Quote Originally Posted by BobsYourUncle View Post
I have to think that both the badger AND the swingin' six worn by Other Ranks were magnets for pests and dust. Keeping them in order had to be a major headache.

In June our group portrays the 7th Bn as they fought in the desert of North Africa, up to and after El Alamein. We do this at the airfield in Reading Pennsylvania, as part of the Reading Air Show. Central Pennsylvania cannot be anywhere near as hot as the desert in North Africa, yet we live on and next to the asphalt runways, and in the heat of the day it seems to us that we must be approaching those conditions--temperatures reach over 100 degrees F. We only have to do that for three days, we are not being shot at or bombarded, and our relative comfort and safety aside, I can tell you that wearing 22 oz military weight kilts and hair sporrans brings to mind the saying about Mad Dogs and Englishmen...

I really don't know how they wore wool tunics and battledress, kilts and sporrans in the desert. I would die from the heat alone, the Germans wouldn't need to do anything...
Humidity, or rather the lack of it, is a big factor.