question Light weight trousers?

[airportable]

Hi folks, a couple of weeks ago I picked up 3 pair of 'lightweights'

Two pair have this cross over waist belt straps, and button up fly. No inside label. Pic. colour not come out too well, but both pairs are quite faded olive green.

Any one got any clues on the pattern or age?

Thanks for any info.

Andy.

[Tony B]

They look more like the old 1960'/70's Navy number 8 trousers. Don't fancy selling a pair do yu?

[airportable]

They look more like the old 1960'/70's Navy number 8 trousers. Don't fancy selling a pair do yu?

Hi Tony, Not sure yet. I just need a couple of pairs to be 'right' for my early 80's display. Not even tryed these two pair yet for fit. I'm constantly reminded that I am a skinny b'td and most of the surving kit fits me. Sad news is the stall selling them at the Mid Shrop. show had loads of 68 and early ptn. kit, I did not get His buis. card. I was walking around crying as kids were playing in the stuff. Wish I had taken more cash to buy up early DPM's. Will give you the chance if I decide to part with pair.

Thanks for info.

Andy.

[Tony B]

So much kit! So little cash! I know the feeling, thanks mate.

[handler 69]

I have a pair exactly the same, but mine are Australian Army and date from the mid 60's.

Cheers

Troy

[REME 245]

They are certainly not Light weight trousers and almost look jungle issue.

 

If you have got your terminology correct Light Weight Trousers are still in use by certain units and Cadet Forces so souring a pair even new should not be a problem.

[ferretfixer]

These are Trousers, OG. (Olive Green) They are green cotten & a superb pair of 'Strides' to wear! They are FAR superior to the later Trousers, Lightweight.

Reason being, they are cotten NOT nylon & dry faster when wet in the Field.

They are cut wider in the leg & you can remove your trousers to change them OVER your Boot's DMS & Putteees without having to remove your footwear.(A BIG plus when on Excersise!) You CANNOT do this with lightweight trousers.

They always were highly sought after even after the lightweights were introduced into Service.

They wear & last longer, & are far better made than the nylon lightweights.

I was R.E.M.E attached to the Para's over 1980-1982 & green lightweights & a Para smock was the standard uniform (Even in the field, although we also got matching DPM Trousers) I can tell you, We used to Kill for these OG trousers for the facts mentioned above!

Not only that, If we were Honnest, it made you look like an 'Old Sweat' too, as if you had some. People assumed you had gotten them issued before the introduction of lighweights!

Mike.

[Bodge Deep]

Looks like the same pattern as the khaki drill pants...

I've got a load of them (the khaki ones, that is)

[ferretfixer]

Looks like the same pattern as the khaki drill pants...

I've got a load of them (the khaki ones, that is)

 

Yep, they are exactly the same pattern! just different colouyred material, obviously! :-)

[AlienFTM]

These are Trousers, OG. (Olive Green) They are green cotten & a superb pair of 'Strides' to wear! They are FAR superior to the later Trousers, Lightweight.

Reason being, they are cotten NOT nylon & dry faster when wet in the Field.

They are cut wider in the leg & you can remove your trousers to change them OVER your Boot's DMS & Putteees without having to remove your footwear.(A BIG plus when on Excersise!) You CANNOT do this with lightweight trousers.

They always were highly sought after even after the lightweights were introduced into Service.

They wear & last longer, & are far better made than the nylon lightweights.

I was R.E.M.E attached to the Para's over 1980-1982 & green lightweights & a Para smock was the standard uniform (Even in the field, although we also got matching DPM Trousers) I can tell you, We used to Kill for these OG trousers for the facts mentioned above!

Not only that, If we were Honnest, it made you look like an 'Old Sweat' too, as if you had some. People assumed you had gotten them issued before the introduction of lighweights!

Mike.

 

Ferretfixer has nailed it. B Sqn 15/19H became UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron in September 1976 and we were issued about five pairs of Trs, OG so that, along with the two pairs of lightweights on our 1157, we could wear clean trousers every day and have the rest in the dhobi. We likewise got 5 OG shirts.

 

I remember we were able to hang onto the shirts at end of tour and wore them to destruction out of camp (because they were not official in-camp dress) ie on exercise but I honestly cannot remember hanging on to the trousers. Maybe Bazz can remember.

 

Being cavalry, style, flair and elan were equally important as function, and well-tailored Lightweights were preferred to baggy OGs. ISTR OGs had a map pocket on each leg which was useful, unlike Lightweights, with one on the left leg only. Or a meringue?

[airportable]

Hi, thanks for all the fantastic info. Will iron a pair for a event this weekend.

Andy.

P.S. may be a bit hot with the 'hairy Mary' shirt as well.

Andy.

[AlienFTM]

Hi, thanks for all the fantastic info. Will iron a pair for a event this weekend.

Andy.

P.S. may be a bit hot with the 'hairy Mary' shirt as well.

Andy.

 

If you are going to iron them, buy a tin of spray-on starch and starch them on the outside only. You can end up with razor-sharp creases that stay in and after a few applications the outside fades to white under the starch while the inside leg stays green.

 

This (what we used to term "warry", nowadays the in word is "ally") look was much loved by many. Personally, as the only JNCO in the HQ platoon of 12 Armd Wksp (RAPC attached) who was capable of taking morning parade without it turning into a circus, I used to grip any shiny-arrsed clerks who tried to pull the stunt, because to achieve the look, you evidently hadn't ironed the inside leg properly and why did shiny-arrsed clerks think they needed to look warry anyway? They were shiny-arrsed clerks FFS. Believe it or not I once got gripped by the OC for being too smart and making his REME look scruffy.

 

If you have a sewing machine, having got perfectly straight creases in, sew a line from pockets to hems as close to your creases as you can, then the creases are there permanently. Just don't sew up your pockets. Advantages:

 

1. It takes out a small amount of bagginess (not much);

2. You can iron your trousers flat, ie with the seams at the edges because the sewn-in crease will always stand out, so you don't have to struggle to live up your creases before ironing.

 

In the real world there was a risk that the RSM might not approve, but in your world it will be spot on.

[Diesel demon]

What you have there are what was known 'just before my time' as OG's...Olive greens

Issued for daily work before the introduction of lightweights and barrack dress trousers

[AlienFTM]

What you have there are what was known 'just before my time' as OG's...Olive greens

Issued for daily work before the introduction of lightweights and barrack dress trousers

 

Since you mention Barrack Dress, I can legitimately claim to be the last RAC recruit not to be issued Barrack Dress trousers at initial kit issue.

 

I had previously done three months' RMP training before telling them where to stick their truncheons and purchasing Discharge As A Statutory Right. Then I re-enlisted into the RAC (RMP refused to let me simply transfer to a "lesser" [their word] corps). So I was fully au fait with Basic Training, Kit and Bedding issue, etc, and when, on arrival at Catterick, the last four of us to join our intake fronted up at the QM's Clothing Store for initial kit issue, I let the other three go through and excitedly collect up all their green kit.

 

Three weeks later, looking out of a window in the accommodation block, walking (they were still in the process of learning to march - unlike us old sweats ;o) up the hill was the next intake, all dressed in woolly pullies and what looked to me like 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards Number 2 dress trousers. It happened that the Skins were RAC Training Regiment, our hosts, and all the permanent staff wore dark green trousers with their No 2 Dress.

 

I must also have been one of the last people to be retrospectively issued Barrack Dress trousers in the RAC, because I went off to join 15/19H in Omagh where there was no demand, then four months in Tidworth, intensively converting from Chieftain to CVR(T), then six months with UNFICYP. Some time after return to Tidworth, there was a formal parade in which the dress was to include Barrack Dress trousers. I borrowed a pair. Next such parade, I decided I'd better get my backside down to the Clothing Store and sign for some of my own.

 

I figured they didn't need ironing cos they were pretty much perfectly creased, apart from where the legs had been folded. Eskimo Ness (the SQMS) suggested a method to hang my trousers whereby there would be no crease on the outside of one leg. This involved folding one leg over the hanger with the inside down and the hem just reaching the crotch, then the other leg over the the hanger over the outside, so that both legs are folded over the inside.

 

If you try this, it will appear completely unstable after you have got the first leg over because the weight will tend to pull them right back off. Once the second leg is over, the friction of each leg will pull against the other and they'll stay put. For suit and DJ I still hang my trousers this way to this day.

[airportable]

Thanks again for the info, will try. Need to start a thread on how to iron my'airy Mary shirt'!

Picked up another pair simlar trousers weekend, but two leg pockets, dated 79'. Will post pic.

Andy.