Unboxing Some Commonwealth Camouflage

Unboxing some generous gifts of Canadian and Australian camoufalge combat clothing.
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[@allanlarrett6015]

I bought one of these at a surplus store when I was a teenager in the 80s in Sudbury ON. It worked and was not adopted by the Canadian Army, I assumed that I would never be issued camouflage in the Canadian Army and I was shocked when I was issued CADPAT.

[@canarbn3com]

The Combat Shirt Canadian DPM was a trials uniform from the mid 90's the pattern ( they also trialed them in 70's as full combats) you have is the later pattern made by Ambridge & Thompson which took over the contract in 1986 .A very rare piece of kit .The RCMP also used the Canadian DPM as well for a number of years for their ERT teams ( SWAT essentially) .They were also issued in Small batches by the Canadian Army Cadets. Just to add to Lib556's history...I had a set of the pants and shirt many years ago in around 1999 i bought at a surplus store in Victoria ,British Columbia they were brand new..and i gave them away....now i kick myself.

[@feralhiker6816]

My brigade has a ton in storage as opfor uniforms

[@SnoopReddogg]

That disproved the diggers theory that you can't give away the redback Australian army boots. And the walkabout fleece was the worst bit of kit I ever had the displeasure of getting issued.

[@filupe01]

That's a nice Aussie selection you have right there!! No surprise though as most of it is newly obsolete and are being currently handed in to Q stores nationally to be shredded - both DPDU and DPCU. Glad someone thought enough to send you these examples to be kept for posterity. The boots are Terras of which there were about 4 chronological versions - now replaced by Redbacks and Danners. The Walkabout jacket was *the* Army cold weather item which replaced the Howard Green knitted jumper and Auscam thermal vest. It was also known as the 'Koala' jacket by some for its similarity to the fur of that animal. Many found it effective but not hard wearing and despite the elbow protection not suitable for heavy field work (like a Mogwai, do not *ever* get it wet!!) These Koala jackets went obsolete quite a few years ago now but still a favourite with Army Cadets. The Para Smock as far as I know, has not been continued in the latest AMCU camo due to the loss much of the airborne capability by re-roling the 3rd Battalion RAR from that role.

[@lib556]

The Canadian shirt was not a trials shirt that I recall. Given your friend sent it from Africa, it is most likely from the Tanzanian army. Circa 1974, Tanzania contracted Peerless Garments of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada to produce a new uniform for them. It was this DPM and sewn n the Canadian pattern. At the same time it was decided that the Canadian Airborne Regt needed a new para smock to act as a unifying garment (in conjunction with their maroon berets) to provide a more solid unit identity. Up to that point, the 51 pattern OD nylon smock was not universally issued to all ranks and was a somewhat haphazard on parade etc. While examining possibilities for a new smock, Peerless told the regt they had miles of this new DPM material for the Tanzania contract and asked if the Airborne was interested in using it? Thus was born the new Canadian AB Regt smock in 1974. Stocks arrived in Edmonton just in time for a Freedom of the City Parade that year. I know you have one of the smocks. Lay it out next to this new shirt and note the colour shades and, in particular, the fading. Now compare it with UK DPM and you'll see the differences. I served on a UN mission in Africa in 2001 and the Tanzanians were still wearing the uniform. They did say they were in transition at that time, however. During the late 70s, early 80s, there were racks of these uniforms in surplus stores. I don't recall there being a trial on that specific pattern. Given all the variations looked at circa 1981, it may have been considered. But I never saw a Canadian soldier wearing it. The AB Regt was fairly tribal and would not have been happy if 'legs' were flopping around in a uniform that looked like their smocks. There were some fairly bizarre patterns toyed with in 81, but these were abandoned. By 84, it looked as though everyone was leaning toward a modified DPM pattern with the background colour being a light green vice the normal DPM tan. The overall effect was quite ... green. I clearly recall seeing a few dozen soldiers at the Infantry School wearing these uniforms during the summer of 84. We were told that this was to be the new uniform. Fast forward to 1986 and we were briefed that 'monochrome green' was considered the best universal colour for all situations and that we'd stick with it for the time being. That makes that particular pattern (light green background DPM) a real rarity and very collectible. Last time I saw it was when the army commander wore it on a division (1 Bde, SSF Bde and 5 Bde all in one location for one exercise) parade in the field summer of 1987. Ironically, that army commander was LGen Lessard who, 13 yrs earlier in 1974, was Col Lessard and the commander of the AB Regt who demanded a new para smock be created.

[@WarHorse21]

I have to disagree to a point, I have never seen photos of the Tanzanian military wearing Canadian made DPM prior to 1979, whereas the first Airborne DPM contract was in 1975, and the CAD DPM trials started in the early 70's. Peerless (And Federal Pants Inc.) produced those DPM uniforms as well as at least two other DPM color variation uniforms for the Canadian Forces to to trial in the early 70's. The Van Doo's trialed them around 1974/75, "B" Coy, 1RCR did trials in Canada in 1980-81, 4 CMBG in West Germany did in 1983, and 5 CMBG did the trial in Valcartier. A bright, lime version was trialed at CFB Gagetown, and there was a very dark version that was considered too dark to be effective, especially when wet. Similarly there were a couple of "blobs" or "balls" type patterns tested in 1983-84 that shared nearly the same colors as the "dark" DPM and were also considered too dark to be effective and were rejected. These "Tanzanian" type uniforms were trialed in the mid-late 70's and rejected by the PM, then used trials uniforms were sold to surplus stores and cadet stores while all the unused uniforms were sold/given to Tanzania. There were two versions of these "Tanzanian" DPM uniforms, ones that had simple paper tags and no suspender buttons on the trouser belt loops which were sold to Tanzania, which Mr. Moore seems to have and I own one as well, and another with proper CAF nomenclatured tags and suspender buttons on the trouser belt loops. To quote a veteran who wore some of the trials DPM uniforms: "The late 70s early 80s DPM combats we had was withdrawn because of the personal whim of our then Prime Minister. He was inspecting one of our Infantry battalions, RCR I think, that was paraded in their new DPMs. About a week later orders came down from the PMO that the uniforms were to aggresive and we were to revert to OD combats. Brand new uniforms were turned in and replaced with thread worn old uniforms that QM stores had to scavenge from bins schedualed to go to surplus, and we didn't see new ODs for about a year. As Ed said I believe all warehoused stock was given to Tanzania and all turned in DPM went to surplus stores, thus all the Cadets had had brand new DPM." Peerless made the first run of AB Reg DPM smocks in 1975 in the same colors, but they were a different, heavier, windproof material than the Mk II DPM trial uniforms. By 1976 they changed to a much worse, heavily synthetic polyester blend fabric for the para smocks. Peerless also used that same synthetic para DPM fabric to make special uniforms for the RCMP ERTs, that were worn from 1982 to the very late 90's or possibly early 2000's. I have both a 1977 Peerless para DPM smock and a 1982 RCMP ERT summer DPM trousers made by Service Uniform and they use the same exact fabric and colors.

[@lib556]

@@WarHorse21 Very detailed. I don't recall the trials of the 70s. I very much recall the lime green dominant DPM trials uniform in Gagetown in the summer of 84. IIRC, the anti-armour wing of the Inf School was wearing them (including combat jackets). There were about 30 of them booting around. We were told that this was THE selected version that was definitely being adopted. By 1986, the idea was dropped. We were briefed at the 1 CMBG offr study wk by a DLR LCol who said "the trials have determined that monochrome green is the most universal colour. He then modeled the stupid shirt that had no lower pockets... 3 PPCLI also did trials in the early 80s on 3 varieties of the lime green blob patterns. I remember them well. I inherited a set from my Dad (as well as his original para smock issued to him in 1975 - the one where the black bits turn purple-ish as they fade). I recall the surplus stores being flooded with the DPM uniforms (trials or Tanzanian) circa 82/83 (?). My info on the para smock comes from the appendix at the end of Rui Amaralt's book about the AB Regt. It is written by LCol Hirter who, as the 2IC of the AB Regt at the time, was tasked by Col Lessard to acquire the new smocks. Therefore, the story is from 'the horse's mouth' as it were... at least as he, as the OPI, recalls the story. He states that Peerless had a bunch of the DPM cloth left over from the Tanzanian contract and offered him a good deal on it... Maybe he is mis-remembering. Final comment. As cadets in the late 70s, we never saw any DPM uniforms. We would have loved that as cadets weren't issued anything for the field. We had to buy our own combats at surplus stores. At least now they get issued an OD field uniform and very good Mk 4 boots (my son is an RSM).

[@WarHorse21]

@@lib556 Thanks for your reply. I didn't know there were three blob patterns, I've only seen two, both from Ed Storey's collection and a few loose pieces on IACMC. I checked the thread again and it was mentioned the first para smocks were in 1975 and were directly purchased by the AB Reg, while the first official gov't contract was in 1976, so my mistake on that. The most puzzling thing is why there are two variants of the Tanzanian DPM Mk II uniform; a simplfiied one with paper tags and no suspender buttons, and a nomenclatured one with buttons. Maybe at some point the simplified ones were dedicated for export, though I found my simplified jacket in Canada and it was never sent over.

[@lib556]

@@WarHorse21 I'm at the limit of my personal knowledge of the subject. As for the 3 variants of the blob camo, that is my memory of the time from my Dad bringing some home. I was 16 at the time. Maybe I'm wrong. Definitely one was more spotty like a flecktarn while the other had the blobs looking like they were melting and elongating. The colours were shockingly bright.

[@thomashastings5694]

That's the same I have on my 1950's north African Dennison smock

[@jaws848]

I know some countries use what could be termed british dpm such as new zealand or variations of it but as far as OFFICAL GOVT issue how many patterns were issued to uk forces....and by patterns i mean year...i have heard of 1960 dpm,1968 dpm,1984 dpm etc....its confusing as it all looks the same to me.

[@davidbrennan660]

Some good kills

[@Veritas419]

The Auscam smock is choice

[@froginthewaves8450]

Neat

[@moosethegreat9821]

if you want to know I am a army cadet I own full SDAR uniform and service dress and the last batch of NZ DPM camo and MP patches and brassards of lots of branches and NZSAS berret I would be willing to trade uniform pieces I also have provost corps belt cadet forces coprs belt and NZIR corps belt and the fishing vest type webbing thing worn by the army beteween 1995 to 2010