khaki battledress kilts

[Downunder Kilt]

TheOfficialBren, for your education then

Front only apron cover type


Front and rear cover type


I believe a repo of the second type is available from What Price Glory and I have seen the apron types on Ebay

[TheOfficialBren]

Thank you, Downunder Kilt.


Much appreciated.

[Geoff Withnell]

Actually, as it turns out, tartan is pretty good camo itself, probably actually better than a solid khaki would be at concealment. The human eye at any distance sees outlines, and even Loud MacLeod breaks up the pattern. The US Army is currently spendng huge amounts, getting ready to replace a digital camo pattern that just didn't have enough color contrast to break up the pattern and therefor was ineffective.

Wow! That is a fascinating display. I assume that kilt covers were multi-purpose in that 1) they protected the kilt from battlefield stress on the fabric, 2) provided additional layers in foul weather, and 3) acted as conceilment from th enemy?

Please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken. I have never seen a "kilt cover" before.

[derosa]

I've been refreshing my liking for WW1 history lately and in the first of a series of documentaries that rely heavily on live footage they had two different scenes that showed kilted regiments heading to the front and in both cases the kilts were clearly a solid khaki or similar color and from the flow of things they were \ kilts and not covers. In a couple of the other videos you can clearly see tartan being worn as well since the images are lines of assorted grey forming a tartan pattern.

[Elf]

I've seen the illustrations of the khaki drab with small stripes, but there was also a plain khaki kilt. Below are some photos of a drab kilt belonging to the 241st Canadian Scottish Borderers. What I find particularly fascinating is not the colour, but the four (yes, four) cloth straps which hold it place. Since this fabric is still available today, it would be interesting to attempt a recreation of this kilt.

Well not a kilt, but a kilt apron, I saw at the Highland Games in Enumclaw a few years back. It was made by Neokilt. I checked their website and it is still listed.
http://www.neokilt.com/accessories.html

[MacGumerait]

I think this is usually the source of the misinformation. In many cases, people see old photos of kilted regiments from the front (seeing only the apron), and they think it's an all-canvas khaki kilt. And it doesn't help when they also see photos of the full khaki kilt covers (as shown below), thinking that these were the actual kilts.

Tobus , I agree , that was exactly what I was thinking . The old khaki kilt covers often lead people to believe that the kilt cover was the kilt itself when they see vintage pictures .

Therefore , the person selling the postcards on ebay probably referred to the kilt in the picture as a khaki kilt , when in reality it was probably The London Scottish Hodden Grey . It just looked khaki to the seller not realizing that what he might have seen in the past as a " khaki kilt " was actually a kilt cover and he ( the seller ) didn't realize the difference between the two , meaning he confused a kilt cover from old pictures with a Hodden Grey kilt ( given the look of old pics ).

In case anyone misunderstands , the above pics are from Tobus's post . They are not examples of the seller's postcards . To see the sellers pics go to OC Richard's original question in post 1 and click on the link .

I guess it wouldn't be the first time that an ebay seller is slightly inaccurate .

[Toraba]

Hi,

There were Canadian regiments that went overseas in WWI wearing plain khaki kilts. I think this was primarily the result of a lack of material to make kilts in regimental colours due to the sudden and huge demand for such fabrics.

Cheers,
Trevor

[OC Richard]

I've been refreshing my liking for WW1 history lately and in the first of a series of documentaries that rely heavily on live footage they had two different scenes that showed kilted regiments heading to the front and in both cases the kilts were clearly a solid khaki or similar color and from the flow of things they were \ kilts and not covers. In a couple of the other videos you can clearly see tartan being worn as well since the images are lines of assorted grey forming a tartan pattern.

I would like to see these! Like I said in my OP, every time somebody has actually shown me a photo of the putative khaki/drab kilts they have been London Scottish or Toronto Scottish wearing Hodden Grey kilts, such as you see here



It's easy, looking at a black & white photo, to imagine that the kilts are khaki/drab.

In colour you can see what's really going on




Anyhow several people here have posted that they've seen such kilts, but as they say "seeing is believing" and I've been doing this for 40 years and I've not seen one yet. I've come to be skeptical of things for which no actual evidence is ever put forward (a clear unequivocal colour photo, or better yet an actual example).

[OC Richard]

Below are some photos of a drab kilt belonging to the 241st Canadian Scottish Borderers.

Those photos are too small to make out just what that thing is, but it certainly doesn't look like a kilt per se. Looks more like a cotton drill kilt cover. And as for the newspaper clipping, I've come to be skeptical about things which appear in newspapers for which there is no supporting evidence.

[macwilkin]

Ex-RSM Mike Chappell documents a militia battalion of the Black Watch of Canada wearing khaki kilts and glengarries in his Canadian Army at War Osprey book, but unfortunately, there are no footnotes. However, there are photos of surving khaki glengarries:

http://www.kaisersbunker.com/cef/headgear/cefch08.htm

Note the picture of Pte. Laight wearing what appears to be the khaki kilt of the Black Watch of Canada. I posted this link in this thread last summer -- hopefully someone will actually look at this time.

Michael Dorsch, a member of the Calgary Highlanders and the webmaster of several excellent web sites about Canadian Army uniforms, also notes that the CH were issued khaki glengarries around 1939, but they were of such poor quality that they were most likey consigned to the rubbin bin -- there are no surving examples that he is aware of.

Dorsch's article on Canadian glengarries may be found here:

http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/unif...lengarries.htm

T.