The Rise, Trial, and Quiet Sunset of a Tropical Combat Uniform (1965–1974)
In the long march from wool serge battledress and khaki drill to modern camouflage, New Zealand’s Army experimented with a family of tropical combat garments. Born from Australian design during the Vietnam era and trialled by New Zealand from 1967, these shirts and trousers promised a purpose-built, quick-drying, field-practical alternative to heavy drill greens. For a time, they looked set to become New Zealand’s standard warm-weather combat working dress, both at home and in the tropics. Then, almost as quickly, they receded, leaving a curious footprint in New Zealand’s uniform lineage and a handful of lessons that would shape the move to DPM in the late 1970s.
From BD and DG to tropical purpose
Post-war New Zealand soldiers continued to wear Battle Dress (BD) for temperate/cold conditions, and from the mid-1950s, drill green (DG) for summer and working wear. Operations in Southeast Asia exposed the obvious: heavy wool was miserable when wet and too slow to dry; DG was serviceable for training in New Zealand but never truly “tropical.” Australia, facing the same climate and operational pressures, led Commonwealth work on new tropical combat clothing. New Zealand followed those developments closely while sustaining its forces in Malaya and, later, in Vietnam through a pragmatic mix of UK, Australian, and NZ-manufactured items.
What, exactly, were “Pixie Greens”?
Australia’s Coat and Trousers, Man’s, Field Combat, Tropical, emerged in 1966–67, taking cues from contemporary US jungle fatigues, including slanted chest pockets, sleeve pockets for shell dressings, roomy cargo pockets, and lightweight, fast-drying green cloth. Troops dubbed the ensemble “pixie greens”—the nickname’s precise origin is debated, but the colour and cut likely did the christening. Alongside these sat Jungle Greens (JG) shirts and the distinctive “Gurkha”-closure trousers with side buckles, themselves evolutions of 1950s British tropical wear.
New Zealand trials and the “NZ Pixie” variant (1967–69)
Seeking standardisation and to leverage Australian field experience, New Zealand drew forty prototype sets of Australian Pixie Greens for troop trials at Waiouru and the 1st Battalion Depot in Burnham in early 1967.[1] The results were promising enough that, in September 1967, New Zealand accepted the Australian design with modifications for domestic training and tropical operations.[2] Three decisions shaped the NZ variant:
- Cloth: Use a UK-sourced drill-green material that proved acceptable in tropical conditions and a viable replacement for heavier NZ DG in summer training.
- Cut: Adopt trousers with draw-cord cuffs and side-set cargo pockets (as opposed to front-set), and include a reinforced knee area, reflecting soldier feedback during trials in New Zealand and Vietnam.
- Closure: Retain the crossover waist with side buckles (“Gurkha”-style) on the NZ pattern trousers, preserving the familiar, adjustable fastening preferred by troops.[3]
Sizing followed the Australian scale, simplifying production and interchangeability. New Zealand formalised specifications as Purchase Description No. 106 (4 January 1968) for the shirt and a companion description for the trousers (5 February 1968), essentially creating the NZ 1967 Pattern “pixie” shirt and trousers.[4] [5]
Features, fixes and false starts
The trials were not without missteps. In a bid to modernise closures, an early NZ trouser run replaced waist buttons/buckles with Velcro. Pairs were shipped to the infantry in Vietnam for hard-use evaluation. The verdict was negative, Velcro clogged, wore poorly, and was noisy, and the idea was dropped.[6] Meanwhile, Australia transitioned from Mark 1 to Mark 2 (1968), expanding the size range and refining details, and New Zealand followed some of these changes by issuing a 1969 Pattern coat with twelve sizes.[7] Even so, colour shade variation, cloth strength inconsistencies, and user preferences would continue to plague the clothing throughout the next phase.[8]
Operational reality: mixed scales and supply pragmatism
Between 1957 and the early 1970s, New Zealand sustained forces in Malaya/Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam via a flexible “capitation” model: draw theatre-specific items from British (and later Australian) stocks, pay the bill, and top up with NZ-made kit where feasible. Between 1970 and 1974, as Britain withdrew east of Suez and Australia rationalised its supply, New Zealand matured its own catalogue. It maintained items in Singapore through the Australian/New Zealand 5 Advanced Ordnance Depot, often in parallel with Australian equivalents. Even then, soldiers frequently wore hybrid ensembles: British, Australian and NZ pieces intermixed by role, issue timing, and availability. The “pixie greens” were part of that mosaic, particularly for Vietnam-tasked contingents receiving substantial Australian clothing issues.
The turn homeward—and a change of heart (1971–74)
In 1971, New Zealand Army’s policy aimed to:
- Replace DG with a summer/tropical combat uniform (where the NZ “pixie” patterns should have shone), and
- Replace BD with a temperate/winter combat uniform.
A pilot at Papakura evaluated the 1967/69 “pixie” combat sets for garrison and training use in New Zealand. Results were mixed to poor: troops disliked the shade and texture variability, questioned durability, and preferred familiar DG for most warm-weather training tasks.
Regimental Sergeant Majors (RSMs) disliked them for their unsoldierly appearance. Minor redesigns and colour-control efforts followed, but confidence ebbed. In effect, New Zealand concluded that following Australia’s tropical path had not delivered a reliable, popular, all-round combat working dress for home conditions. Procurement was frozen pending a strategic reset.
Enter DPM—and the quiet sunset of Pixie Greens
While the “pixie” experiment stalled, New Zealand began formal trials (1974–75) of the UK 1968 Pattern Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) for temperate wear. Troops rated it highly, finding it comfortable, warm, well-designed, and, crucially, it answered the immediate temperature-climate problem that BD and ad-hoc layers could not solve. Approval was granted in December 1975, with a phased introduction from 1977/78, and domestic manufacture was to utilise imported cloth.
The tropical dress was left in the legacy of JG/DG until the late 1980s, when lightweight DPM shirts and trousers finally arrived. In Singapore, proposals to fit NZFORSEA with tropical DPM were declined in 1980 on operational/technical grounds (including IR signature considerations), keeping JG in service a little longer. By then, “pixie greens” had largely faded from view: no longer a national standard, occasionally encountered in remnants and photos, but not the backbone working dress their early promise suggested.
What the “Pixie Greens” episode taught New Zealand
- Design must match the use case
A cut that excels in jungle operations is not automatically ideal for New Zealand training cycles, climates, and soldier expectations. Home-training suitability matters because that’s where troops spend most days. - Cloth quality and colour control are decisive
“Green” is not a single thing. Shade, handle, drying time, abrasion resistance, and consistency across batches drive acceptance and longevity more than pattern geometry alone. - Iterate fast, but listen faster.
Velcro closures sounded modern; field users quickly proved they were impractical. Embedding troops early, across climates, saves time and money. - Standardise sensibly, sustain pragmatically.
The capitation era forced New Zealand to juggle UK, Australian, and NZ stock lines. The “pixie greens” story is also a supply-chain story: catalogue discipline, sizing alignment, and interchangeable specs reduce friction when allies withdraw or policies shift.
Legacy and memory
Ask a veteran of Southeast Asian training or service in Malaysia, and you may still hear about the “pixies”: light, practical, decent in the bush, yet never quite the right fit for New Zealand’s full spectrum of needs. Their real legacy is less sartorial than institutional. The trials, amendments, and eventual pivot to DPM matured New Zealand’s approach to combat clothing procurement: begin with a clear climate problem; test proven allied solutions; codify specifications tightly; privilege field feedback; and only then scale manufacture at home. The temperate DPM suite prospered under that discipline; tropical DPM followed once the case was equally strong. In that sense, the “pixie greens” were a necessary way-station, an experiment that taught New Zealand how to choose, not merely how to sew.
Size Range
Notes
[1] Army 246/78/5/Q(D) Trial Instructions Tropical Combat Dress (Aust) 11 January 1967. “Clothing – Clothing and Equipment Trials in Training,” Archives NZ No R9853144 (1966 – 1969).
[2] Army 213/1/106/Q(D) Tropical Combat Clothing Trial 11 September 1967. Ibid.
[3] Army 213/1/106/OS9 Trouser Combat Tropical Trial 4 January 1968.Ibid.
[4] NZ Army Purchase Description No 105 dated 4 January 1968. “Clothing – Men’s Drill Green Field Combat Tropical 1967 Pattern 1970-71,” Archives NZ No R24510756 (1970-71).
[5] NZ Army Purchase Description No 106 dated 5 February 1968. “Clothing – Trousers Men’s Drill Green Field Combat – Tropical 1967 Pattern,” Archives NZ No R24510754 (1968 -1968).
[6] Army 213/1/106/Q899 Trousers: Combat Tropical 28 March 1968
[7] NZ Army Purchase Description No 105A dated 23 October 1969. “Clothing – Men’s Drill Green Field Combat Tropical 1967 Pattern 1970-71.”
[8] Army 213/1/106/ord6 Trouser Combat Tropical 18 September 1968. “Clothing – Introduction of Combat Clothing Project.”
