2 Commando Walking Out Dress - "Snow White" Webbing

A bit of a strange question this one! I know that as a tip of the hat to St Nazaire, 2 Commando started to wear ?snow white webbing? belts and anklets as part of their walking out dress. Vets have told me that in the Mediterranean and the Balkans the sun provided the bleaching with a bit of scrubbing without the need for white blanco. Not sure when this tradition started but I was wondering if they used white blanco on their kit whist in Scotland before embarking to the Med?

The reason I?m asking is I?m trying to put a uniform together and can?t for the life of me get my webbing to go white with sun, bleach and scrubbing!

Cheers
Belly

When No5 Cdo were on the way to India it was found that trailing the webbing in the sea behind the ship bleached them fairly quickly...

Unfortunately the white stood out starkly in the Burmese jungles and the commandos then had to 'dye' them with tea...

Presumably the salt would have shortened the life of the webbing too.

Nick

An alternative to blanco would be tennis shoe whitener - there are various products on the market.

Nick

Thanks

Sorry! I must be suffering from brain fade as I think I've asked this before and recognise the sea dragging story!!

I realise there are products that I could use to whiten it, I guess I'm trying to establish how white was white?! Should it be very, very, very light khaki or were they literally brilliant white which you'd get from blanco/shoe whitener? I've tried everything to whiten them (albeit we don't get much sunshine) and can't see them ever looking remotely white. If the tradition started while they were billeted in Scotland my guess is they must have used some kind of 'product' to whiten them. I want to try and make the kit as authentic as possible so I'm a bit cautious about putting a whitener on them without confirmation from a vet or resident expert that that was the pratice

Thanks
Paul

Whitening of webbing goes back to the 1700s when 'pipe-clay' was used but in the early 1900s a John Pickering, a Territotial whose family produced polishes for the cutlery trade, decided to 'invent' something better - thus Blanco was born...
The Pickering family sold the Blanco to the local Hillsborough barracks who adopted his product and their extra white webbing was admired and led to it?s adoption by the rest of the army.

Whether our commandos used it or not I can't tell you but if you're looking for a modern day Blanco try this:

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/reenactors/index.asp

Nick

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 29/02/2012 15:37:28

I have spoken with Eric Buckmaster of No.2 Commando regarding this and here is his reply:

This is a good question, and I am struggling to answer it after all these years.

The Army Webbing was always issued in a natural state, that I would have called a Straw String Colour.

The Standard Army Units used to " Blanco " theirs Green. and after a while even if you washed it off, it would have taken a basic green tone.

We were not issued with White equipment. We had to Scrub our Equipment to get it as clean as we could, and for Guard Duties and for Special Parades I'm sure that we would have whitened it.

For Action situations I think that we would have scrubbed it off, to make our selves less conspicuous but like the Green it would have taken on a White Hue.

2 Commando Equipment was already White when I joined the Unit.

Enquiries with one or two other veterans from No.2 Cdo is ongoing

I have now spoken with Walter Ainslie, who like my father and uncle, and Eric Buckmaster, was in 5 troop No.2 Commando. Walter had this to say about the whites:

" I always used to keep my webbing and gaiters white. Your father used to always say that mine were whiter than all the others. I scrubbed them hard and used the Blanco."

I should point out that when I phoned, Walter, aged 92, had just got in from indoor bowling at his local bowls club !!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 29/02/2012 22:54:18

Thanks Chaps

This is something that's niggled me for a while, excellent to get a definitive answer, it's the facts behind these little traditions and touches that will disappear soon if we're not careful. I always thought they looked light in the photos, but it was Des Rochford that said they were snow white and that's what led me to seek the facts. He never used blanco but he joined in Gib so sun bleaching wasn't a problem for him!

I shall remove the kit from the bucket of diluted bleach its currently residing in to no affect!

All the best
Paul

John Morris of No.2 Cdo has advised Eric Buckmaster that the idea of scrubbed / white webbing for 2 Commando was introduced by Col Charles Newman VC, OC No.2 Commando from its formation until Operation Chariot 28/9th March 1942