South African Police Brigade during WWII

[ILH2020]

Hello all,

Recently, I've started writing about the South African Police Brigade (6th South African Infantry Brigade) during world war two. I have some questions regarding equipment and uniform. Did the South African Police have the standard uniform like all UDF troops? And what kind of pith helmet did they have, did they have any pith flash or badge on it? I've only seen one picture of a South African policeman, and from what I can see, it's just a plain pith. It looks like the Canadian hawley pith, actually.

If any of you have any information regarding this topic, please share your knowledge with me.

[gavinmedals]

Hi, at the risk of sharing info that you likely may already have, there is a Unit history that was published in 1972. It is called "The Police Brigade, 6 S.A. Infantry Brigade 1939 - 45" by Brigadier F.W. Cooper DSO. I believe they had the same uniforms as the UDF and a unit / brigade patch (need to check), that was circular in form with the top half coloured in gold and the bottom in green. I stand to be corrected on this, but I suspect the patch, which was worn on the upper sleeve, was the SA Police Brigade patch made up of two Battalions of regulars and one from the reserves 

[ILH2020]

Hello gavin,

The patch you described earlier was the patch of the 2nd South African Infantry Division, which the SAP Brigade was part of. However, I would like to thank you for mentioning the book, as I bought it today. Hopefully it has some good descriptions of the uniform.