WWII Royal Marine commandos

I find some of the 12" action figures to be an excellent resource on kit/uniforms when I can`t find anything else, so here ya go
http://www.dragonmodelsltd.com/html/70181page2.htm

hi there

my group does 47 RM commando, and the kit for em is dead easy, in NWE (most of the RM commandos saw action from D-day onward) they generally wore denison smock, green commando beret with the kings crown RM cap badge (modern RM badges are Queen's crown) and either 37 or 40 pattern battledress with standard 37 webbing. sometimes theyd wear a cap comforter and on d-day 47 and 48 commando both had some troops wearing mk II helmets - however, 98% of them in photos are wearing berets

They would generally wear no badges on their denisons apart from rank, sometimes not even that, but have the "royal marines commando" shoulder title on their battledress and a combined ops patch - however, from all the photos there is no real uniformity to this practise.....

Hope some of this helps

Mikey

Not as often as folk like to think.

By winter of 44 it was reasonably common but they were an airborne issue item. The found their way to army and RM commandoes and infantry recce units but by no means a universal issue,.

AIM, definitely speak to mikeya more. He's got a whole bunch of lads portraying 47RM with him: http://gunmanairsoft.co.uk/forum/index.php?showforum=33

hi there

my group does 47 RM commando, and the kit for em is dead easy, in NWE (most of the RM commandos saw action from D-day onward) they generally wore denison smock, green commando beret with the kings crown RM cap badge (modern RM badges are Queen's crown) and either 37 or 40 pattern battledress with standard 37 webbing. sometimes theyd wear a cap comforter and on d-day 47 and 48 commando both had some troops wearing mk II helmets - however, 98% of them in photos are wearing berets

They would generally wear no badges on their denisons apart from rank, sometimes not even that, but have the "royal marines commando" shoulder title on their battledress and a combined ops patch - however, from all the photos there is no real uniformity to this practise.....

Hope some of this helps

Mikey

does that basically mean that switching between the green beret and maroon beret it would cover para and commando if wearing a denison?

Sort of.

As said the denison was *far* from standard, a lot of the misconception comes from things like the 'toy soldier' colletion and osprey choosing a pic of *one* guy in a denison as an example (as opposed to the 200 pics of guys in battledress in the rest of the book).

Do a google for WWII royal marine commando... see how many pics turn up with dennys on. It wont be a lot taken before 1945. I think they started getting issued them in the winter of 44.

It does marginalise an impression to *very* late war if that sort of thing bothers you at all.

For airsoft i dont think anyone would really care

thats handy to know, I can switch berets then on our open days over here if the maroon one attracts too much attention

Given that a commando beret is equally 'edgy' to some folk who get iffy about these things you might be better off wearing the classic commando cap comforter?

by too much attention , I meant BB's will also get myself a cap comforter as well
thats the good thing about our local site, no-ones too bothered about what you wear

from 47s point of view the 1st pattern smock was issued while the airborne had moved onto 2nd pattern

Most airborne didn't get 2nd pattern until Varsity in '45? There were some on D-Day [from memory the 'thumbs up, tea drinking' picture has one in it. 12th batt machine gun section??]and some at Arnhem but not many.
I've found one picture of a Commando in a denison on or around D-Day. None of the group are sporting cap badges on their beret and of the group of 10 or so, only one has a smock. He also has a 1928 Thompson and the 'Battle Jerkin'. The others have the round combined Ops patch so they are Army Commando? I can never remember which way round it is. I cant read the shoulder flash.
It is credited as an IWM photo but no number is given.

I think denison pre winter of 45 on non airborne personel are very much of the 'aquired' type rather than any issue.

I've seen infantry battlalion snipers in denisons that are not on an infantry battlions scale of issue.

Denison smocks I seem to have read were not *that* practical for a seaborne unit given the ammount of zippage and press studs to corrode... they are also ridiculously heavy and dont insulate when they are soaking.

Unlike windproofs, which is probably why you see post war SBS units using them.

Its also important (to re-enforce what poacher is saying) to remember the army doesnt recall all the old issued smocks when a new type comes in. They tend to send the new ones to stores and replace losses as and when they happen - hence you see a mix of types in units.

I've read that some units did receive greater numbers of newer patterns, an example would be the Staffords having a high propotion of web chin strap helmets for Arnhem.. presumably to replace losses and on casualty replacements post North Africa/Huskey. What didnt happen though is everyone returned from the med, handed in their old smock and helmet and got a new one so the old ones could be handed down.

Supply and precurement just doesnt work like that.

When we did the old AI army commando photoshoot we included 2 lads in 10 in denisons.. and this was mainly because we hadnt done our research. If i'd hve done it again I'd have left them off.

I can never remember which way round it is.

Round is Army, square is Navy.

Frankly, for WW2 commandos plain BD with helmets, cap comfortors or unbadged green berets is going to cover the majority of cases. I believe they didn't use Stens either, so Thompsons in NWE are fine too.

Cheers
Martin

I think the reason they used Thompsons and .45s was for ammo comonality. Essentially carrying a sten wou mean one more calibre to carry on amphibious raids where supply weight is obviously a big factor.

The more weapons fed by the same calibre the less likely you are to be stuck with ammo, but for the wrong weapon.

I've probably missed some blindingly obvious small arm but I'd have thought .303 and .45 covered nearly everything