Armour) beret was worn until 1961 when it was replaced by a forage cap. In summer battledress was replaced by bush trousers, bush shirt and bush jacket with a stable belt replacing the web belt. Walking out dress was a tropical worsted outfit of trousers, jacket with a brass buckle and normally oxfords instead of boots. The TW dress wrinkled very easily and was generally detested. All said, and considering the vast improvements of today I must admit I liked the Battledress (at least it distinguished us as soldiers when integration started to hit) but I think that‘s just nostalgia on my part.
