royal navy shore party - far east 1945

[Sunray]

I am basing up a small RN shore party group for a Far East Game as the war nears an end. 

The images in b/w from Hong Kong show ratings in "whites" and steel helmets.

My query- the helmets look to be light in colour. Where they battleship grey?

[fsn]

The Osprey on the subject is not explicit, but does say that "sun helmets" were covered in khaki. "The khaki was more serviceable than the white."

Mayhap khaki? 

[fsn]

https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2018/09/13/jacks-and-enfields-73-years-ago-today/
Mixed?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Navy tin bowlers were blue?

[Sunray]

Navy tin bowlers were blue?

Thanks for this.

Yes, they were post war, and for boarding parties in my service time.  The WW2 image looks light for blue, but you could be right!

Might even be a couple of shades going by the image....

[fsn]

https://bid.candtauctions.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/catalog/119/lot/40272?uact=5&aid=119&lid=40274&current_page=0
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.invaluable.com%2FhousePhotos%2FCTAuctioneers%2F18%2F609118%2FH20253-L121377108.jpg&tbnid=KYsfvr87YjrqNM&vet=12ahUKEwjMwoGil6CBAxXxrycCHdsoDnQQMygRegQIARBx..i&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.invaluable.com%2Fauction-lot%2Fww2-royal-navy-landing-crafts-camouflaged-steel-c-639-c-4b5444ebdd&docid=76KZDIMETvK6WM&w=750&h=457&q=royal%20navy%20helmet%20wwii&ved=2ahUKEwjMwoGil6CBAxXxrycCHdsoDnQQMygRegQIARBx


This one would suggest generally grey, later khaki ... but we're talking the generally.
https://marine-40s.forumactif.org/t63-un-casque-mkii-ww2-de-la-royal-navy-sans-doute-de-motor-torpedo-boat

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Nobby 

[Sunray]

Outstanding Nobby!

And thank you for taking so much trouble.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

The helmet green is Brown Violet 887

[Sunray]

At least 4 colour schemes here- not accounting for weathering.

Q1: Did the colour vary with the theatre?

Q2: The most common cause to don a helmet would be "Action Stations" - at sea in the Atlantic, Artic convoys,the Med or -Far East. So in most cases, the colour would not need to bend with land based colours.

Q3. Shore based stations. These always tend to be "tighter" in terms of dress order. Perhaps this is where the dark navy blue comes from ?

[fsn]

The last link I posted suggests that initially, RN helmets were grey, but that all helmets started being  khaki sometime during the war.

I would humbly suggest then that it is not inconceivable that RN ships would keep their grey helmets through the war (I can't see there being a huge turnover in helmets on board ship) but that ships launched during the war could well have been issued with khaki helmets.

Not blue though. 

[Sunray]

Yes, the logic makes sense. 

Wordpoint who's website claims they supply reenactors have concluded that the colour is vinyl matt grey.

Now as helmets were stored close to Action Stations these would weather and often display shades of what colour was underneath.

Sorted!