Khaki drill

Khaki drill (KD) is the British military term for a type of fabric and the military uniforms made from them. Khaki colour uniforms were first introduced in 1848 in the British Indian Army Corps of Guides. As well as the Corps of Guides, other regiments in India soon adopted the uniform and eventually it was used throughout the British military. Khaki drill was worn as a combat uniform from 1900 to 1949 and was most often used in desert and tropical service. A variant, still referred to as khaki drill or KD, is worn by the British Armed Forces in non-combatant warm-weather countries where the British are actively serving (e.g. personnel stationed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus will wear any of four working variants of this uniform). Generally, KD was a series of different uniform patterns of light khaki cloth, generally cotton, first worn by British and British Empire soldiers in the Boer War. Canada developed its own pattern after the First World War, and the uniform was commonly worn in Canada, with officers again having the option of finer garments privately purchased. In the Second World War, Canadians serving in Jamaica and Hong Kong wore Canadian-pattern KD; the I Canadian Corps troops in Italy wore KD supplied in theatre by the British, generally of British, Indian, or US (War Aid) manufacture. In the early part of the North African Campaign and the Mediterranean theatre, British troops wore KD shorts or slacks with long-sleeved Aertex-fabric shirts. The paler tan shade of KD was more suited to desert or semi-desert regions than the "dark khaki" or brown serge used in British Battledress. When the Allies moved up through Italy, however, two-piece khaki denim battledress overalls were increasingly preferred. By 1943, the KD shirt began to be replaced by a more durable cotton KD bush jacket. In the Far East, the British found themselves at war with the Japanese while equipped with the impractical KD uniform. Shirts and trousers had to be dyed green as a temporary expedient until more suitable jungle clothing became available.