Red on Navy Parachute wings

[john012]

Where and when and what uniform would these wings be displayed on?
They are advertised as Royal Marines parachute wings.
I am aware of the Gurkas black on red wings

Any info gratefully received


Thanks
John

[sailorbear]

Hi there, I cant give you a definative answer (and not going to guess as there are far to many "armchair experts" who engage in pointless mis-leading guess work on here!) but talking from personal experience this pattern wing is no longer used by the Royal Marines. Today the standard blue and white on khaki wing is worn on NATO woolly pullys, combat jackets and CS95 DPM shirts. Gold bullion on dark green is worn on lovat dress and gold and silver bullion on navy blue for No 1 (Blues) dress.

Before the lovat dress was introduced the Royals wore a blue dress pretty much identicle to thier No 1 dress but with red on blue badges instead of the gold bullion worn today (as did the Royal Navy until the mid nineties) though when this was changedfor the corps I do not know? I have never seen it (in photos) worn with khaki serge battle dress as normally the standard blue and wite wing was worn, though it can be hard to be sure from old black and white photos.

Hopefully this will stimulate some (informed) intelligent discussion and provide you with the answers you want, failing that try posting this on the airborne commando and SF forum on here or contact the Royal Marines Museum at Eastney.

Hope this is helpful

Regards Tony (29 years service with Commando forces and still serving!)

[bewley]

Originally Posted by sailorbear

Hi there, I cant give you a definative answer (and not going to guess as there are far to many "armchair experts" who engage in pointless mis-leading guess work on here!) but talking from personal experience this pattern wing is no longer used by the Royal Marines. Today the standard blue and white on khaki wing is worn on NATO woolly pullys, combat jackets and CS95 DPM shirts. Gold bullion on dark green is worn on lovat dress and gold and silver bullion on navy blue for No 1 (Blues) dress.

Before the lovat dress was introduced the Royals wore a blue dress pretty much identicle to thier No 1 dress but with red on blue badges instead of the gold bullion worn today (as did the Royal Navy until the mid nineties) though when this was changedfor the corps I do not know? I have never seen it (in photos) worn with khaki serge battle dress as normally the standard blue and wite wing was worn, though it can be hard to be sure from old black and white photos.

Hopefully this will stimulate some (informed) intelligent discussion and provide you with the answers you want, failing that try posting this on the airborne commando and SF forum on here or contact the Royal Marines Museum at Eastney.

Hope this is helpful

Regards Tony (29 years service with Commando forces and still serving!)

Tony
do the bootnecks still wear the jersey itchy then?

[john012]

Tony, Thanks for that

John

[john012]

Did the Royal marines ever use a green army colour service (No.2) uniform?
saw one on ebay last week,

John

[sailorbear]

Originally Posted by bewley

Tony
do the bootnecks still wear the jersey itchy then?

Good question? Well firstly I was never a bootneck, though, through a career (thats still ongoing) I have served with the Commando forces (and a bit with the SF Signals and Airborne) in the Army, TA and Royal Navy with a bit of service in the merchant Navy & Royal Fleet Auxiliary tacked on! a good deal of it in the company of Royal!

These days I only ever see booties in the field wearing CS95 so must admit I dont know if the NATO Wooly Pully is still on their scale of issue, (when I do see Royal in a jumper its normally the norweigian army ones they seem to prof on arctic training deployment to norway!) I did see 18 months or so ago Bandy's at the Royal Marines School of Music at the old RNDQs in Pompey Dockyard, wearing the non heavy ribbed type of woolly pully with lovat trousers (and skirts) and stone shirts and believe the nods at Lympstone wear the same dress for drill training but as to whether Royal is still issued the old heavy knlt ribbed wool combat jumper I cant say with any authority but sure there must be someone on here who can?

Regards Tony

[sailorbear]

Originally Posted by john012

Did the Royal marines ever use a green army colour service (No.2) uniform?
saw one on ebay last week,

John

Hi John, Not quite sure what you are asking?, The Royal Marines do wear a service dress equivilant to the army No 2 dress, it is known as Lovats and is a sage green colour (strangely enough called Lovat green!) and of the same colour as the old Womans Royal Army Corps (WRAC) No 2 dress and very similar in colour to te US Marine Corps Walking out dress. It is, in colour a million miles away from the khaki mud brown colour of the army No 2 dess uniform.

It is exclusive to the Royal Marines, though saying that I have seen attached Royal Navy Commando and Army all Arms Commando personnel wearing lovat trousers and stone shirts with woolly pullys but think this is an unofficial policy!

I in all honesty do not know if the Royal Marines ever used a khaki uniform like the army pattern but do not believe so, I pretty sure that the Lovat dress was introduced when they stopped wearing khaki serge battle dress and the old blue uniform with red badges.

If anyone can add further I'd also love to know more, and if anyone can anwer the original question about red on blue wings that started the tread I'd be really interested as I dont know when, where or how they were worn either but would like to find out too!.

Regards Tony.

[mmm45]

"It is exclusive to the Royal Marines, though saying that I have seen attached Royal Navy Commando and Army all Arms Commando personnel wearing lovat trousers and stone shirts with woolly pullys but think this is an unofficial policy! "

The above dress sounds like Half Lovats....I was wearing the same as RMC 18 months ago....I had a JWH (jersey wool heavy) also wore it in winter afghan and especially Norway a few yrs ago.Its can be worn over CS95 shirt in winter months.

Ady

[nomadalpha]

Originally Posted by sailorbear

Hi there, I cant give you a definative answer (and not going to guess as there are far to many "armchair experts" who engage in pointless mis-leading guess work on here!) but talking from personal experience this pattern wing is no longer used by the Royal Marines. Today the standard blue and white on khaki wing is worn on NATO woolly pullys, combat jackets and CS95 DPM shirts. Gold bullion on dark green is worn on lovat dress and gold and silver bullion on navy blue for No 1 (Blues) dress.

Before the lovat dress was introduced the Royals wore a blue dress pretty much identicle to thier No 1 dress but with red on blue badges instead of the gold bullion worn today (as did the Royal Navy until the mid nineties) though when this was changedfor the corps I do not know? I have never seen it (in photos) worn with khaki serge battle dress as normally the standard blue and wite wing was worn, though it can be hard to be sure from old black and white photos.

Hopefully this will stimulate some (informed) intelligent discussion and provide you with the answers you want, failing that try posting this on the airborne commando and SF forum on here or contact the Royal Marines Museum at Eastney.

Hope this is helpful

Regards Tony (29 years service with Commando forces and still serving!)

My first post! - I served in the Royal Marines 1957-66 [41,42,45 Commandos and CTCRM]. We changed to Lovats in 1964, prior to this we also had a No 3 Dress, blues with red badging, the parachute wings described were worn on this uniform. With the change also came the anodised cap badges, and the bronze which was worn on the beret. Hope this helps.

[Sunray9]

Further to 'Nomads' ... the No. 3 Dress trousers had no red piping down it's length and the tunic could be worn with a cloth belt with brass buckle.
There were two versions of the Lovat uniform, the one still seen today and a rougher version known as 'Hairy Lovats' made of some God - awful serge stuff resembling a pussers blanket, thankfully it didn't last long. Ritchie.

[Nozzer]

..............................

[Nozzer]

......................................