RFC Uniform help please!

Nachtjager · 10 December 2008, 08:34 AM

Hi, I'm new to the forum but I've read it often as a guest. I primarily collect WWII German pieces as I'm kinda' related to WWI ace

Otto Hoehne (Jasta 2 ace, later KC winner and WWII Luft General) and his son Joachim, who flew ME163 Komets. Regardless, I recently bought most of a WWI collection. The owner recently passed and this guy was an extremely advanced collector with a lot of very exotic pieces. Will post several pics of a WWI RFC tunic and cap from this estate, would appreciate input and info.

The jacket is original and of a high grade wool with a silk-like lining showing heavy sweat stains. It had wings on it (now gone) but you can clearly see where they were sewn on. It's also now missing the collar devices and something else was pinned to the shoulder boards between the rank insignia and the RFC buttons. The cap is in good shape except for a nick on the visor, the leather sweat band is coming apart, and the chin strap is brittle. A pair of OD heavy corderoy-like jodphurs was hanging with this tunic, with leather reinforced calves and laces, but I'm not sure they go with this set.

Would appreciate any opinions and I'll be posting photos of some other jackets and items I could definitely use help identifying! Anyone ever seen a 1916 dated British officer's jacket with chain mail sewn all throughout the lining before? Thanks to all and God bless!

Nachtjager · 10 December 2008, 08:35 AM

Nachtjager · 10 December 2008, 08:39 AM

Nachtjager · 10 December 2008, 08:40 AM

Nachtjager · 10 December 2008, 08:41 AM

Nachtjager · 10 December 2008, 08:46 AM

This jacket's torso is lined with chainmail inside the lining, it's dated 1/4/16 in the pocket with the name "S.E. Ritchie" (could be wrong on the second initial, it's very faint) and the tag reads, "Gieves Ltd."

What rank is this and was this a private purchase piece or something experimental? It weighs 10.5 pounds on my bathroom scale and it does show some obvious wear - I wish this one could talk!

RAF56_Ball · 24 January 2009, 07:38 PM

I would try these guys - first rate historians.

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Jim · 26 January 2009, 09:39 AM

I can't imagine why anyone in the Flying Corps would want a jacket with a very heavy chain mail lining for two reasons. First every pound of weight was precious in an aircraft in terms of its performance and there were always hard decisions on whether to take a few extra rounds of ammunition or a few extra gallons of fuel or have some steel plating around the cockpit, etc. The second is I think it would be fairly worthless against machine gun bullets which were the main armament of your opponents.

Croix de Guerre · 27 January 2009, 05:12 PM

This is a very rare private purchase tunic. The fact that it is a "Green" RAF tunic also points to the fact that it is a war time blouse. I have done some research since this was first published and have discovered that these "bullet proof" garments were available at some considerable cost. How much they were worn is debatable,,they fact that they are very rare is a clue to me that they were not very commonly worn.