Avre Friday Briefing #84
Batch No. 5 - Avre Windak News
On the Windak, we've been in planning mode for launch day, which will be around the end of November. We're going to decamp to a pub somewhere in Wiltshire with a bunch of jackets, some whisky and live stream it. More details soon.
We're also working through the details of actually producing the jackets with the studio team. Once the proper camo arrives next month, we've got a crazily short window to get a garment, get it photographed and get it to the pub in time for the launch. It's all very tight, but we'll make it happen. Pre-orders are still on schedule for pre-Christmas.
We added a popper
We also made a decision to add a popper. On the original garment there's a tab at the waist on each hip allowing the wearer to make the waist narrower. Thing is, there's only one popper. If you don't want to cinch the waist, there's nowhere for the tab to sit, so it just flaps in mid air.
On the original garment, there's only one popper at the waist on each side
We don't take a decision to amend the design of the original lightly, but the team at the Airborne Assault Museum at Duxford told us that it was a common complaint - about the early Denison smocks - that there was no way to "tidy" the uniform, specifically the waist tab and the beaver tail. These were common complaints from the troops in after battle reports, so we decided to listen to the troops and add the popper (the Windak already has poppers to stow the beaver tail). It's the only detail on our Windak that will be different to the original.
Weather testing
And in other Windak related news, Al was out and about this week testing his prototype Windak against the inclement British weather. Consensus is that it's very waterproof.
The Camo
In case you missed it, the camo on Al's jacket is a stand-in. We had the garment made to the exact spec of the original, but because we didn't have the exact Windak camo fabric in time, we used a DPM style version which we were able to acquire off the shelf for the prototype above. When we start making these in earnest next month, they'll be made with the original Windak camo pattern.
Batch No. 4 - Battledress Production Update
The current run of Batch No. 4 Battledresses are still on schedule for early November. If you're waiting, thanks for your patience - it won't be long now!
What we're listening to - Stalingrad of the Adriatic
James and Al have been working through a four-part series on We Have Ways about the fight for Ortona, a small port on Italy’s Adriatic coast. In December 1943 the 1st Canadian Infantry Division fought German paratroopers house to house for the town. Correspondents at the time called it “Little Stalingrad”.
The series follows the Canadians from the crossing of the Sangro, through the Moro and the “Bloody Gully”, to the fighting in the town itself. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or on the We Have Ways YouTube channel.
On this day: 23rd October 1942 - El Alamein
British night artillery barrage which opened the Second Battle of El Alamein. © IWM
At 21:40 on 23rd October 1942, more than 880 British and Commonwealth guns opened fire along the El Alamein line in Egypt. It was the heaviest barrage since the First World War.
Behind it, Montgomery’s Eighth Army began Operation Lightfoot. Infantry and engineers cleared two corridors through the Axis minefields so the armour could follow. It took nearly two weeks of hard fighting before Rommel’s forces began to withdraw on 4th November.
General Montgomery watches British tanks advance (November 1942). © IWM
A few days later, Churchill described the victory as “the end of the beginning”.