Maroon or Green Beret

Hi All,

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Does anyone know the dress etiquette for 1944.

I have been tracking a man who served with No 9 Commando.

In Nov 1943,he transferred from the Lancashire Fusiliers,to the Army Air Corp PR,I assume P R means the Parachute Regt.

He is shown in 9 Commando's Field Return of Officers , as joining the cdo unit 5-8-44.

Again assuming he was in the Parachute Regt,what colour beret would he wear,Maroon - Green,Green - Maroon.

Any suggestions.

Regards

Graham

Graham,
I have seen examples of OR's in Troop photographs wearing the green beret with Parachute Regiment cap badge.
Guy

I assume that is because the paras was their original parent regiment.

I also assume he would wear the green beret whilst with no 9 commando (after doing the Achnacarry commando trainings). Wearing of the PR cap badge makes sense as army commandos wore the cap badge of their parent regiment ( except eg no 2 cdo which had their own badge) Cheers, JB

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 30/12/2015 14:44:32

The question was what colour of beret. Well as has been said if he was actually a Commando he would wear the Green Beret, if he was a Para then his maroon beret. If he was temporarily attached he would likely have kept his maroon beret. The badge in this case is irrelevant as No 9 Commando never wore a badge on their headgear. They wore a hackle only. Have a look at this photo showing Commandos and a Para:

Lt Angus Ferguson and others

By temporarily attached I refer to Liaison Officers, etc., often found in listings of staff of Cdo Bde HQ. I suppose they could have been given a green beret to wear and placed their 'wings' badge on it as from what I have read on website forums on similar topics, the Para beret is presented to wear, whilst the wings are awarded. Somewhat off topic from WW2, there's some interesting modern day discussions on other websites about what berets to wear and when with even more colourful language being used. Military sense of humour abundant...search google

Ok thanks Pete great info and well remarked on no 9 not wearing a cap badge.

Cheers
JB

Hi All,

Many thanks to those who helped to answer my question, I was not aware that No 9 Commando wore no cap badge,only the hackle.

This has me thinking ,how did the men show what was their parent regiment,a quick look in the picture gallery,I could not see any collar badges.Did they wear regimental shoulder flashes.

Did those entitled retain regimental emblems like Lanyards.

Curious, how others can recognize what regiment a man was from,in dire cases the ID card and ID tags would show regiments.

Again thanks,

Graham

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 31/12/2015 16:31:37

Pete, thank you for pointing that out.

I remember reading that TSM Walter Rae MM of 6 Commando landed on D-Day with his Black Watch hackle attached to his beret. He chose to wear it every time he went into action.

Guy

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 31/12/2015 20:56:20

GUY wrote:

I remember reading that TSM Walter Rae MM of 6 Commando landed on D-Day with his Black Watch hackle attached to his beret. He chose to wear it every time he went into action.

The question of hackles in the beret has always intrigued me.
No. 9 & No.12 Commandos, we know, wore the Black Hackles on their berets.
In the early days, No.5 Commando had 'Golden' hackles on their Tam O' Shanters but, for a number of reasons, did away with them and did not wear them once berets were issued.

But Guy raises a valid point, if a soldier from the Black Watch (RHR) joined the Commandos, did he wear his Red Hackle on his beret?

I posed this question a few years ago to a friend of mine who joined the Black Watch and then, after volunteering for the Commandos, was posted to No.12 Cdo then, on its disbandment in 1943, joined No.5 Commando...

It is common knowledge that the Black Watch (RHR) wore red hackles.
On passing out at Commando Depot in September 1943, I attached my hackle to my green beret only to confronted by a Drill Sgt who accused me of being idle and incorrectly dressed. He said I should wear my Regiment's metal cap badge - to which I said I had never possessed one. He stalked off and came back with a metal badge and told me to polish it and wear it...
After 14 days leave, I joined No.12 at Bognor Regis.
I reported to No.12 Cdo HQ at the Norfolk Hotel only to be confronted by the RSM who enquired whether I was ashamed of my Regiment's history and, if not, why wasn't I wearing the hackle? Luckily I'd kept my hackle and duly fixed it to my beret after removing the metal cap badge (no more polishing, I thought!).
A few weeks later, around October, No.12 Cdo was moved to Wrexham to form the HOC. Then some of us were posted back to Bognor to bring No.5 Cdo up to strength. I even went back to my old landlady. I was to join 5 Troop. On my arrival, I reported to No.5 Cdo HQ at the Norfolk Hotel only to be confronted by an NCO who told me I was incorrectly dressed and asked where my metal badge was.
As everyone knows, you cannot buck the system, so I retrieved my metal badge and wore that for the rest of my time with No.5 Cdo...

Early in 1945, on arrival at the HOC, a friendly NCO tipped me off that I would be in trouble if I didn't wear a hackle and so, for the last time, I got it out of my kitbag and wore it for the rest of my Army service.

Cheers,

Nick