WW1 Officers' Uniform and Equipment Part 1 - Active Service Kit
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- Опубліковано 29 лип 2021
- Where did officers get their kit? What did they need? And, perhaps most importantly, how much did it cost?
In this video, we look at the basic kit an officer in 1914 had to provide himself with after commissioning, and various extra items which proved popular amongst subalterns at the front. Using advertisements and price lists from the period, we can calculate the total cost of these privately purchased items, and see how necessary a private income was for officers in the Edwardian era.
I've read Pat Barker's novel "Regeneration", which looks at the hospital for shell-shocked officers in Craiglockhart, Edinburgh, and where Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfrid Owen were among the patients. It was turned into a rather good film in 1997.
When you consider the tradition of buying Commissions, it makes sense that the Armed Forces would require Officers to pay for their kit. Even though the practice of buying Commissions was abolished in 1871, the practice of outfitting one' self for duty still carried on, as having a higher education was a requirement for consideration as an officer. If you had a higher education, your family probably had means.
The whole buying and selling of commissions was common throughout European armies, except for Prussia, but the British took it to extremes as the well off would enlist infants as privates. When the boy was 15, he showed up to his "regiment" as a Second Lieutenant.
Also in Germany ( where there had been on paper four Armies and Navy), the officers had to pay for their eqipment. This caused that a ,freshbaked' Lieutenant of a middleclass family could only afford standard equipment, while a senior officer of upperclass class bought for example a sword with engaged blueed Blade wit old inlays, silverwires at handle and guard of goldened silver. Some officers equipment was bought by prussian, bavarian, saxon and württembergian Gouvernements ( the troops of small states had been Integrsted into prussian Army, - difficult to explain), but the few items of officers items, mostly swords, bought by Gouvernement had been used by some high sergeants, when they Had to fullfile the role as , Offiziersstellvertreter ', this means, some sergeants had in some context officers power.
@@brittakriep2938 There were German ranks like Feldwebel Leutnant and Offizierstellvertreter that were intermediate between NCO and officer but were not officer ranks even though they often exercised junior officer functions.
@@stevekaczynski3793 : Yes, so they had been , Mannschaften ', but for the time douing officers work, they got Gouvernement payed officers swords , socalled Kammerstücke. But as collector you must be carefull, often the stamps are falsified.
Great video! Wow! a best quality Sam Browne belt cost £381 in 2024 prices, a Glengarry Cap £67 , a service jacket in barathea £681 and that's only a fraction of the kit needed - no wonder officers promoted through the ranks with little capital were bamboozled at the price of it all!
Happy I can find that stuff cheaper nowadays. Never knew how expensive it was back then
Eventually, during the war, a grant of £50, perhaps about £1000 in today's money, was made to officers to enable them to buy the equipment, otherwise it would have been beyond the means of many of the "temporary gentlemen" in particular.
This is exactly the type of video I was looking for, thank you for the upload
I remember reading about how an "experienced" officer took a new officer out into the trenches and no man's land to get him oriented.
They would pass remains of dead soldiers.
The senior officer were tell the new on what year they had died due to their uniform.
If they could freely go out into no man's land without being sniped, they would have been able to evacuate and bury the remains of dead soldiers. If they could not freely go out into no man's land, then the officers were taking a needless risk. It might have happened but it seems unlikely to me. People who went into no man's land generally did so at night and were unlikely to notice details of the dead, other than perhaps the smell of rotting corpses.
Very nice video, passing along to my friend putting together a Canadian officers kit
They weren't called "Gieves the thieves" for nothing!
I am old enough to still think in pounds, shillings and pence (even farthings). I am amazed how expensive this kit was. Sadly, so much money to look the part never stopped a fatal bullet in their first attack. A generation betrayed by the Versailles Treaty so their children had to go to War again. Good research, good video.
In Stirling Castle in Scotland, I once saw on exhibit a pocket Bible or New Testament that a soldier of WW1 had worn in a breast pocket. There was a bullet hole right through it, presumably killing him. The British .303 Lee-Enfield bullet could punch 17 inches into sandbags at 40 yards, and the German bullets would have been as powerful. Of course a Bible wouldn't stop that kind of projectile...
Excellent video
keep up the good work
By 1916, junior officers usually wore a standard enlisted man's uniform. The officer's uniform made them a conspicuous target.
Exactly what i needed for my reenactment
Great video! :D But where is part 2?
Very interesting movie
Super video- can you give an indication of the costs for the entire ‘outfit’ in today’s prices- I’m fascinated at the costs- and sadly much investment just ended up rotting in a field in Flanders
Excellent video. I have a couple of questions: At what rank would an officer on active service employ a batman? What might a batman be expected to carry for his officer (if anything)?
[Edit] _Moved… I accidentally posted this in a reply._
4:41 - Wasn't Leitz a German company? Certainly Germany led the way in optical equipment, especially another firm, Zeiss.
The Subaltern delivers as always!
Sounds really expensive. What was the reason for the officer having to provide everything?
Very simply, officers were gentlemen, ergo you could afford to out fit yourself unlike the working class other ranks. Famously, actor David Niven in 1930, was awarded a £14.00 officers uniform grant from the War Office; his uniform tailors bill though was £55.00. That for the Highland Light Infantry which was for highland service dress, mess kit and service shirts only; everything was bespoke.
@@mikewinston8709 After graduation from Sandhurst, Niven had to fill in a form detailing which infantry regiment he wished to go to. He wrote "any one other than the Highland Light Infantry". To which he was assigned...
So, was ANY kit supplied by the army?
Even as a U.S. Marine officer I had to take a bank loan to pay for all my uniforms.
I was happy that I was prior enlisted when I got my commission, so it was mostly just a change in insignia. Even still my Officer ASUs was around $500 for everything but the shoes.
Great, but as junior officers were decimated in the trenches and other ranks were promoted, I'd guess there was a thriving second hand market? My ancestor was a coke man before the war and promoted eventually to captain, but even with the extra pay he'd never have afforded that as a subaltern in Jan 1915. Any evidence of that in newspaper small ads?
I think they got £50 if they were promoted from the ranks etc because, no, nobody could afford that!
@@rjwalker1726 During the war there was a grant of that amount introduced to help officers buy equipment. Some front-line officers in WW1 took to wearing issue uniforms like their men, with the addition of officer rank badges (often switched to the shoulder straps as in the Guards and the later British Army, rather than the sleeves as these were seen as too conspicuous). This was done mainly to cut down on casualties from German snipers, who found British officers in the traditional uniforms all too easy to recognise. It should be noted that the officers who retained traditional uniform often considered such practices cowardly.
A different war, but the spare uniforms of RAF Bomber Command aircrew killed or MIA following raids were sometimes put up for sale on the base, though other aircrew tended to think it was potentially bad luck to possess an item from a dead man.
Anyone who knows a good quality source for Greenslee riding boots, the ones with three buckles?
Now I am curious about the situation was in the other armies.
Austro-Hungarian officers were expected to buy their own kit. Quite a few went to war with swords, shiny scabbards and brightly coloured sashes in 1914, and were killed in droves. Company commanders and higher were expected to maintain a horse, which added to expense.
dear teacher, may i have those materials which u presented in the video? For thesis purpose pls.
'Britches' is the pronunciation - 'breeches' is the spelling.
Breeches pronunciation comes from formal British English spelling.
We Americans have turned countless words into a different spelling and pronunciation over the centuries.
Britches is a bastardized spelling of breeches. Have a 'bloody nice day.'