Would you not be ok wearing the Para Helmet instead of the Beret?
Yes its an option and cap comforter as a soft cap.
Its just a poor reason not ot wear wwii kit, if everyone did thta then the only guys who ever re-enacted wwii airborne would be ex paras...
that woudl do the regiment no favours as i bet few would bother, who then would honour the memory of the wwii airborne troops, remind the public of their feats of arms and carry the torch?
I can understand not doing modern para stuff.. but *every* soldier earns his beret and cap badge in some way. I thin if you're doing a respectful impression and not just tarting about in it then you are doingthe regiment an honour.
Besides like i say its Staffords not paras.
If you want to 'earn' that beret I can *guaratnee* you will pass 1940s standards of fitness.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Ow i thought this was just a British infantry type thing! 
If its passed 9 there is a 95% chance im pissed.
Dude do you read any posts?
Go back, read the press release.
It is a British Infantry thing, the Staffords were an Infantry regiment.
The 2nd Battalion South Staffords were an airlanding infantry unit.
Because they were part of the airborne dvision they got to wear maroon berets, everybody had to there was no earning or choice. Evn the airborne tnak crew who rode the tanks like oddball made swapped their prized black berets for maroon ones.
Everybody needs to get staffords kit to join, its the basic.
Then we are doing commandos as its an easy swap, again the comandoes were ARMY comandoes and not royal marine comandos, army commandos no longer exist so its safe to represent those units, you cant offend anyone, they were disbanded in 1946.
The next impression after that if you want to go that far is line infantry and we'll be doing a yorkshire battlion 'the hallamshires' as this is yiths home county and he's already badged up for that, as none of the rest of us are badged up yet it makes sense.
Finally we'll do chindits or SAS in NWE.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
I'm up for joining. Just plain stereotypical infantry for me (+ red beret!). Have got heavy weapons on the way (airsoft Vickers MMG and have started a 2" airsoft mortar) but no light weapons.
A Proud Member Of 'Team Spleen!' who play mainly at Gunman Airsoft, Tuddenham, Suffolk.
Ah, forgot to add my 1911 to the list
D'oh!
So it's a Tanaka M10 then, I'll just break the bad news to the Mrs!
I'll be a Rifleman then Gadge (slightly obsessed with Assault engineers atm), gotta get the base requirements in first
1911 will be fine... Just need to get a lanyard for it... 
Just realised I havn't stated what I was going to be. As I've got plans to obtain a No.4, I'll go Rifleman too.
Awesome stuff guys.
Once we get bit more of the ground we'll try and put some loose sructure up.
Then we could look into attending an open day or two together to get used to playing alongsdie each other, perhaps organise a training day or just get stuck in and book into an event as a section!
So far i know between us we have a good selection of thompsons and mp40s but we also have
1 sten
2 brens
5 enfield no4s
thats not bad going!
Additionally I'll look into getting a 'PBI member' avatar tag for those that want one.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Just to add that as well as the Bren I've got a Sten and a No4 
good stuff pete.
Imagine how pant wettingly cool it would be if we turned up to an event as a fully kitted out rifle section.
I think we'd realy turn some heads!
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
what would be the appropriate weapon layout for a fully kitted rifle section? I ask so I can work out which gun project to do first
Well...
heres the beauty of doing south staffs...
they were on paper an infanfry battalion so equipped thus:
cpl - sten
pte x6 - no4
(this is your 'rifle group')
then the gun group is:
l/cpl - no4
bren no2 - no4
Bren gunner - bren.
So on paper, 1 sten, 8 rifles, 1 bren.
BUT
airborne divisions had enugh stens for every third man to have one so its not uncommon for two or three guysin a section to have stens and for asection to even have two brens as they were over allocated.
And to make things even better, in combat resupply issues meant that the UK airborne often aquired mp40s, k98s and mg42s.
lastly the Staffords had a few dozen patchetts on trial.
So the choice of staffords as a unit gives us massive fleixbility with regards to kit.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
fair enough will look at the cost of building each and work out which will be the quickest to do
Ah, forgot to add my 1911 to the list
So it's a Tanaka M10 then, I'll just break the bad news to the Mrs!
I'll be a Rifleman then Gadge (slightly obsessed with Assault engineers atm), gotta get the base requirements in first
1911 will be fine... Just need to get a lanyard for it...
No it wont!
I MUST have the correct "looking" gun.... for authentisity 
not b'cos I wanna buy more kit etc 
Well a 1911 for South Staffs is just as good as the Victory Revolver anyway...
Don't stress...
Sidearms were pretty rare for most soldiers in the British Army in WW2 anyway. Only really Officers, higher ranking NCOs and those without a long weapon (eg drivers) would carry them.
I suggest you concentrate on getting the uniform and main weapon right...
So on paper, 1 sten, 8 rifles, 1 bren.
BUT
airborne divisions had enugh stens for every third man to have one so its not uncommon for two or three guysin a section to have stens and for asection to even have two brens as they were over allocated.
And to make things even better, in combat resupply issues meant that the UK airborne often aquired mp40s, k98s and mg42s.
lastly the Staffords had a few dozen patchetts on trial.
So the choice of staffords as a unit gives us massive fleixbility with regards to kit.
Gadge am I correct in recalling that later-war units had more than 1 SMG? Whatever, it is remarkably similar to a German rifle platoon also - an MG, 1-3 SMGs, and the rest rifles.
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
SMGs certainly became more common late war... I don't have the numbers mind.
BTW, commandos quite probably all had SMGs and they'd be a mix of Thompsons (all varieties) and Stens (all varieties)
A 1944 airborne plattoon was equipped with more smg and brens than they needed.
put it this way a division had 12,500 men roughly
sten guns allocated: 6504
rifles: 7171
Brens: 966
So thats enough automatic weaponry for every other man to have one.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
i spoke to tyler d today on the phone and i wouldnt mind joining your merry band of men!
weapons wise all i got is my cheapsoft thompson so a rifleman it would have to be. 1911 will be purchased next year.
kit wise all i am missing is the bd trousers and gaiters and a maroon beret.
i spent all my spare cash on a second hand SoF denison smock off ebay cough £180 cough! still it looks the dogs danglies
Well i reckon we may have a reasonable source of cheap BD torusers coming soon.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
