Clothing

The Belgian army in the United Kingdom were issued with standard British uniforms and clothing. Rather than list every single item of clothing that the Belgian parachutist were issued with, I will instead highlight the more interesting and specialized pieces of clothing.

It would be difficult to talk about uniforms or clothing without first mentioning the humble battledress jacket. They were a standard item of clothing and saw wear in training, on the parade ground and in combat. The Belgians wore British, Canadian and possibly even Belgian made battle dress (after the liberation of Belgium) during the Second World War. British battledress was the most predominantly worn. The battledress jacket below is interesting for a number of reasons. To begin with it is an early pattern British battledress jacket as opposed to the more commonly encountered utility pattern jacket. It is missing a Pegasus formation patch plus SAS wing and sports a set of non standard and possibly Belgian made SAS shoulder titles. In the opinion of the webmaster, this is a genuinely badged jacket but unfortunately the provenance is unknown.

British BD jacket for Belgian SAS corporal, unknown provenance (D.Thomas Collection).

The next battledress jacket is a Canadian made example and was worn by Corporal Cosmo DeClerq who was a volunteer from Ontario, Canada. His battle dress is very noteworthy for the inclusion of 'Canada' shoulder titles. Corporal DeClerq had previously served in the Canadian army before joining the free Belgian army which may explain why he added these to his battledress jacket. Due to their presence, this battledress jacket is unique and is quite possibly the only surviving SAS battledress from the war that sported such a bizarre mix of inisignia. To my knowledge no other volunteer from Canada wore such titles on their battledress.

Canadian BD jacket worn by Corporal Cosmo DeClerq (D.Thomas Collection).

This next battle dress jacket is another Canadian made example and was worn by Corporal Lucien Goessens, a volunteer from Quebec, Canada. It is very unusual in that it has one SAS shoulder title sewn to the bottom of the shoulder strap rather than to the actual shoulder. The other shoulder title is missing as is a parachute qualification wing on the right shoulder. The white lanyard indicates volunteer. It is quite possible that the shoulder title gained its current position post-war but why is a mystery. This is how it was received from the Goessens family.

Canadian BD jacket worn by Corporal Lucien Goessens (D.Thomas Collection).

Trousers, Parachutist were as the name clearly implies specially designed for parachutists. They had a number of features not found on standard battledress trousers such as a larger front leg pocket to carry more equipment, two additional pockets on the rear for first aid dressings and a concealed pocket at the side to carry a dagger. They were issued to the Belgian SAS but not to every single man. It would be fair to say that the majority of men who received them were the ones who took part in the operational jumps of 1944. An original pair are shown in the photograph below along with a British battledress jacket that was worn by Lieutenant D'Oultremont

British BD jacket of Lt. D'Oultremont and an authentic pair of Parachutist trousers (M.Backx Collection).

Probably one of the most recognizable pieces of British airborne clothing is the Denison jump smock. The British military first developed a jump smock from captured German paratrooper jackets in 1941. Some of these early British smocks which were an olive green colour were issued to the Belgian parachutists during their initial training. However they were superceded by the camouflaged Denison smocks which were introduced in 1942. A slightly modified version of the Denison smock was introduced from late 1943 onwards. The Belgian SAS wore both modifications of these camouflaged smocks but especially the earlier version from 1942. The Denison smock shown below is a later modification and was made in 1944. It was worn by Captain Donnelly (Phantom signals officer) in Holland and Germany during 1945.

Denison smock worn by Captain W.M.Donnelly (D.Thomas Collection).

Other items of clothing which were quite commonly worn and used by the Belgian SAS include British snow camouflage smocks and trousers (in the Ardennes), British leather jerkins and parachutist oversmocks. One item of clothing never used by the Belgian SAS was the British windproof camouflage smock (or trousers for that matter). Militaria dealers have been very quick to erroneously describe windproof camouflage as specifically SAS issue clothing but the truth is it was actually designed for drivers and infantrymen. Although wartime photographs certainly show some British and French SAS wearing windproof camouflage it was worn a lot more by the men it was originally intended for.