Errata Sheet For David Gordon WWII Tommy Weapons, Equipment, Uniforms Books?

[Peter Laidler]

Without detracting in any way from the Gordon books on equipment, he has unwittingly fallen into the one of the dilemmas of all authors, including myself, of just WHEN to publish.

The problem is that the moment you publish your book, the first person who buys and reads it immediately knows more than you, the author knows! That's because he knows all that YOU have written PLUS the tiny bit he knew earlier..

And I am as bad as the next man in this respect. As soon as I saw the 1st Bren Gun saga book, then the second, i said to myself words to the effect '.......why the xxxx didn't he ask me from an in-depth professional users point of view.....'. They were my (and all Armourers) bread and butter for 40 or so years. Sorry Blake and god bless you

Regarding the ammo used by the snipers (above). I can tell you that he got the ammunition he was issued with. If the ammo storeman listened, he would put the rest of the container aside, marked as 'for issue to the snipers' The snipers would go onto the ranges, accurately zero-in, knowing that the next lot, from the same batch would perform the same. The same applied to green-spot.

Dennison smocks. The knitted cuffs were the Achilles heel and always wearing out on the inside, through fair war and tear. They were easily repaired in the first instance by the user, darning the holes - as they were taught to do with their woolen socks up until the 70's or so. Yep, been there and done it. The second option was for the Regimental tailor to sew in NEW cuffs, made from the top of knitted socks......., in either dark grey or latterly, khaki. That's why the crunchies were issued with a roll of sewing and darning kit.needles and other odds and sods, called a 'housewife'

The best top, without doubt, was the camouflaged SMOCKS, windproof or later the uncamouflaged baggy windproof