1970's Denison Smock

[leigh kitchen]

"Shoot To Kill" - is that the one where matey joins the RUC after Paras & SAS? A bit of a crack up merchant?
If so I've got that somewhere too.

[VPpat]

You guys have been a great help, I thank you. I'll also be looking into the different books you all have suggested. I just finished "The Thin Green Line" and I thought it was pretty good, being a cop in Washington D.C. I found it just amazing what the RUC has gone through. I was lucky enough to tour the Musgrave street station last April, I was very impressed.

pat

[Jack Dutton-Roberts]

"Shoot To Kill" - is that the one where matey joins the RUC after Paras & SAS? A bit of a crack up merchant?
If so I've got that somewhere too.

Great book! The only book I've read cover to cover without putting it down!

[leigh kitchen]

...........Michael ASHER wrote ` shoot to kill` about his time in the paras in the early days of the conflict , his book again covers areas that differ from official sources things such as going on patrol at night and then looting blown up department stores ,or halting the patrol so they could have a beer in one of the `safe` drinking clubs........

Normal stuff at that time matey.

When shops get blown up
As an aside I can remember doing a search of a PIRA club on the Falls and the stewaed, a known PIRA member & active sniper being a close relative of a guy in the battalion who came from the Falls and was left back in Britain for the tour, we finished our searching and then sat and had a couple of pints and a chat while the other teams finished off their work in the rest of the buiding.

I still think Shoot To Kill is not a lot of cop.
Ex Para, SAS, and then cries himself to sleep because hes being bullied by the nasty RUC men. Strange stuff. I suppose that'swhy I don't like it, he's a crack up job.

[McCulloh]

They fake Denisen smocks now? yee Gods-.

I haven't read ""Shoot To kill", but I knew Hackett well. He was and is a straight up guy.

Also, "Pig In The Middle"-3rd edition is well worth having.

[cbuehler]

Yes, there are indeed fake post war pattern denisons all over the place. One common example is dated 1989. There were several slightly different patterns of these smocks and all were used up to the end when they finally replaced them with the improved DPM type in the late 70's and early 80's.
The late denisons fetch what to my mind is an innordinately high price lately.
They are not rare either and even the early issue DPM types that still used the Newey snaps are fetching rather high prices as well. Actually, the early DPM with the Neweys and the pale early DPM colors are much more scarce than the Denisons. The para smocks issued in more recent years have crappy little poppers that dont work, otherwise they are the same other than the color tones. Why the denisons were so popular I cant understand. The pockets did not expand to hold much, they had no waist draw string, they soaked up water and dried slowly and the camo pattern (which was not nearly as good as the DPM in the first place) faded rather quickly from use and washing.

CB

[Marc Sherriff]

It was an "old sweats" thing. I think HRH Prince Charles still wears one.

[jimmytx3]

parachute regiment

if you look at this link you will see the the price para regt paid during their long time in NI.

http://www.palacebarracksmemorialgar...20Regiment.htm

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Marc, Prince Charles was in the news this week on TV wearing his old smock.

I saw a smock today which sold for £80 plus 17.5% commission.

Cheers, Ade.

[Guy]

As colonel in Chief Charles is the only serviceman officially allowed to wear one of these now. Ian Saddler and I were discussing this acouple of years ago and apparently there is actually some reference to this in black and white.

Guy.

[SHEARING-CROSS]

SUPERB LINK Jimmy , thank you for showing this , regards ,Michael.

[leigh kitchen]

Another book to try is Survivors by Alf McCreary - similar to Barzilays books.

The Leon Uris & wife book is, I think "A Terrible Beauty", it's basically a showcase for wifes photos, not a lot of text.

[jimmytx3]

Hi Michael. if you read this have a look at the UDR page, i dont know how them blokes lived there, at least we came home at the end of a tour,
http://www.palacebarracksmemorialgar...20Regiment.htm
regards jimmy

[Tony Farrell]

As colonel in Chief Charles is the only serviceman officially allowed to wear one of these now. Ian Saddler and I were discussing this acouple of years ago and apparently there is actually some reference to this in black and white.

That's because Chas has a discerning eye for everything that's 'ally'. Denisons being quite high up on the allyness chart. There was a bloke in my section who wore one - which was pushing the envelope somewhat, as this was 1986 and he wasn't even a para!

http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Allyness

[Guy]

, Blimey Tony, How did he get away with that!