RE: Berets and other head varients.

At 09:13 AM 8/9/97 +1000, you wrote:
>	David wrote
>
>	>You don't often see special forces
>	>wearing helmets. Plenty of soft headware, berets, sunhats,
>forage
>	>caps, wooly hats, arab-style head coverings, kepi etc.
>
>Actually SF types are generally NOT meant to go head to head.
Exceptions
>are the CountTerrorist assault situations and you will note that the
>SAS, GSG-9 to mention just two, do use helmets. Personally I much
prefer
>taking a rifle butt on the side of a compressed plastic helmet than the
>number 3 haircut! And in the Falklands? Well it is common knowledge
that
>the Para's skull is far thicker than any 'Tin pot' .......
>
>
>Owen Glover (digging in!)

	Early in WW2, Soviet squaddies apparently thought helmets were
"unmanly", 
and officers and NCOs had to use fines and suchlike punishments to force
them 
into wearing them.

	For troops of Scottish descent, I'd think a modern helmet would
unduly cushion 
the effect of our national martial art (puttin the heid on)...

	On the general uniform style question, I think early First World
War
Austro-
Hungarian infantry uniforms are worth a look- much more practical
modern-looking 
than one might expect- the headgear is a sort of feldmutze type cap with
a
cloth 
"sprig" on one side.  Incidentally, amongst other things, the A-H army
had a
particular 
stiff shako which was confined to senior officers- The rank and file
therefore called it 
the "artificial brain"!

cheers,
Rob Paul
"
Rob Paul
Dept. of Zoology
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford
(01865) 271124

rpaul@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk

Once again, villainy is rotting meat before the maggots of justice!
"