Slouch hat - Burma Campaign 1944-45

The tropical headress at the start of the war was the Universal Foreign Service Helmet, a rigid cork solar topee of the 'Wolseley' parttern. This could be useful when troops were acclimatising to the intense heat. When the 2nd Battalion went into actioon at Kohima they needed less cumbersome headgear. The slouch hat like that worn by their predecessors in South Africa in 1902, was much better suited to jungle patrols and cramped foxholes.