British Greatcoat with shoulder cape

[gorgarrak]

How often did British military formations wear these items upon the field of battle, I assume that it was very infrequently due to the almost complete lack art plates and 28mm miniatures available (Foundry is all that I can find)



Could somebody please shed some light on this matter.

Thanks in advance.
Mike

[Invisible officer]

They wore it only in extreme cold conditions. It was not very comfortable to fight in it, restricting the movement. A lot of heavy cloth. You get very hot in it firing and loading fast. So even in heavy rain most units fought without it.
In Spain some very ragged units wore it as stopgap for new uniforms in battle.

Sgt Cooper and others tell us about this very volominous item, it was even used as a kind of sleeping-bag. They put the legs in the sleeves and fastened the coat around. (No, it's not fool's day, true story)


The British Greatcoat included much more cloth than the French one. (That became regulated only post 1812, Article 21 of the Bardin regulations. Before they wore a mix of available stuff) It was one of the few British items that was better than the French stuff. (Trotter's pain...)

[Cubster]

Now that reminds me of a Billy Connolly set when he's talking about how, as kids, they were too poor for extra bedding in winter, so they'd put the coats on the bed. He would play the fool to his sister instead of going to sleep, and walk about the room with his legs through the sleeves of the coats.