Ahh fair play mate, but berets aren’t my thing!
I miss my beret. But to be fair I miss my lanyard more.
Wear a sash instead?
And why not?
For the haters!
this was a mock up photo (identity of the guilty hidden) taken as a wide up for the WWO…!
Looks pretty cool to me.
They need to be waaaay farther over. So far over that the only thing keeping them from gravity’s embrace is the copious amounts of spiffing brylcreem locking them down.
I’d have thought that the badly placed ATC and VRT pins would be wind-up enough…
It’s the top buttons that are the annoying part
I imagine that’s part of the retro look.
It only now occurs to me that this is an obvious statement.
Top button undone was a fighter command affectation. I remember my Grandfather telling me many years ago.
Similar to bomber command and jumpers I assume
I’m going to start wearing a beret in blues. See how long it takes to upset certain people who are part of the P-SAS Brigade.
Tell us how it goes.
Some further theories on this…
Although the DPC appears again to have officially-declined this beret option recently for anyone other than RAF Regt Offrs, I strongly-suspect that what happened around 1952 (not yet tracked it down) was the enshrinement of an error in the dress regulations.
If anyone has a 1950s-era edition of AP1358 (back when it was JUST the dress regulations for the officer cadre of the Royal Air Force, its Auxiliaries & Reserves) I think a careful check in between sequential Amendment List ‘X’ and Amendment List ‘X+n’ would show that that the actual intention was that regular Air Force Officers who were required to always wear SD Peaked Caps in No2 dress / War Service BDs, following the withdrawal of ISSUED forage/field service/side-caps, and the ISSUE of berets.
Part of the proof of this theory is found in the wartime ‘Flight’ newspaper cuttings I published, where RAFVR(Training) Officers are bemoaning the fact that they were not allowed to wear SD Peak Caps on parade (unlike regulars) and stating their strong dislike of forage caps.
It should also be borne in mind that the ‘core corps’ of the RAF Regt at it’s inception was the RAFVR(RAF Regt) - again, I have posted the 1942 newspaper cuttings that support this fact.
Officers in Air Force Auxiliary, Reserve and other non-regular formations commonly were expected to wear forage caps or berets in No1 HSD and No2 BD, with SD peaks being either a dissuaded secondary option or outright disallowed.
At some point (I’ll guesstimate 1954) Officers in the RAuxAF, the RAFVR (plus, the WRAuxAF, WRAFVR etc) appear to have won parity with regulars for headgear entitlement. But the then AP1358 appears to have gone too far, totally-removing the option of wearing an undress hat with an undress uniform (ie FULLY copying the style of regulars).
From that point onwards, only the RAF Regt clung on to the beret-in-undress-blues-option for Offrs, because of (as stated above) their RAFVR conscript collective origins. They got it right (as did Offrs in the ROC, as per AP3306)…non-regular air force officers NOT in No1 dress, the primary head-dress was beret or forage cap, SD peak caps were a secondary option. Conversely, regular air force officers in blues, the primary head-dress in blues was to be SD peaks, with forage caps as an option, but berets were not really fully-encouraged for regular Offrs until the early versions of No3 OGs
Put it another way (this is an over-simplification…but): berets in field uniforms have no significance as to cohort. Berets in dress or semi-dress uniform originally indicated non-regular personnel. Peaked caps (Army & Air Force) used to signify/indicate regular service personnel.
And then things became mixed-up…
6th of April 1944…‘Flight’
In awe, as always, of your erudition…
age, unconventional experience, mysterious stamina, & unjustified-optimism in the face of adversity (fixed that for you: but thanks, I rarely receive, yet never reject, praise)
I normally wear my beret in blues and wear my hat for first/final parade and Drill Instruction (No.1 SD hat, white belt and pace stick).