Shirt’ although (privately purchased) hiking
shirts and ‘Norgie’ Norwegian army shirts
were also popular at the time.
Our soldier’s headdress marks him out as a
member of a light infantry or rifles unit as he
wears the Rifle Green beret (with the fictional
Royal Union Rifles cap badge). Such berets
are typical of the post-WWII British Army.
Other headwear suitable for soldiering (and
also for skirmishing) includes the DPM ‘crap
hat’ patrol cap, green or black wool caps and
the aforementioned MKV steel helmet. The
helmet was a final version of the MKIII ‘turtle’
helmet worn by D-Day assault troops – but by
the 1980s it had evolved to include a far more
comfortable liner. Typically (as on last month’s
front cover) the helmet would be covered
with a sand bag (to reduce shine) and then a
camouflage net, liberally topped with strips
of material to break up the distinctive head
and shoulders shape.
The boots and puttees are also of
WWII design. The Direct Molded Sole
(or DMS) boot was still very poor by
1980s standards, despite having a
rubber sole instead of the previous
hobnailed leather. The DMS boot
didn’t allow water to drain from it
– the result was that many soldiers
received incapacitating foot injuries.
There was even instances of trench foot
in the Falklands – the problem was so dire
that many men bought their own boots.
The puttees are designed to prevent debris
entering the boot tops and provide ankle
support, but this antiquated WWI idea was
entirely unsuited to modern warfare as it
took far too long to put them on properly!
Carrying our model’s skirmishing kit
is the 1958 pattern webbing. This is a
fairly solid and workable design, although it
KIT LIST
Hat: Rifle Green beret, around £5 (most
surplus stores)
Jacket: SAS windproof smock, around
£30-£100 (regular 68 pattern smocks are
around £10 at most surplus stores)
Trousers: 68 pattern DPM trousers, £7
(Jay Jays Surplus, Sheffield)
Shirt: Olive green GS shirt, £3 (Anchor
Surplus, Nottingham)
Webbing: 58 pattern webbing, £30
(various sources but mostly Sabre Sales,
Portsmouth and Anchor Surplus, Notts)
Boots: DMS ammo boots, around £10-£20
(most surplus stores)
Rifle: STAR L1A1 SLR, around £350
082
Xmas 2011
became heavy and pouches shrunk when
wet. Made of heavy duty woven canvas, the
basic set carried all a soldier’s food, water
and ammo for 24 hours. Attached to this
set are a respirator bag (great for keeping
pistol gas or using as a dump pouch) and the
rare 58 pattern pistol holster – few soldiers
carried this on their webbing for real, but for
airsofting it is a sensible and fitting addition.
Lastly, we come to the classic SLR rifle. The
SLR was a powerful variant of the FN FAL
rifle, used by nearly every other NATO army
as the standard western small arm. Capable
of shooting at great ranges, the British
Army had its rifles modified to fire on semiautomatic only, putting greater emphasis on
marksmanship and fire discipline than on wild
automatic fire – a sound decision given the
FN FAL near-uncontrollability when firing the
’s
hefty 7
.62mm round on full-auto!
For the airsoft BAOR Infantry of the
80s look the SLR is the best bet, but
unfortunately airsoft versions are becoming
harder to find at sensible prices. Other small
arms of the BAOR available as airsoft
replicas include the Browning 9mm
pistol, the GPMG machine gun
and the L4 LMG(a modified
WWII Bren). At the present
moment the classic Sterling
SMG used by the British
Army is unavailable as an
airsoft model, but you’ll
find that many players use
the excellent and easy to
source WWII Sten as a
subst itute.
Next month: The
East German Nationale
Volksarmee – the last
Prussian Army. ■