Also in Germany ( where there had been on paper four Armies and Navy), the officers had to pay for their eqipment. This caused that a ,freshbaked' Lieutenant of a middleclass family could only afford standard equipment, while a senior officer of upperclass class bought for example a sword with engaged blueed Blade wit old inlays, silverwires at handle and guard of goldened silver. Some officers equipment was bought by prussian, bavarian, saxon and württembergian Gouvernements ( the troops of small states had been Integrsted into prussian Army, - difficult to explain), but the few items of officers items, mostly swords, bought by Gouvernement had been used by some high sergeants, when they Had to fullfile the role as , Offiziersstellvertreter ', this means, some sergeants had in some context officers power.

@@brittakriep2938 There were German ranks like Feldwebel Leutnant and Offizierstellvertreter that were intermediate between NCO and officer but were not officer ranks even though they often exercised junior officer functions.

@@stevekaczynski3793 : Yes, so they had been , Mannschaften ', but for the time douing officers work, they got Gouvernement payed officers swords , socalled Kammerstücke. But as collector you must be carefull, often the stamps are falsified.

Happy I can find that stuff cheaper nowadays. Never knew how expensive it was back then

Eventually, during the war, a grant of £50, perhaps about £1000 in today's money, was made to officers to enable them to buy the equipment, otherwise it would have been beyond the means of many of the "temporary gentlemen" in particular.

If they could freely go out into no man's land without being sniped, they would have been able to evacuate and bury the remains of dead soldiers. If they could not freely go out into no man's land, then the officers were taking a needless risk. It might have happened but it seems unlikely to me. People who went into no man's land generally did so at night and were unlikely to notice details of the dead, other than perhaps the smell of rotting corpses.

In Stirling Castle in Scotland, I once saw on exhibit a pocket Bible or New Testament that a soldier of WW1 had worn in a breast pocket. There was a bullet hole right through it, presumably killing him. The British .303 Lee-Enfield bullet could punch 17 inches into sandbags at 40 yards, and the German bullets would have been as powerful. Of course a Bible wouldn't stop that kind of projectile...

'Essential' kit has also always been fiercely expensive for public schools and even Grammar schools. Those outfitters have been fleecing people for generation after generation now.. Mind you, at least we didn't get shot at after being kitted out, so there is that.

A famous photo of Lancashire Fusiliers at the Somme in 1916 includes a second lieutenant who seems to be wearing an enlisted man's tunic. He has also moved his rank badges to his shoulder straps, as opposed to the much more conspicuous sleeve rank badges of the regulations.

Very simply, officers were gentlemen, ergo you could afford to out fit yourself unlike the working class other ranks. Famously, actor David Niven in 1930, was awarded a £14.00 officers uniform grant from the War Office; his uniform tailors bill though was £55.00. That for the Highland Light Infantry which was for highland service dress, mess kit and service shirts only; everything was bespoke.

@@mikewinston8709 After graduation from Sandhurst, Niven had to fill in a form detailing which infantry regiment he wished to go to. He wrote "any one other than the Highland Light Infantry". To which he was assigned...

I think they got £50 if they were promoted from the ranks etc because, no, nobody could afford that!

@@rjwalker1726 During the war there was a grant of that amount introduced to help officers buy equipment. Some front-line officers in WW1 took to wearing issue uniforms like their men, with the addition of officer rank badges (often switched to the shoulder straps as in the Guards and the later British Army, rather than the sleeves as these were seen as too conspicuous). This was done mainly to cut down on casualties from German snipers, who found British officers in the traditional uniforms all too easy to recognise. It should be noted that the officers who retained traditional uniform often considered such practices cowardly.

A different war, but the spare uniforms of RAF Bomber Command aircrew killed or MIA following raids were sometimes put up for sale on the base, though other aircrew tended to think it was potentially bad luck to possess an item from a dead man.

I was happy that I was prior enlisted when I got my commission, so it was mostly just a change in insignia. Even still my Officer ASUs was around $500 for everything but the shoes.

Austro-Hungarian officers were expected to buy their own kit. Quite a few went to war with swords, shiny scabbards and brightly coloured sashes in 1914, and were killed in droves. Company commanders and higher were expected to maintain a horse, which added to expense.

Breeches pronunciation comes from formal British English spelling. We Americans have turned countless words into a different spelling and pronunciation over the centuries. Britches is a bastardized spelling of breeches. Have a 'bloody nice day.'