the blue uniforms


Those blue uniforms are of a much darker shade than those Royal Air Force (RAF) uniforms seen in "Battle of Britain". Can anyone confirm that this darker shade was used by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during this time period? I do know that a darker blue uniform was worn by airmen of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), to which Russell Crowe's character probably belonged. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, also known as The Empire Air Training Scheme/Plan, had trained pilots for the RAF, the RCAF, the RAAF and New Zealand's RNZAF.

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Probably late to be answering this, but maybe you could try the Canadian War Museum? They might have information on that kind of thing. Here's the URL: http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/cwme.asp

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Again, this is probably a bit late to answer this.

As far as I've read the RCAF used the RAF P36 Service Dress(after '42, War Service Dress). The blue-grey, soft twill-like material, was called barathea and was a single breasted, four buttoned front tunic with a fabric belt found at mid waist. This RAF service dress was the standard during the Second World War. The RNZAF also used this uniform.

"The RAAF uniforms, though virtually identical in every other respect to those of the RAF, were of a somewhat darker blue and often featured blackened bronze or bakelite (plastic) buttons and insignia in place of the RAF's bright brass."

The one Crowe wore in the film was definitely intended to be Australian due to the fact that his shoulder patch said so. I think though, the colour of his service dress was too dark from the pictures I've seen of RAAF uniforms from that era.

More info here on the uniforms, but unfortunately don't have a RCAF example -

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/all-forces.htm

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Late or not, I certainly found it interesting. Thanks for posting.

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