Berets: When and Why?

[hoganshero]

This is kind of a corollary to an earlier post in another thread. I was wondering if anyone(I‘m looking at you Mr Dorosh)knew when and why we adopted the beret? A google search did nothing for me and Granatstein‘s History of the Canadian Army had nothing to say about it.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

1943

Because the field service cap sucked.

Armoured troops adopted the black beret after WW I; I believe someone posted that the Windsor Regiment (Tank) was the first Canadian unit so attired. Paratroops adopted the maroon beret. The rest of the Army went to a khaki beret beginning in 1943; after WW II, the various corps began to wear different colours - scarlet for infantry, midnight blue for artillery and engineers, etc. In the late 60s/early 70s, and Unification, the CF changed to rifle green berets (previously the colour of Commando units in the British Army), with armoured and paratroop units retaining their distinctive headgear from before. MPs adopted a red beret at some point also, I presume after Unification.

This has been discussed frequently and a search of the forums will yield many good discusssions.

 

[holdfast]

It is my understanding that the wearing of the beret as a headdress came from an old, tradition of the British Empire. Normally the tradition was to adopt the headdress of a defeated enemy, hence all the different headdress of the UK forces. But after WW1 and where so many countries fought together a decision was made to adopt the headdress of one of it's allies, and the beret was chosen. With the UK's adoption of the beret Canada soon followed.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by holdfast:
[qb] It is my understanding that the wearing of the beret as a headdress came from an old, tradition of the British Empire. Normally the tradition was to adopt the headdress of a defeated enemy, hence all the different headdress of the UK forces. But after WW1 and where so many countries fought together a decision was made to adopt the headdress of one of it's allies, and the beret was chosen. With the UK's adoption of the beret Canada soon followed. [/qb]

Britain didn‘t adopt the beret, with the exception of the maroon airborne beret, the green commando beret, and the black RAC beret (which dates back to WW I) - possibly also the sand coloured SAS beret. The standard rank and file of the British Army adopted the "Bonnet, General Service" which was not a beret at all. The Canadians, however, did adopt a basque patterned beret in 1943, as stated above.

 

[hoganshero]

so essentially the story that the french awarded the allied armies the "right " to wear the beret after WWI or II is complete BS?

what is a basque patterned beret? How does it differ form today‘s beret? On that note does today‘s beret have a style or title?