Willyslancs Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Just wondered ........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gritineye Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 It is in my house.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snort Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 What..........even the women? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Bear in mind there were five 'German armies', one from each of the main states that formed Germany. I do belive face hair was compulsory in some units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
private mw Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 jack was thinking about making it compulsory to have long hair to join the forum i talked him out of it with chocolate hob nobs ! :n00b: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Make allownaces! Remember his Trauma a while back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Child Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 jack was thinking about making it compulsory to have long hair to join the forum i talked him out of it with chocolate hob nobs ! :n00b: Shall we make Chocolate Hob-nobs compulsory instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willyslancs Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 jack was thinking about making it compulsory to have long hair to join the forum i talked him out of it with chocolate hob nobs ! :n00b:are you sure you did? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exocet R.I.P. Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 In 1915 my Grandad was serving in India with The Dorsetshire Regiment.They were all ordered to grow moustaches in order to make them look older and fiercer.It certainly made them look hairier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff66 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 think jack needs a pony tail they look really cool!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 think jack needs a pony tail they look really cool!! They do on a girl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 They do on a girl. Even better on a pony. ( I agree really, I like to see a pony tail on a girl) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 According to a QI from Series H, facial hair was also compulsory in the British Army before the First World War (cue Stephen Fry whipping out hid General Melchett moustache). Whilst not compulsory, in the 1970s - 80s a porno tache was de rigeur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Can't wait to see Jack at the next full moon. :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 According to a QI from Series H, facial hair was also compulsory in the British Army before the First World War (cue Stephen Fry whipping out hid General Melchett moustache). Whilst not compulsory, in the 1970s - 80s a porno tache was de rigeur. You see a lot of the Falkland soldiers wearing a moustache - which was the fashion in the 80's but I thought you had to shave for an air tight seal in case of a gas attack? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 There was a TV report from one conflict of a TV reporter being shaved for just that reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornishbloke Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Kate Aidee? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mash Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 You see a lot of the Falkland soldiers wearing a moustache - which was the fashion in the 80's but I thought you had to shave for an air tight seal in case of a gas attack? I believe it is ok for a tash but not for a beard, however certain religions and some of our Commonwealth soldiers are allowed to maintain beards and I believe that there is a special gel that forms the seal, I have never seen it but it has been told to me that it does exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 I believe it is ok for a tash but not for a beard, however certain religions and some of our Commonwealth soldiers are allowed to maintain beards and I believe that there is a special gel that forms the seal, I have never seen it but it has been told to me that it does exist. I thought it was only a Pioneer Sergeant who was allowed a beard in the British Army........ a long tradition thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 You see a lot of the Falkland soldiers wearing a moustache - which was the fashion in the 80's but I thought you had to shave for an air tight seal in case of a gas attack? You are correct in that we needed to shave to maintain the NBC seal. The powers that be insisted that you shaved every 24 hours and then used the NBC seal issue as a method to enforce it (notwithstanding basic military discipline). However a friend was an NBC instructor and he and the NBC community had tested the NBC seal around the facial hair to be generally uncompromised after 72 hours. "They" didn't shout that too loudly. The porno tache simply came about because the rules implied (they didn't iirc state in the same way as that other popular misconception that sideburns do not extend below the middle of the ear) that the moustache do not extend below the top lip. So squaddie would shave to the corners of the mouth, then as the tache grew longer and the length extended below the top lip even though he shaved to the corner, he'd try to get away with whatever he could, as with sideburns, see above. It was called playing the game. Until he was warned for guard or other duty which would entail a more-formal-than-daily-first-parade inspection and he didn't want to risk the wrath of the inspecting officer. However the S6 (and subsequently the S10) respirator could entirely cope with the porno tache. The only inflexible rule was that it must be a full moustache across the whole width of the top lip: no Hitler moustaches. The Hitler moustache. In fact the Hitler moustache was a product of the Great War and the use of chemical weapons. Nobody knew or wanted to find out how effective a contemporary respirator would be over a full moustache, so both sides chose to enforce the moustache we associate with Hitler. Hitler particularly, along with many members of the Kaiser's unbeaten field army, wore the moustache as a badge of honour through the days of the Versailles Treaty. Off on a slight tangent. A colleague got picked up on Guard Mounting Parade for long sideburns and collected extra duties as a punishment: more guards, day on, day off. He shaved his sideburns, quite avant guard in the late 70s although the avant-garde Mohican he adopted so that there could be no argument was gaining popularity. So the inspecting officer could not pull him for sideburns, but he could because his hair was touching his collar at the back. (As per the old cry: "Am I hurting you soldier? I should be: I am standing on your hair.") So he got another handful of extras. So he shaved his head. The RSM, the sadly demised and greatly-missed legend that was JC, saw this shaven head, which went beyond the realm of contemporary avant-garde and confined him to camp until his hair grew to a suitable length. So it isn't about the rules, but about the hierarchy's interpretation of the rules, as I intimated above. There is a thread currently running on Arrse about foot drill, raising the thigh parallel with the ground and stamping the foot. It isn't in the regulations, but some time about 50 years ago it appeared, spread like a virus and it has been approved and into common usage by the hierarchy even though it isn't in the rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 Great post Alien - thanks :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 Thats that then Jack, Get yore 'air cut!:saluting: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Grundy Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 Alian FTM......."the Kaisers 'unbeaten' field army" are you sure about that ? 8 August to 11 November 1918, pray tell me of a German victory during the 100 days. Yes I know there is no such thing as a victory in war but I am sure you get my drift on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Alian FTM......."the Kaisers 'unbeaten' field army" are you sure about that ?8 August to 11 November 1918, pray tell me of a German victory during the 100 days. Yes I know there is no such thing as a victory in war but I am sure you get my drift on this. I used the phrase without checking: maybe I was wrong. Been away to Google and found nothing. Back again ... off to Google again. Here is a quote to support my words: Williamson Murray and Allan R Millett. "A War to be Won - Fighting the Second World War" ... military events in early December 1941 ... Hitler's calculation also rested on the Nazis' explanation for Germany's defeat in 1918: the German army had supposedly stood unbeaten and unbroken on the battlefield but had been betrayed by the Jews and the Communists. The arrival of two million American troops and America's economic support for the Allies in 1918 had not figured in the German explanation of their defeat A commonly-held view of the German private soldier at the end of the war was that they had not been beaten in the field. note the word 'unbeaten' was in quotes in my original post. Their words, not mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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