The Highland Subaltern

[neloon]

My father's uncles who served in kilted regiments during the Great War used to talk of the advantages of the kilt in trench warfare.

As I mentioned above, my father was in the Gordons in WW1. At Cambrai in 1917, the Seaforths gave way and the Germans got behind the British line. Nothing for it but to run off down the trench. But on one side was a machine gunner on the other a flammerwerfer (flame thrower) - my father got the flammerwerfer. He was able to keep running, whipping off his blazing kilt. (No "short drawers" as stated in the OP video.) He was in hospital for a year, lying in a water bath until the burns healed - no antibiotics in those days. So the kilt had its good points - if he had been wearing breeks, I would not be here to tell you about it!

Alan