Q: Brit/Commonwealth Officers in Combat

[Krieger]

When British and commonwealth officers went into combat how much did they look like other ranks?

I'm especially curious about the Italian campaign, although I guess this applies across the board.

Would they remove their rank pips?

Would they wear the typical utility pouches?

What kind of weapon would they carry? A Thompson?

Any help would be much appreciated.

K.

 

[Tony Barton]

I think this is really a tricky one , and depends entirely on the Officer's own choice , and where he was operating .I don't have a definite answer , and I don't think there's likely to be a hard and fast rule ; the " Special Forces " would make up their own rules anyway , but in the Line Infantry the situation is unclear .
We need immediately to distinguish between the Junior Officers , up the Sharp End with the troops , and the Senior Officers , who were just that little bit further back at the Battalion HQ , who were mostly ( but not always ) out of the firing line , and probably wore just a pistol.
I get the impression ( from pics and memoirs ) that the full set of Officer's webbing was rarely worn by anyone : they wore what was most useful at the moment : and since many officers had use of a vehicle , they tended to leave spare items of kit in it until needed : this was probably true of most Captains and above.
The Lieutenants , actually marching with their platoons , would choose their equipment according to their judgement as to whether it would make them conspicuous : some of them ( with very little judgement or experience ) probably stuck out horribly , wearing obvious Officer's webbing items , and carrying pistols , though I expect many would have carried stens or rifles as well if they had any experience .
The most junior officers would probably look more like NCOs or ORs in the field , down to wearing OR's haversacks on their backs at times. I expect pips were always worn : they are very inconspicuous in combat , having been invented during the Great War entirely because the previous cuff ranking was so visible .
The cleverer ones probably wore ORs webbing , at least partially , with other items added as needed : they would certainly need their binoculars , a compass , and possibly a map case , as well as the obvious neccessities like a waterbottle and a haversack to put their rations in .
I think the best place to look is in memoirs , where you can sometimes pick up little details : Peter White , the junior KOSB Officer I've made a figure of , states in his book ( " With the Jocks " ) that he always carried a rifle : so presumably he also carried a pair of universal pouches to carry ammo and grenades ; but he also mentions binoculars and maps and compasses , and he must have had somewhere to put them ....
To answer your ( entirely pertinent ) question , I think it all depends....

And it's odd that no-one ever asks this question about the Germans !


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[Krieger]

Thank-you very much for the well thought-out reply Tony. What you've said confirms what I suspected as regards weapons and webbing but I was entirely unsure about the pips.

I have been reading about the Canadian assault on the Hitler Line in the Liri Valley, and it seems that ranks as high as major were involved in actual combat.

As regards the KD uniform rank pips, I think they were slipped over the shoulder tabs, thus they would have been easy to remove. Anyway, I guess I will play it by ear - much like the real combat troops seemed to do.

K.