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Re: Hope tan plastic for them

I have seen shorts worn during the jungle fighting by Brits and I believe by Indians also. Imphal and Kohima. So with the new WW2 sets plus the Indians sure could use the Tropical Japanese! Thanks! Cappy

Re: Hope tan plastic for them

Cappy, the photo`s you refer to are probably staged behind the lines or at least most are, if you look at hundreds of photo`s of the British/Indian army in Burma, very few indeed show shorts,particularly late on in the war. Shorts were common at the fall of Singapore and there are lots of photo`s of that, but that is early war and not up the jungle.

Re: Hope tan plastic for them

Thanks Alan; You're probably right.Most pictures I have seen do show long pants worn. I was going by a book I had years ago called Great Battles of the World which featured the battle of Kohima which showed a British unit on patrol wading through a shallow stream in shorts among others.They could have been staged photos. So like other aspects to our hobby we'll just have to Make Believe! All the best! Cappy

Re: Hope tan plastic for them

Alan is right. I have seen lots of unpublished photos of the Burma campaign belonging to my father in law and they had the jungle trousers almost to a man. When on leave in India they did wear neatly pressed ( and tailored )shorts with berets or forage caps and I presume the Indian troops did the same but with their own headgear. Sadly he died in 2010 but I did ask him about other things to do with the Arakan campaign as well and his memory was outstandingly comprehensive and accurate to the smallest detail. Shorts were impractical in the jungle and unless you wanted to tan up your legs you kept them at the base. A good programme recently on the TV about the films from the troops of the 14th Army that acted like blueys(forces letters). They were just ordinary troops talking to camera and saying how much they missed wives, mothers, girlfriends, children and would be back soon. Tragically many of them didn't keep that promise. It gave a very good idea of the variety of uniforms.

The webbing is probably accurate as the WW1 type was used as well as the WW2 type also bandoliers were very much in evidence.

I suppose it is easier to convert shorts to long pants than vice versa and they do have rolled up sleeves which is a big plus. The slung helmets seem strange on fighting poses.

David