Following my blog post on the Indian made battledress blouse here, a reader got in contact with me and has hooked me up with a pair of Indian made battledress trousers to complete the set. All battle dress (BD) trousers are rare, Indian made ones are particularly rare so my thanks to one of my fellow collectors in helping me add these to the collection.
The trousers conform to British ‘P37’ pattern trousers:
There is a single large pocket on the left leg:
And a pocket for the first field dressing on the right:
The fabric is distinctly coarser than that of British made BD and the buttons are the same pressed tin or iron as those used on the BD blouse:
Interestingly the trousers seem to have been repaired with components form british made battledress, so we have a belt loop in a different fabric:
This is also to be seen on the loops for tightening the ends of the trouser legs:
Inside the trousers the lining is made of a very rough cotton with a nice Indian Army acceptance mark:
Oddly there is also a War Department stamp as well, the letter code of ‘O’ dates these to 1942:
Interesting I learnt this weekend that there are two distinct styles of Indian made battledress, conforming to British P37 and P40 designs. India seem to have been the only Empire country to introduce the ‘austerity’ pattern- every other country apart form Britain continued producing the earlier design. I have now been able to put together quite a passable late war far east battledress uniform now, with Indian BD, Indian made webbing and an Indian made bayonet:
Naturally it is very hard to spot which country made a particular battledress uniform on period photographs, but this image of Ghurkhas and Indian troops in London for the victory celebrations in 1945 almost certainly shows them wearing battledress of Indian manufacture:
Tales from the Supply Depot 