Subject: Lieutenant Rhett Butler Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:00 pm
Picked up a nice older SOTW set and a BBi figure that looks like Clark Gable.I was able to give my naval officer a new pair of shoes and my navy beach battalion figure a new radio to call in naval gunfire support.
Clark Gable actually served in the USAAF during the war and flew bomber missions. He attained the rank of major before being discharged in 1944. His discharge papers were signed by Captain Ronald Reagan.
Clark Gable actually served in the USAAF during the war and flew bomber missions. He attained the rank of major before being discharged in 1944. His discharge papers were signed by Captain Ronald Reagan.
Yes, ironically after shaving his famous mustache! Interestingly enough, aviation was one of the areas you see facial hair to the end of the war. Ground forces abandoned facial hair as snipers often used it if no rank insignia was visible.
In the British or Canadian Armies in WWII, you would be hard-pressed to find a field grade officer or above who did not sport a mustache. It seems to have been de rigeur. Supposedly, lieutenants would often grow them to make themselves look older to their men, but I find it difficult to find any photographic evidence of junior officers, especially in the infantry, wearing mustaches, and this is quite possibly because it would identify them as officers to snipers. I suspect that the growing of mustaches among junior officers was more of an peacetime thing.
In the British or Canadian Armies in WWII, you would be hard-pressed to find a field grade officer or above who did not sport a mustache. It seems to have been de rigeur. Supposedly, lieutenants would often grow them to make themselves look older to their men, but I find it difficult to find any photographic evidence of junior officers, especially in the infantry, wearing mustaches, and this is quite possibly because it would identify them as officers to snipers. I suspect that the growing of mustaches among junior officers was more of an peacetime thing.
I’d be curious to see the percentage of British/Commonwealth junior officers and NCOS with facial hair after D-Day. Supposedly it was during the bitter fighting to break out if Normandy (where JO and NCO casualty rates were on par with WWI) that intel found out about German snipers using facial hair to help determine useful targets. As you say, field grade or above might be more common.
-Nate
TNshooter Military Police
Posts : 1803 Join date : 2020-07-22 Age : 62 Location : East Tennessee, US
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Subject: Lieutenant Rhett Butler 
Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:00 pm
