Lightweighgt OG trousers.

[Tony B]

When were these introduced to the British Army?

[gazzaw]

I was issued OGs with the double buckles same as desert and KD shorts/Trousers (when in Para Regt) in the early 70s and If I remember correctly were dated late 50s, and were they not used in Suez as I remember early photos with paras wearing them. They were popular in NI as they didn't melt same as the OG lightweights.

 

Gary

[Tony B]

Thanks, I've been studying various photos and they seems in some to be a mix of BD and OG.

[Redcap]

"Trousers, Mans, Lightweight" ()the thin olive trousers with a single thigh pocket on the right, which are again being issued, this time without the thigh pocket, in some regiments) were introduced sometime in the early 1970s; the OG trousers seen before were more than likely the heavier 60 pattern "Trousers, Combat", later inaccurately known as "Denims". As Gazzaw mentioned, lightweights had a habit of melting when exposed to high temperature - like that of a molotov cocktail in the Troubles, hence an early NI instruction requiring the use of combat trousers instead, when out and about over there.

 

http://www.practicalairsoft.co.uk/cwp/uniform-clothing.html

 

Hope that helps

Edited September 4, 2009 by Redcap

[Tony B]

Yes Roger it does very much!! Number one son if after kit for a 1964 SWB FFR. All he has to do now is rebuild it! :-D

[Redcap]

lol np, glad to be of help Getting HOLD of said lightweights ("TML") now, *THERE's* the trick, they're gradually starting to get as rare as 68-Pattern kit! :evil:

[cpltomo]

lol np, glad to be of help Getting HOLD of said lightweights ("TML") now, *THERE's* the trick, they're gradually starting to get as rare as 68-Pattern kit! :evil:

 

 

And here is me with a full set of pre combat 95 kit Includes shirt mans green, Wooly pully and lightwights in fact think i have two sets.

[AlienFTM]

To quote what a very good friend (now Gutersloh Garrison Sergeant Major) told me recently.

 

"I have lightweight trousers older than some of the soldiers in my garrison."

 

Fact is, regardless of what might be decreed, in 15/19H, combat trousers were only ever worn for guard duty in camp. At all other times (including NI tours) we wore lightweights. My friend's recent quote suggests to me that even after the issue of CS95, even now he'd rather wear lightweights than combats.

 

I have seen pictures from tours well into the 80s where they still wore lightweights. I was attached to 42 Royal Marine Commando as part of my NIRRT training in 1976. They too wore lightweights in preference to and disregard of any official diktat.

 

I do remember on our UN tour of 1976 - 77 we were issued OG trousers to supplement our lightweights so that we could wear a clean pair every day even when our kit went into (and came back from) the dhobi twice a week.

 

I transferred out of the cavalry. I quickly learned that even though I was now officially a shiny-arrse, I could expect to be volunteered for a dirty duty at any time, even when I became a Sergeant in the Computer Centre. Stuff dress regulations: I always wore boots and lightweights rather than barrack dress and shoes, just in case I got rubber-dicked for a dirty task. Funnily enough, once I started dressing in lightweights, they stopped volunteering me.

 

Rule number 1: whatever rules the Army makes on dress codes for uniformity, squaddy will do what he pleases to individualise his uniform, both at an individual and at a regimental level.

[Yorkie370]

Wore Lightweights under a nomex flying suit for most of my flying career, (despite the high polyester content), except on ops in the Emerald Toilet where I wore 501s and a nondescript polo shirt in anticipation of the day the Cullyhanna Gun Club got lucky.

 

Spent my last two years in the Army wearing DPM in a Headquarters in the same part of the World, surrounded by Civil Serpents.

 

Flogged any buckshee Lightweights to a contact in the RAF Police, as they were considered 'Gucci'.

[Redcap]

I have seen pictures from tours well into the 80s where they still wore lightweights.

 

Hells bells, mate, I was wearing the damn things as part of "Working Dress" up until 1997 when I left the T.A.!

 

Rule number 1: whatever rules the Army makes on dress codes for uniformity, squaddy will do what he pleases to individualise his uniform, both at an individual and at a regimental level.

 

Ain't that the truth!:rofl: