Berets - What colours?

[mietek]

I have three berets, they are almost black, so I’m not sure what colour they are and who used them.
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One it is “Royal Pay Corps”, it is something between very dark grey and black:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mietekk2000/detail?.dir=7a98re2&.dnm=818are2.jpg&.src=ph What colour it is- black? Grey?
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Two other are very dark green, almost black, however on the picture look more greenish that they are in fact:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mietekk2000/detail?.dir=7a98re2&.dnm=586cre2.jpg&.src=ph
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mietekk2000/detail?.dir=7a98re2&.dnm=fa67re2.jpg&.src=ph
Again, are they dark green, or black but they changed colours, or it is result of manufacturing process?
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Regards
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mietek

[byterock]

Navy Blue and Dark green were thier orginal colours but they are quite faded.

Must have been worn for a while.

[Felix J]

Hi,

The first is actually for a Colonel or Brigadier in the British army and not the pay corps. A nice looking early QC (post 1952) beret as well.

The other two are "rifle green" berets as worn by light infantry (Royal Green Jackets and Light Infantry. (edit) oops forgot Gurkha Rifles and I think Small Arms School)... or now as the light infantry regiments have been amalgamated (Royal Green Jackets, Light Infantry, Devon and Dorset L.I., and RGBW L.I.) "the rifles" and both look to be current or very recent styles.

All the best

Felix

[mietek]

Thank you very much.
I still need to learn a lot about berets

Do you know any internet sources about berets? I have problems to identify them, as differnces between colours are often not clear for me.

[Tony Farrell]

I'm not aware of an on-line source of beret colours, but the following may be of use:

Dark Blue - Certain corps, cavalry, infantry regiments and RN/RM
Blue-Grey - QARANC (similar to RAF)
Khaki - Guards and certain infantry regiments
Dark Green - Rifle regiments & SASC
Cypress Green - Int Corps
Light Green - AGC
Mid Green - Commando
Maroon - Airborne
Sand - SAS
Lovat - SRR
Red - RMP
Powder Blue - AAC
Black - RTR
Brown - Certain cavalry & Yeomanry regiments
Grey - Certain cavalry & Yeomanry regiments

And... erm... yellow - 49 Para

[Marc Sherriff]

The QARANC beret is dark grey, nothing like the RAF one.

[Tony Farrell]

Well, it looks not dissimilar to the one I used to wear - but it was faded somewhat and the RAF berets were more greyer then than they are now.

[Shotline]

Actually the green one w/out liner looks more like a Boy Scouts Beret than a military one.

[mietek]

Thank you for clarification with the colours.

However looks that I'll struggle to find differences between all grey/black and green beret shades. Too many shades, with too small differences between them.