Code: 10577
Royal Observer Corps seaborne battle dress blouse, as used on D-Day.
Rare 1944 type, with five button front, white metal (ROC buttons) and also to the cuffs, pockets & epaulettes.
It has the scarce Seaborne shoulder titles which were issued to volunteer observers who participated on the D-Day landings. They were fully intergrated into the operation being temporarily enlisted into the Royal Navy. Lessons learned from the allied invasions of North Africa, Sicily and the Italian mainland, showed that the allies were losing significant numbers of aircraft to 'friendly fire'. To reduce, and hopefully eliminate this during the Normandy Landings, the ROC were called upon to act as aircraft spotters and to assist the ships gunners. As a reward for their services they were paid a special rate of one pound a day.
This 'named' blouse is in a very good condition and has all original white metal buttons, scarce printed seaborne shoulder titles, emroidered Royal Observer Corps breast badge and embroidered arm rank badges. The inside observer corps label has faded, but it can still just about be read. There are a couple of light stains on the front (see photos).
The last two example photos show a standard earlier dated blouse (1942) which only has four front buttons.
D-Day seaborne ROC blouses are very scarce to find.
