British army blankets - colour?

This is probably the most trivial question I will ever ask on the forum

I am trying to work again on a 1/48 scale model of a Matilda II in North Africa. It comes with a blanket bundle attached to the side of the tank. Would these blankets be grey (prior to any sand or sun-bleaching) or were there different colours?

(British Army Blanket suggests there were grey and brown, and some variation on the stitching, which would probably be too small for me to even represent in this model)

 

Yes, gray was the most common. there were variations in the blanket when dealing with commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia. Canadian Blanket typically had a black stripe down the center, and the Australian has blue stripes.

 

RAMC during operation Epsom with casualties from 46 Infantry Brigade, 15th Scottish. notice the color of the blankets.

 

During the 1960s we still a few old brown army blankets which were from WW2
Not very comfy

 

Can remember them on sale in the army surplus store - grey

 

They seemed to vary from a muddy grey to brown and sometimes with a coloured or black stripe. Not a 'clean' grey though and closer to the colour of mixed horsehair stuffing, if you've handled that...Come to think of it, they feel like horsehair too I wonder if those light coloured blankets in the photo were hospital issue or locally sourced ?

 

For info
BBC - WW2 People's War - Army Beds

 

Many years ago when I was doing my Post Grad Business Studies at Bradford I interviewed Lord Kegan (Harold Wilson's mate and the inventor of the Gannex mac). He started business in Yorkshire making army blankets. They were made from shoddy which is essentially the waste material from the manufacture of other woolen items and consists of all the short ends of yarn. It is grey because that is the natural colour of undyed or unbleached wool and the grey varies because sheep vary. Post war the main customer for these blankets was not the military but institutions such as hospitals, schools, colleges. prisons etc. The profit margin per blanket was very low until Kegan found that by weaving in a thin strip at one end of the blanket with the institution's colours he could sell the shoddy blanket at a premium price.

 

The RAMC Operation Epsom photo brought back a memory of an ex marine I knew.
He was a young rookie in WW2 "just the last few weeks" he used to say.
He told us how they were led up to the front lines as casualty replacements.
They were standing waiting for an escort to their units when he quite naively asked a question as to who the men were
lying on stretchers completely covered with blankets with their boots showing.
"They're Guardsmen" said a sergeant "they've got clean boots".
"They got fed up with waiting and went to sleep".
It took him a while to realise what he was actually looking at and never forgot the reply, despite the many actions he fought in over the following years.

 

Echoes of Gerald Kersh's wartime account of the Guards in France 1940 - They Die with their Boots Clean

 

I think the actual phrase shoddy went back to the Crimean War ... Army blankets were made the same way ... but fell apart in the rain etc... hence the phrase "Shoddy Cloth"

 

Shoddy goes back far further. Shoddy is the name of a type of cloth as I said and is certainly as old as industrial production of woolens which is at least 18th century. It's not a case of army blankets made the same way - they were made of shoddy. 'Shoddy cloth' is a tautology. Because it is made up of relatively short strands it wasn't very hard wearing but it didn't fall apart in the rain. Some types of cheap felt cloth did as they relied on glue to hold them together. The use of shoddy to mean of poor quality comes initially from clothes made of inferior material- ie shoddy - which did not wear well

 

There are cases of WW1 British soldiers converting their army issue blankets into sleeping bags and being charged with destruction of army property.

 

The actual technicalities of mountain warfare and the physical effort I am now used to.
The wet and wind are hellish.
Imagine sleeping out with at the most one wet blanket at 3000 feet on an exposed hill still in pouring rain.
Yet one does it.
Major David Shepherd MC Battery Commander 266 Bty 67th Field Regt October 1944 re Forward Observation in the Apennines.
It was almost Christmas before they were issued with sleeping bags and winter clothing.

 

Thanks for all the info!

 

I recall a brown/ginger army blanket in our home in the 1950's /1960's. It was thin. But not shoddy. We kids took it to the beach as a ground sheet for the army tent which was a paler brown/ginger. The tent had a wax feel when touched. Grand children were using the blanket in the late sixties as a picnic blanket. It really could not be called shoddy!
Veronica.

 

There were variations by manufacture and war time material cut backs. You see this in many Armies around the world. Shoddy was also used in the American Civil War in use in some blankets. Yes the hospitals still used white blankets, however white was still being used up into WW1 as well. I suggest trying to find photos showing blankets to see what was common in the area you are wishing to represent.

 

You are making the all too common error of conflating the name of the material with the adjective that was derived from it.