Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

[Carruthers]

Men of my father’s generation received a cunningly worded invitation to participate in World War 2.

I doubt very much that the dress code was ‘come as you are’ so these chaps must have made a special effort.

After all, you should always look your best if you’re about to spend several hours lobbing six inch shells at enemy shipping, but they do let themselves down by their choice of accessories.

Corporal Klinger, thou shouldst be living at this hour.

Hilarious images have revealed one of the lighter-hearted moments of World War Two as British soldiers man anti-aircraft guns* in full panto-drag, which the wartime government banned so they did not damage the image of the 'butch' British soldier.

The amusing pictures capture the home defence troops in drag when their Christmas charity performance was interrupted by a coastal alert near Gravesend, Kent forcing them to wear the dresses with compulsory helmets on the field.

The set of photographs, taken by John Topham while working in RAF intelligence, was censored by the British Ministry of Information.

Pantomime was popular in the army as a way to relieve stress by letting the soldiers enjoy themselves on their downtime.

LINK

* I think they got that bit wrong.