British Naval Reefer Jacket with Parachute Wings - Help Wanted

[lanners55]

Gentlemen. I acquired this British Naval Reefer Jacket today. The jacket is named and dated 1941. And as you can see it has a pair of Parachute wings on the sleeve along with the letters SC.

Can anyone tell me anything it?

Best regards,

Simon

[RMR]

I think those rank trims are Merchant Navy.Roger

[Naaficook]

It's a Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) tunic.

[byterock]

'SC'

Is that for Sea Cadet?

[lanners55]

Gentlemen, many thanks for your input so far. Since starting the thread I’ve had a little more luck with my search.

It seems the Royal Navy trained telegraphists to drop with the Airborne Division (one account says the day before D Day) and to operate in the area of Sword Beach to provide fire control for the naval bombardment on D Day.

They wore standard British Army BD with Naval insignia and the Parachute qualification wing on the shoulder. However, on the reefer jacket it was worn on the lower right sleeve, as with this example and breaking RN tradition which normally saw such badges on the lower left sleeve.

I gather the unit was known as the Combined Operations Bombardment Unit with the RN contingent providing the Naval Gunfire Support section. I believe the number on Naval personnel involved was small.

The meaning of SC still escapes me but it is perhaps possible the S stands for Signals.

This is the first I've heard of this unit and I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows more about them.

Best regards,

Simon

[JamesT]

Hi

That is a really interesting and probably rare jacket. For interest the Royal Navy Reserve were nicknamed the "Wavy Navy" A comment on the sleeve insignia

Nice one

James

[uscob]

'SC'

Is that for Sea Cadet?

Maybe like in the RM's - Swimmer Canoeist?

[grandads-kitbag]

` SIGNALS COMPANY ` Almost certainly R.N forward observation unit teams of four men were attatched to the Airborne battalions for the Normandy landings .

Please see the book BEACH HEAD ASSAULT by Davied Lee for a brief history and several stunning period photos of a forward observation gunfire support team ( the pictures have been used on here before so have a trawl around )

One of the pictures shows a guy in ARMY battle dress with ROYAL NAVY titles wearing a GREEN COMMANDO beret with a PARACHUTE REGT capbadge .................


This `stuff` has been hidden away or disregarded as junk for many years and one of the reasons I collect it is the near complete lack of good first hand infomation its a hard subject to research but bloody rewarding when you get a result .

Sorry about the poor pics ,

[grandads-kitbag]

The bitish Royal NAVY signals set up was far in advanced than any other branch of the british armed services - to them , signals was a day to day hour to hour function between ships - fast clear and direct radio traffic was normal routine in the R.N where as the army only really tested themselves on exercise and the RAF didnt get up to speed well in to WW2.

Many of the Royal navy ` SPECIAL FORCES ` officers were from the Reserve .......like all professional full time services the high command were loathed to give up well trained ` proper` officers to some

" John come lately rag tag an bob tail outfit "
( as quoted to me by LT Commander G. Hall R.N no. 7 Combined Ops Pilotage Party )

[grandads-kitbag]

Royal Navy uniform as worn by .C.M.X501820 P.Officer .
Richard Fredrick Hamer Royal Navy Combined Operations .

[48RMC]

very interested thread

[lanners55]

Gentlemen, once again thank you for all your interest and comments.
I think this has been a thread in the true spirit of the forum. From it I’ve learnt a lot about something of which I knew nothing.
Thank you also to those who have PM’d me with information and to Michael for all the images he kindly posted. I will most definitely get hold of a copy of “Beach Head Assault”.

Best regards,

Simon

[Seaforth72]

The Combined Operations magazine "The Bulldozer" January 1944 Vol. II (i.e. Vol. 2) No. 8 has an article called "The Big Drop" - three pages and 4 photos of Royal Navy types doing parachute training at Ringway in England. One photo shows sailors in battledress and wearing a sleeveless parachute jacket under the X-chute harness. They are wearing the Sorbo rubber training helmet.

On the nearest man's upper right arm are:
* ROYAL NAVY arced title with white (?) letters
* Combined Operations patch, trimmed to a circle in Army fashion (Navy usually wore theirs in original tombstone shape). Appears to be red on black or navy blue.
* Two colour bar which appears to be white/blue signals strip
* Round patch same colours as Combined Ops patch , indistinct.

I looked in the Combined Operations Pamphlet No. 1 (1945 edition) and Royal Navy Combined Ops units are listed in Appendix A. None had the two letters seen on the uniform jacket in question.

A friend of mine, the late Cliff Douglas, was a Private in 1 Canadian Parachute Battalion and jumped on D-Day and was in the Battle of the Bulge. After WWII he joined the Royal Canadian Navy. His naval jacket had his parachute wings on the cuff in naval fashion. I think he wore his on the left cuff.