Avre Friday Briefing #21

Batch #2: The 1941 British Denim Smock

As regular readers will know, we've recently been working on Batch #2, which we can now reveal to be The 1941 British Denim Smock. As you can hopefully see from the expertly modelled images here, it's fantastic. The feel and weight of the fabric, along with the panelling and construction have come together beautifully. We have photography booked in for next week and will have the website updated very soon.

The Story Behind The Smock

Polish II Corps

On 18th May 1944, Polish II Corps finally took Monte Cassino, the massif with its ruined monastery that had been at the heart of the German Gustav Line defences, and which had held up the Allies for five long months. And it is to honour these Poles in Italy that we are producing our next jacket, a British 1941 pattern Denim Smock, worn by Polish II Corps. It's also why we will be offering 1,805 of these beautiful jackets, in recognition of what they achieved on that morning of 18th day of the 5th month of 1944.

The story of the Poles in Italy is an absolutely astonishing one. Most were captured, not by Germans when Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, but by the Soviet Red Army, who invaded from the east a couple of weeks later in a pre-arranged carve-up of the country.

From Siberia to Palestine and on to Italy

Those Poles captured by the Russians were later transported to brutal gulags in Siberia, and only freed once Nazi Germany turned on its brief ally and invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. In an agreement between Stalin and the British government, Polish General Wladyslaw Anders was allowed to muster these newly liberated Poles in Uzbekistan. Those who survived their epic 2,000 mile journey south, as well as outbreaks of typhus and malaria, were then transported to Iran and from there to Kirkuk in Northern Iraq. There they built up strength and were equipped and trained by the British. In 1943 they moved again, this time to Palestine, before sailing to Italy at the end of 1943. For their first few months, II Corps held a quiet part of the line but in the spring of 1944 were posted to the Cassino front. Monte Cassino – or the Fourth Battle of Cassino as it became known – was their very first battle, and one in which they were triumphantly victorious. They continued to fight heroically all the way up through the leg of Italy.

We have photos of the Poles of II Corps wearing this stunning British early-pattern smock. We think these warriors look superb. It's a fabulous jacket and we hope that anyone wearing one will pause, briefly, to remember and honour those extraordinary men who endured so much in the fight for freedom.

Two Variants

For this batch, we're offering two variants: "Original" - staying as close as possible to the historical garment, and "Reinvented" - with some carefully considered updates, including a full frontal zip. You can see both variants on our in-house model, above.

We'll be releasing a small number of pre-orders very soon, so stay subscribed to our mailing list where we'll be release the details. We expect the smock to be priced at GBP349.

Hands on with Jim and James

Jim and James recently got hands on with both Batch #2 variants after their recent escapades in Dorset. Watch below.

Al and James in Normandy

This week Al and James have been in Normandy filming new Walking The Ground content. From the D-Day beaches to Hill 112, they've been covering some of the major battles. As Al puts it, if there's one thing that makes James happy, it's "dirty, gray, olive drab vehicles going bang" - and Normandy looks to certainly have delivered on that front.