"Deadly Military Uniform Designs That Ultimately Got" Topic

… Soldiers Killed

"There have been a number of times when fashion outweighed function when it came to military uniforms, sometimes leading to deadly results. The shortfalls that occurred were oftentimes known, but, in some instances, the issues plaguing them were a total mystery. Below, we explore six uniform elements that caused many servicemen to perish while on the battlefield…"

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Armand

Nice article

What utter contextual-less bunkum. And look who penned it.

Well the description of one of the photos in the article misidentifies an Adrian helmet as a Brodie helmet which is the kind of mistake a military historian shouldn't make, so….

Yup, a lot of nonsense here. neck stocks weren't for fashion, they were to protect the neck from saber blows by cavalry.

Research is so much easier when you just make stuff up.

There's a flood tide of this kind of stuff now; turns out one of the unexpected capabilities of the Internet is propagating bulls**t in ever growing volume and velocity.

Complete tat.

Yep. The deadly shiny tall hat. Killed more people than cholera.

Should have stuck to "Victorian, medical, and epidemiological history with a focus on childhood diseases"!

Indeed, a load of wiffling tosh- although I might add, suspect that if a cavalryman had got within sabre range of a foot soldier, a horse hair stock was not going to make much difference to his chances of survival.

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Scarlet/red certainly puts Khaki and Feldgrau into context.

Glup!…

Armand

@dibble
"Scarlet/red certainly puts Khaki and Feldgrau into context."

According to German dyers Bayer and co in 1903, as regards invisibility a tint described as 'the colour of the plumage of a skylark alauda arvensis'*
- was the ideal color in comparison to 'true khaki, feldgrau, or olive drab.

*katigene yellowbrown 7%
katigene blackbrown 6%

@42flanker

They're just saying that for an alauda

Happy New Year Armand. And ignore the moaners Armand, a very interesting post. And we must remember that even Sharpe got rid of the stupid neck stocks. LOL

Happy New Year to you too my good friend…!

Armand

This shallow article reminds me of a fool I once knew that would say things like, "The British were dumb to have an "X"on their uniforms that was a target for American riflemen hiding behind trees and rocks!" and The Germans were dumb to paint their tanks grey because grey does not occur in nature!" When I explained that the "X" were cross belts and were almost universal during the 18th and early 1th centuries and that every year up here in the cold northeast the world is very grey for about half the year it had little impact on that clod. I went so far as to bring references to prove my points but it was like arguing with a donkey.

"Grey doesn't occur in nature"?? Not if you live on my foggy ridge.

rv, are you old enough to remember the comic routine -- Cosby, maybe? -- if battles started with a coin toss? One of them was the red coats and straight lines, another was "Okay, Captain Custer, you and your men have to form a circle here while Captain Sitting Bull and all the Indians in the world ride down on you."

Ironically, they managed to miss the real ones like "wearing riding breeches in the trenches."

42th Cuirassier

I remarked on the Colours Khaki/Feldgrau for the body count that those colours sustained for the 60-odd years they were used as standard.

Oddly enough, earth tones came into vogue at the same time as breach loaders. Maybe the two are related?