[ASR142]

The Beret was first introduced in 1924 for use by the Royal Tank Regiment and made in black which they have since kept, In 1942 the British army introduced 3 more colors to this ever increasing range by the end of the war the total range had crept up to 6 colors being used by the 3 services this does not include the unofficial colors worn by some units during the war for short periods or the SAS examples which will be covered later in the thread the colors where :
MAROON for airborne forces
GREEN for commando forces
BLACK for for Royal Tank corps and RAC units
GREEN / BROWN FOR Officers , mounted infantry units & Reconnaissance corps ( note I have not seen an example earlier than the 43 dated than the one shown )
BLACK for for Royal Tank corps and RAC units
BLUE GRAY RAF personnel only this could be any member in the RAF services replacing the peaked cap .
Dark blue RN personnel and Royal Marines .
The 1st picture shows the main 4 berets the 2nd image shows the colors on top of each other and 3 & 4 shows the RN beret which started to be issued in 1943 on top of a RTR / RAC black beret which shows its color well
NOTES:
1 The colors shown will differ slightly from other examples mainly down to use and how they have been treated during their 70+ years in the wash etc
2 The RN beret is a different shape to the army berets and is sometimes sold as black examples on the internet watch out for them see the RN beret section in this thread for details on these .
I will dig out my RAF war time ones in the near future to replace the 3 pic