Uniforms of British in Palestine WWI needed

[MikeH]

Hi all

I'm about to start an army using Gripping Beasts new British Army in Palestine range and I wanted to see if anyone could point me in the direction of some good reference material for uniforms.

I do have a couple of Ospreys which cover this period, but I wouldn't mind cross referencing the info in them to something else.

so if anyone con recommend either some good web sites of books I would be really grateful

cheers

Mike

[Plynkes]

Hi, Mike.

Not sure I would pick those Gripping Beast figures as the base of an army for Palestine. The vast majority of pictures of Tommies in Palestine shows them in Khaki Drill, most often in shorts and shirtsleeves order, rather than the Serge SD uniforms depicted on those Gripping Beast lads.

Having said that, I shall be using some of them in such a way too, but I'm painting them up for Gallipoli (and they are going to have to bulk up the Palestine force as their second job). You could of course paint them up as being in Khaki Drill, but as already said, most of the time if wearing KD troops seem to be in shorts. You do however see some odd combinations, such as serge trousers with a KD jacket (and vice versa), and occasionally troops in KD trousers and jackets. Some enterprising LAFer also posted some pics of troops in Palestine clad entirely in serge SD a while back, though the pictures were post-war ones.

So in conclusion, while I don't have any problems using them for Palestine, I don't think I'd want my entire force dressed that way, as it doesn't seem typical of the way the troops dressed there. But that's just me.

These are the books I mostly turn to for this type of thing:





I also found these pics while surfing the other day, which show troops in the Dardanelles in the serge uniforms, like those the Gripping Beast fellows are wearing (and even showing the Royal Naval Division, which you can get a head for from GB now):



(Not sure about the red stripe on the trousers.)

[MikeH]

thanks mate, this is useful info

after I posted this I did a bit of research and have decided to paint them up for Gallipoli based games so it'll be SD kit all the way

Mike

[Helen]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to Dylan for putting up his Tropical book he uses as a reference. I've now bought one an awaiting its arrival from the mother country being England.

I notice that folks tend to get the ANZACs colour of uniform mixed up with the Brits uniform colour. The ANZACs uniform is much greener than the Brits.

Has anyone noticed this?


Helen

[Plynkes]

I have noticed that there is quite a wide difference in depictions of Serge Service Dress. It ranges from quite a green colour to an almost chocolate brown, depending on your source.

Khaki Drill SD on the other hand, stays a reliable sandy colour all the time.

ANZAC uniforms are something I haven't really looked at in any great detail, I'm afraid. I don't have plans to include those chaps in my games at the moment, as I'm concentrating on the Herefords*.

I should have warned about the first book, it is quite a slim volume, and covers the whole 20th Century, so only a small part of it is about the Great War. Still, I wanted it, and have found it quite useful.


*At Suvla, the ANZACs were supposed to be on the Herefords' right flank, but they couldn't find them (they were straight off the boat, and sent forward without being told where they were supposed to go, or what they were supposed to do when they got there), and never saw them throughout the fight, so I don't actually need any ANZAC figures for that!