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British Military Current Events

Not much PT in the First World War I bet.
A lot of the soldiers that enlisted in WW 1 were farmers, ranchers, laborers etc. No need for PT - farming itself was PT.

Marksmanship training was probably easier - most would have known how to shoot.

There was always a need for PT.


It just didn't look the same back then.

While an emphasis on physical fitness in the military has increased, the old ways of doing things may be better.

And as surprising as it may seem, the RCAF (original flavour) was once a world leader in fitness training.

 
There was always a need for PT.


It just didn't look the same back then.

While an emphasis on physical fitness in the military has increased, the old ways of doing things may be better.

And as surprising as it may seem, the RCAF (original flavour) was once a world leader in fitness training.

I hem and haw about starting 5BX every so often.
 
Join the Army, make paper airplanes, pass the egg ... ;)




 
As a complete aside, did they not have a shirt (jacket?) anywhere near her size? She seems like she’s swimming in it.

Not to mention the breast pockets that can probably hold a ruck’s worth of stuff.
 
As a complete aside, did they not have a shirt (jacket?) anywhere near her size? She seems like she’s swimming in it.

Not to mention the breast pockets that can probably hold a ruck’s worth of stuff.

Dude... do you even PARA smock? ;)

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Parachutist’s Oversmock

December 2, 2018 / Leave a comment
In an earlier article, I wrote about the development of the famous Denison smock, as worn by the British Airborne Forces. However, the Denison was only half of a two-part system. The other component was the parachutist’s oversmock.

During the early days of the Airborne Forces, the uniforms and equipment were experimental. The Royal Air Force naturally had an inventory of parachutes for escaping damaged aircraft, and the first paratroopers had to manually pull a ripcord to deploy their canopy. It was not long before this method was determined unsuitable, and a static-line parachute was developed. The volunteer paratroopers during those early days were certainly brave, as there were a number of injuries and even fatalities; each incident was thoroughly investigated and often resulted in a modification to the equipment or the training program. The X-type static line parachute, also called the “Statichute”, eventually developed an impressive reputation for reliability. However, there was still the occasional mishap, including incidents of the parachute canopy not fully opening and deploying; this dreadful situation was known as the “Roman candle”.

To reduce the number of accidents, it was considered vital to prevent any entanglements between the paratrooper, his equipment, and the parachute. In 1942, the Denison smock and the parachutist’s oversmock were both adopted and entered production; together, these items replaced the earlier “step-in smock”. The Denison was worn over the wool battledress uniform, but under the webbing equipment. The oversmock was then worn over all other uniform and equipment items, separating them from the parachute harness and rigging lines. Both the oversmock and the step-in smock it replaced were also called “jumping jackets”, which can easily cause confusion when reading original source material.


 
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