Regina Rifle Regiment battle dress question

You may be right as far as the bandolier is concerned, but I was under the assumption that the men within one Bren Group would have carried as much ammo as they could.

There is one instance at least of a corporal armed with a Sten gun carrying what seems to be Bren magazines in one of his pouches (or are they Sten mags side by side?): that was on D-Day, inland from Gold Beach (50th British Infantry Division).




I do have a few Sten gun magazines, but they are not in the best of conditions.

Once again a picture taken during the early days of the D-Day landings:



My Sten gun is a mere Spanish replica (Denix). I have added a genuine WW2 skeleton stock and a Sten magazine to it to make it look a little less cheap. Demilled Sten guns are far too expensive in France to my point of view and, thanks to EU legislation, they now have to be welded into one solid block of metal  

I had a St Etienne neutralized Sten 25 years ago, but I sold it when I stopped collecting. Now I'll have to get a Denix one.

Here comes a cap badge received today :

Very nice indeed! I think you will need a scarlet backing to use it on a beret.



(I do not own the beret)

I have moved the bandolier further down, by the way.

Yes, I know this beret, but size is too small for us.
So for reenactment purposes I opted for a postwar Belgian beret, which is not too bad.

Hello to all,

My Battle of Normandy mannequin has benefited from a few additional items lately, among other things a Canadian small pack that came complete with its original L straps. Unfortunately, the haversack and its straps definitiely look as if they had been blancoed white at some time, which, I suppose, would have been much more suitable for an Italian Campaign mannequin.




I should get within the next few days a British general service shovel - the shovel (or spade, if you prefer) comes from the area directly across the Orne river, barely a few miles away from Sword Beach, so I suppose there is a chance it was left there by either British or Canadian troops in 1944.




The GS shovel is Broad Arrow marked and was made by BRADES, but the question remains whether Canadian troops used British GS shovels during the Battle of Normandy.

Yes, Canadians used British T handle shovels....

Histoire and Collections had just published this book.   It is in French and only 40 Euros, you do not have to know the language to figure out what is being documented, plus the book is full of photographs.   Owning a copy will answer any questions you might have.

https://histoireetcollections.com/en/



https://histoireetcollections.com/en/

I think they must have reprinted the original 2003 version of the book I have at home. Could you check this is the same book?

Here is the GS shovel: I have tried to clean it, using clear water for the shaft and WD40 for the metal.
Under the appropriate lighting, I think I can barely read a faint 1943 on the metal.

Yes, it is a reprint of the 2003 book but it has been updated with corrections and has plenty of new images.

I bought Jean Bouchery's newer edition of the book more than a month ago: apart from the wealth of photos added, what is worth mentioning is the fact that the colours are now truer to reality. Some of the uniforms in the first edition were definitely much greener than life

In the meantime my Canuck got some company: a British Royal Engineers officer landing on Gold Beach on D-Day and an R.E.M.E. staff sergeant at the Mulberry B harbour of Arromanches during the summer of 1944.

Very nice mannequins. You have an good eye for detail.
Only in the early days of the d-day landings officers wore the full webbing set, they soon found out that being recognizable as an officicer was quite dangerous............

LSR wrote:Very nice mannequins. You have an good eye for detail.
Only in the early days of the d-day landings officers wore the full webbing set, they soon found out that being recognizable as an officicer was quite dangerous............

Thank you.
You're absolutely right: after D-Day most junior officers would wear webbing pouches. From what I could see, only senior officers stuck to their officer's sets.