Lord Lovat and THAT White Sweater !
With the 75th Anniversary of D-Day rapidly approaching, it’s that time when many of the famous old myths are resurrected and given a new life in various publications written to ‘coincide’ with the event. It’s happens every five years ! And so the following, and a few subsequent posts, are written to clarify some of those issues. This particular post deals with Lord Lovat’s white sweater, or lack of one !
This myth has stemmed from the film, ‘The Longest Day’. Even though Lovat was an advisor on the film, he probably deemed it not that important, but he would never have guessed that it would subsequently be written into history itself. Suffice to say, he never wore such a sweater on D-Day. Its a simple one to prove really, as there is film and photographic evidence, as can be seen below.
It was Ecru not white. Many Commandos wore them during WW2
Thanks Clive, for that most illuminating contribution.
My Father wore one under a Barbour jacket when they crossed the channel from Dover nightly to recce beaches prior to assaults – he was in 41 Commando Royal Marines. I have one myself, made from Merino wool, as they were in the war. Originally designed for submariners of course… What is more questionable in the photo from the film is the guy next to Richard Todd gripping his Sten gun by the magazine!! It would come straight off the weapon.