On the way to making an SAS loadout

may purchase a c96 mauser have it as a captured weapon and to give me an edge

If you wanted any captured pistol, it'd be a P08 Luger, that's what *all* the lads wanted. Equally, it wouldn't be holstered and on display, as if an officer saw it, they'd generally 'confiscate' it. Or, more accurately, nick it so they could take it home.

My grandad used to tell me he had to physically fight another guy for it when they found a dead officer, and that other guys had theirs nicked from them while they were asleep! Once he'd got his, he buried it at the bottom of his pack until he got home.

It's long gone now, sadly, got handed in years ago.

SAS would have greater leeway, but it'd probably just be secreted away in your inside smock pocket.

Think Ill stay with the idea of gettin a broomhandle though man the fps is 400 so it will definitely pack a wallop

Mauser pistol with a 25m min engagement range?

Indeed its a bit pointless getting a pistol that requires you to have a back up pistol to safely carry it

Add to it being an incredibly unlikely aquisition and well... personally I'd go for the luger. If you want a decent realistic and british looking sidearm the tanaka m10 revolvers are very good.

Its all airsoft and fun but SAS loadouts always end up as the proverbial 'can of' as a lot of folk see them as some way of shoehorning anything they want into their impression with a 'well they might have found this' excuse. And yup thats fine if you just want to knock about doing vaguely WWII sisk stuff but seriously (and trust me i've been there myself) you'll utterly cringe in six months time if you really get into stuff and start reading up *lots* before you buy anything.

Basing an impression off 'might ofs' is always dubious, basing one off single photographs is usually so (m1 carbine at arnhem anyone?) and basing your impression off someones elses pics on the net is equally dodgy. The soundest thing to do is get about 100 or more period pics of your chosen unit in the field (for your sas impression you could easily source these off the archice site i listed alone)... look through all 100, pic 10 that seem to be representative.... carry the kit that seems *typical* of the soldier.

Like your loadout is pretty cool and great for WWII airsoft but if you wanted to take it to a 'living history' or public re-enactment show level you'd have to modify it a bit or get a very thick skin. As said its really good for gaming and stuff an i'm not trying to dishearten you in any way its simply that 20 quid spent on books (as always I'd recommend 'stirlings men' and 'winged dagger' will save you 200 quid on kid that either wasnt worn or you dont need.

Basically a mauser and a us shoulder holster are each on their own incrdibly unlikely for an sas impression and together will look a bit daft (probably *great* for 'game effectiveness' but thats not really what the WWII lark is about or we'd all have camelbacks in our smallpacks ).

You could probably make you current ideas for an sas impression spot on by...

Stick to BD and a jerkin or just BD.

If you're wearing a faced lapel officers battle dress you want a collared shirt and tie or a cravat/scarf instead of a tie.

Loose the shoulder holster. *especially* if you're wearing a smock as they usually kept pistols either in the uk issue holster, tankie pattern ones or smock pockets.

Dont wear SAS insignia on a field uniform (i'm incredibly dubious this was ever done in any quantity outsidde propaganda pics)

reduce your webbing for the SAS impression to belt kit

Get a large crown maroon beret rather than a modern sized sand one.

You dont have to do any of the above but the above advice would put your uniform into 'reenactment show' level of authenticity.

(oh and dont forget officers have brown boots unless they are in rifle regiments)

Feel free to ignore any or all of the above, as said i think you've got some cracking first impressions going that with a little bit of tweaking could be absolutley first class

(m1 carbine at arnhem anyone?)

I take your M1 carbine and raise you a para with a drop leg tankie holster.
Plenty of one offs, they get filed with 'if they had of had it they would have used it' fallacies.
Though not the most attractive, doing the normal, average is the way to play.
It means you are versatile and flexible in your impression when you need to fit into a scenario.
It's not much good having the most detailed perfect uniform for one particular unit if they only fought in two battles?
You need something you can use in any of the wildly varying game ideas with minimal rebadging.

Indeed, i'm always off the belief that the best '1st impression' you can have for brits is unbadged BD (while it was often ignored, the 1943 invasion regulations ordered all units to remove everything but rank insignia) as it looks right for *any* battle including commonwealth troops.

Same goes for a basic set of 37 pattern webbing, anklets, ammo boots and a cap comforter.

Everyone in every unit had these.

However nearly every re-enactor sees 40 quids worth of insignia as a more essential early purchase than a pair of ammo boots

(again, i've done that myself, my first german tunic had more spent on it in insignia than the actual jacket cost!)

Generic is really the way to look the part in the majortity of events when you're startng off. These days i have two BD blouses, one is a 'walking out' badged up one for PBI, living history and evening 'best uniform' and the other one is completely devoid of insignia and occasionally i'll tack stitch on insignia for specific events.

I reckon if i'd have had this forum as a resource and read up more before buying when I started i'd have saved *hundreds*.

Dont know how good your local library is but if its anythign like the nottingham one (which is fairly well stocked) you could really do worse than have a read of:

British Army handbook - Charles Forty
D-day to Ve Day, the British Soldier vol1 - jean bouchery
The WWII British Tommy - Brayley and Ingram
Web equipment of the two world wars - Martin Brayley

Buying them all would cost about a hundred quid (and a hundred quid well spent i might add, i dont regret buying them at all) but your local library should be able to get the in if they dont have them in anyway... i think i'm lucky in that Nottingham has a ruckload of militaria titles in!

Tighten the webbing and but some weight in the pouches?
Lose the plastic 80's porn 'tash, you look like a twit.

From those pics I'd again say 'smock *or* jerkin' and given the smock looks post war i'd stick to the jerkin.

Webbing just need adjusting (pouches towards the hips, tighten the straps)

As someone else said webbing looks odd empty. The *main* purpose of the webbing was to carry ammunition for the sections bren tbh, thats why in pics of lads at arnhem where they've used up all the brens ammo they were carrying a lot of them just ditched their webbing entirely (they'd also ran out of water)

Equally short duration fighting patrols quite often left their webbing behind and just took the 303 bandoliers out or put ammo in pockets.

Full webbing for the SAS is unusual, as said they spent a *lot* of their time on jeeps and favoured personal kit that is easy to drive and sit in. Stuff that would normally occupy ones webbing was kept in a 'grab bag' small pack on the vehicle or in bergans.

Indeed, I was looking at Brayley and Ingram's books only yesterday (being one of Dickie I's former colleagues, he is sadly missed at work)- there is a model in them who looks suspiciously Gadge-like!

I would have loved to have modelled for one of his books but regrettably not me...

...(being one of Dickie I's former colleagues, he is sadly missed at work)...

I'm sorry, has something happened to Dickie?

I thought he meant that he was missed now he didnt work at sabre anymore?

Well that's one possible reading...

i always seem to have trouble with my webbing especially on the jerkin there isnt epaulettes to hold it down

You wouldn't use your epaulettes to hold your webbing down anyway, otherwise it's complete nightmare to get it on and off.

It's really the weight in your webbing, combined with the correct adjustment, that holds it on your shoulders.

Yep, your webbing should be pretty tight when worn properly.

If you dont make the waist belt about as tight as you can handle then the second you put a properly packed small pack on the clips on top of your universal pouches your belt goes north and ends up round your nipples.

The cross straps should be tight enough not to slip over your shoulders, while some 'training manual' and staged promo pics show webbing under epaulettes it was rarely done in reality in the field as you simply cant take your webbing off quickly when you need to have a rest or similar.

Just a quick one?

I know this sounds obvious but you are crossing the over at the back? If you have not 'x'd' them at the back then they are going to be three inches closer to each shoulder and more likely to slip off.

Heh, it's common problem with jerkins. I suspect if you looked hard enough you'd find it in period photos as well.

With SAS not having cross straps at all is a good solution. Just pistol and pistol ammo pouch on belt. No straps. Everything else in your bag or stuffed down your front.

yes sir crossing at the back now its just the weight i had some bananas in my bren pouches thats why they may have been a bit light!
cheers!

Try it with 4.3 lb's of Bren Gun magazines per pouch and you might find they look fuller and pull the webbing down more

SAS and British Airborne Commando?

I thought the SAS were British. Airborne. And Commandos?

apologies, I can be obtuse at times.

I meant to imply that you only really have one impression, that of 'somewhat generic British special forces-ish', as that is what the wooly-hat in battle screams to me (I know, there is a piccie of me wearing one in a Brit airborne game and I cringe every-time I see it (though in my defence it was very cold and very wet in December, and I was new and did not yet have a helmet )).

What you have is an 'SAS' impression, with which you would 'get away with' playing Para at 'most' events. Which is distinct from 2 impressions.

Well, without the pipe and moustache you would have. With them you have only really one novelty fancy dress costume.

SAS pic isnt half bad now (have to agree about the tash, just grow one , events are about once a month or every other month. I can usually grow and ok moustache in a month... if you cant just leave it)

As for airborne, it cool for airsofting might be worth looking into some anklets, sabre sell them for a couple of quid. Outside of the western desert and ome sas lads very few folk wore puttees.. British Airborne didnt wear them.

I picked up some belgian anklets from stoneleigh militaria fair for a quid and they are pre dyed green so you dont even have to worry about blanco.

Stick with it chap, coming on leaps and bounds!

(btw, if you can get an RAC tankie pattern helmet their is a way to add a 20 quid chinstrap from SOF without wrecking it and it makes a good para lid, even cheaper still Sgt Heide on the forum makes fibreglass replicas)