During World War II, some units of the British and Canadian forces wore British-made body armor.
British Medical Research Council (MRC) Body Armor has been researched and developed by the British Army and the Medical Research Council (MRC) since 1940.
After field trials on 5000 sets of armor, official use was given in April 1942 to introduce the body armor into the British Army.
It was used by the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations.
NONE of the western allied military forces (USA, Great Britain, Commonwealth, France etc.) used western allied designed and mass issued body armour IN COMBAT during WW2. There was NO general (mass) issue of body armour to western allied line combat units FOR USE IN COMBAT during WW2.
The USSR did issue (on a limited scale) and use (on a limited scale) body armour in a limited number of line combat units during WW2. The USSR did so from 1942 onwards, so not in time for any of the battles in and prior to 1941. Which means from an authentic point of view USSR body armour should not be present on any of the 1941 Moscow maps in Enlisted. The USSR body armour in WW2 did NOT offer 360 degree protection (which it erroneously and inauthentically does in Enlisted) and protected only a limited frontal area of the torso and did this at the expense of mobility. Moreover the USSR body armour could not and would not stop firearm rounds and not even large shrapnel fragments. In fact it would cause even worse wounds when hit by firearm rounds and penetrating shrapnel fragments. At best the USSR body armour would offer a very, very limited protection against non-penetrating small shrapnel fragments from ordnance (artillery, mortars etc.). The steel helmet was introduced in WW1 to offer very, very limited protection against non-penetrating small shrapnel fragments and it too could not and would not stop firearm rounds and not even large shrapnel fragments. The same applied to the WW2 steel helmets.
I do not know if you read what I posted about this body armour here on the forum a while back, but it further expands on body armour etc. in WW1 and WW2:
Fact is: that British body armour was NEVER USED IN ACTION in WW2. Neither was the USA one mentioned in my linked post.
So it is another WW2 fantasy, like some of the other body armour discussed in my post linked above.
There is so much equipment that was actually used in WW2 but which is not included in Enlisted, sadly Enlisted instead keeps introducing fantasy equipment.
For example for the Germans alone one can mention the following real world equipment that was used in WW2: the MG 34 and MG 42 with ammunition belts, the German Flakpanzer 38(t), the Flakpanzer IV “Möbelwagen”, the Flakpanzer IV “Wirbelwind”, the Henschel Hs 129, the Focke Wulf Fw 190 with Panzerblitz rockets, the R4M Orkan air/air and air/ground rockets, the Elefant/Ferdinand Tank Destroyer from 1943 onwards, the Jagdtiger Tank Destroyer from late 1944 onwards, the Messerschmitt Me 262 was used over Normandy in the Summer of 1944 in a fighter-bomber role, the Focke Wulf Ta 152 and then there are also the remote controlled vehicles Fritz X, Goliath, Mistel. The western allies in WW2 for example also used a lot of unique equipment that was produced and used but which is also totally absent from Enlisted as well (Crusader AA tank, Churchill Crocodile, Churchill A.V.R.E. a large number of armoured half track variants with varied ordnance etc.).
And then there is equipment that does not have its authentic characteristics in Enlisted, such as for example the roof mounted Nahverteidigungswaffe (English: Close Defense Weapon), the 92 mm HE/Smoke mortar that was used in most late WW2 German tanks.
What is fantasy? Fantasy in WW2 is:
Any blue print (paper design) that never existed in real life (for example the Japanese Ho-Ri Production Tank Destroyer in Enlisted);
Any prototype that was never produced/issued (for example the German Cönders 9 x 19 mm Belt-Fed MG, the Japanese Tokyo Arsenal Machine Pistol (Submachine Gun) of which several were produced and which failed every non-combat trial as a result of which it was never selected for production and general issue);
Any one-of-a-kind item which was used in limited combat trials (for example there was only one Super Pershing and it did not see action until 21 April 1945 and then only in two combat engagements);
Any item that never made it through trials and was never selected for mass production and/or never issued to line combat units (for example western allied WW2 body armour);
Any item which was introduced after WW2 (for example all the USSR post-1945 battle rifles and assault rifles currently in Enlisted, the USSR Fedorov Avtomat Rifle was technically not an assault rifle since it used a Japanse pre-WW1 designed full power rifle round (which was produced in Japan from 1897 until the late 1930s) and thus it is not technically an assault rifle);
Any item that was never actually used in combat in WW2 (for example western allied WW2 body armour);
Any item which was used in WW2 but not in a certain time frame and front (for example no M2 Carbine used in combat before 1945 and arguably not in Europe, no US Navy Carrier Aircraft such as the Wildcat, Hellcat, Corsair etc. flying combat missions over western Europe, no Sherman Jumbo used in combat before November 1944 (so not in Normandy and not during Operation Market Garden), no Pershing used before March 1945, no USSR body armour on 1941 battlefields, no IS-2/Königstiger in Stalingrad in 1942/1943 etc.);
Any item which was used in WW2 but is given characteristics in Enlisted it never authentically had (USSR body armour offering 360 degree protection against firearm rounds).
You, as well as others, SEEM to want Enlisted to be a fantasy game and not one where the troops only use equipment that was actually used in WW2 in a certain time frame and on a certain front.
If so, then that is ok.
It is also ok if other players do NOT want Enlisted to be a fantasy game with fantasy equipment.
Enlisted could, and in my opinion, should be a game that can be both: fantasy for the players that want fantasy AND authentic for the players that want authenticity.
It is ok if Enlisted keeps the current increasingly fantasy game mode, as long as Enlisted also offers an authentic game mode for players that want to play an authentic WW2 game.
Sorry, I’m not going to read the whole thing, it’s too long…
Do you have any evidence that it is not being used? If not, there is nothing to support that opinion either…
People who served in the military at the time stated that they wore them, and there are photos of them, so it’s not like they were never used at all. British Medical Research Council (MRC) Body Armour in Canadian Use | CSMMI MILART
