Weird looking beret.

[KZ_Finland]

We'll i found beret that cought my eye while walking around local fleamarket.

Beret seems to be one of those green that are used by Royal Marines but it has BlackWatch insignia and Commando patch on it. Is there actually any unit that wears this type of headdress?

It's not unusual to see Soviet airforce/army visor caps with railroad corps cocades around here. This makes me think that somebody may have tempered with the beret i bought.

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6043/beret0011st.th.jpg (http://img357.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beret0011st.jpg)http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7541/beret0032wz.th.jpg (http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beret0032wz.jpg)

[Rakki]

The result is so fugly I doubt any self respecting soldier would wear it.

[KZ_Finland]

Does this mean that we can safely say that this is official "Scottish SAS Mud Marines beret"?

[Beinlausen]

no this is the armchair commando beret

[Sabre]

Army commando units in WW2 recruited from every regiment and corps. The successful commandos would then wear their 'parent' regiment's badge on the commando green beret.

Chances are that this isn't an original WW2 beret, but it's probably a veteran's beret bought by him recently and decked out with his old regiment's badge and the commando dagger. Or it could be someone's attempt at faking a veteran's beret, but I don't know why anyone would bother.

[KZ_Finland]

Sabre this helps a lot.

It's just that im not femiliar with British dress code and after googling a lot couldn't find anything like this.

Here's couple of pictures from inside the beret.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9797/beret0043ua.th.jpg (http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beret0043ua.jpg)http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5264/beret0052xr.th.jpg (http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beret0052xr.jpg)

The numbers in the second picture seem to be "42" and some fadet out text. I can't make anything out of it.

[Sabre]

Not sure about the markings in the right hand picture, but Compton Webb are the people that make berets for the forces. The inside looks like a modern beret. It looks like that's a NATO Stock Number (NSN) that's on all issued kit, so if it is, it's not going to be from WW2. It looks very new too. I think it's a beret that was bought by a Commando Veteran in recent years. Perhaps he has sadly passed away and it ended up on the market, or maybe he exchanged it with a foreign Veteran, who knows?

An interesting piece either way!

[Sabre]

BTW, wearing the commando dagger on the beret is not in any dress code, but who's to argue with a Veteran! Those guys can do what they like!

[KZ_Finland]

Yes i thought it was one of the new ones.

Would reneactors wear this kind of berets?

Because i don't think anyone would go as far as making a fake one just to sell it for 2€ on a flea market.

I know i would pay double if it had Royal Marines emblem on it.

I took out both emblems because im going to clean it up a little. The Black watch emblem seems to have been there for at least couple of years because it left "wear off" marks on it.

Commandos patch must have been glued by paper glue. It wen't off easier than i expected.

[Royal]

I'd go with Sabre. I've never seen anything like it (veterans or otherwise), that said any WWII commando vet can do what he likes as far as I'm concerned.

I've also never seen the triangular dagger flash with writing on it - even back in the day - it was always a separate flash.

I'm prepared to be corrected...

[PrincessRAR]

BTW, wearing the commando dagger on the beret is not in any dress code, but who's to argue with a Veteran! Those guys can do what they like!

well said - as long as they aren't "faking" it - the old and bold diggers are fine by me