History
- See also: Red coat (British army)
By the end of the 17th century, the English army uniform's colour (England not yet having joined with Scotland to form Great Britain), was largely settled on red with few exceptions. In the decades after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, British Army uniforms trended towards extravagance rather than practicality. That trend reversed during the more land-based Crimean war.
By the end of the 19th century the British army had moved over to khaki after experience in India. Dress uniform, however, in some regiments more than others, could be very colourful. The early use of camouflage in the form of plain khaki reflected the exigencies of colonial war and the freedom allowed, and taken, by many of the officers who fought it. The increased use of khaki may have been in part a result of improved weapons technology.
During the Second World War a handful of British units adopted camouflage patterned clothes, for example the Airborne Forces' Denison smock and the windproof suit. In the late 1960s the DPM camouflage uniform was adopted across the whole of the British Army.
Read more about this topic: British Army Uniform
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