Uganda Part 1: The Amin years (Copy)

Some notes on the uniforms and insignia of the Ugandan army, 1971-1979

Introduction.

On this page I attempt to sketch out a few rough thoughts about the appearance of the Ugandan army under Idi Amin. This topic deserves a detailed, full-length treatment, of the sort I am elsewhere attempting to give the Centrafrican army. I hope to be able to do the same for Uganda, someday, but at the time of writing I possess nowhere near the amount or quality of source material needed. However, seeing as this is a subject which (so far as I am aware) nobody has hitherto attempted to address, I think there may be some benefit in my setting out a few notes and impressions.

This page represents, I cannot over-emphasise, my personal conclusions, and nothing more — every single item here may be wrong in part or in whole, and is entirely at the mercy of corrections and clarifications. I would of course be sincerely grateful for any information any readers are able to offer.

It has, also, by this point, swelled to quite considerable length, much larger than I had initially envisaged. I’ll see what I can do about making it a bit more manageable, eventually.

The organisation of the army.

Trying to understand the organisation and order of battle of the Ugandan army is a rather tortuous matter. We have several large and immediate problems, as I will describe.

There’s no decisive army list anywhere. The Cooper & Fontanellaz book gives a concise, sensible one, but its sources are unclear. Meanwhile, there’s a longer and somewhat more eccentric one on Wikipedia, with sources — although these are of fairly limited use.

Many units seem to have borne multiple titles — for example, the 1st Battalion UA seems to have also been known as the 1st Regiment UA, the Jinja Battalion, and the “Eagle Colonel Gaddafi Battalion”. Now, of course, this is nothing strange in itself, a military unit is liable to be re-named. But it adds an extra layer of complexity in trying to ascertain whether two different names refer to the same unit, or to different ones — the case of the Malire Regiment and the Suicide Regiment (see below) is the worst example.

Many UA units are described various sources and locations as both “regiments” and “battalions”. I haven’t attempted to resolve this discrepancy and I’m hoping it isn’t important for uniformological purposes (though of course it’s highly relevant in other areas). Certainly, at independence, the army was organised and titled as battalions. Whether Amin increased these battalions to regimental strength, or the battalions were, or became, “regiments”, not in terms of numbers but in the British sense of having “regimental tradition”, or both, I don’t know. It seems (see the entire rest of the page) that the various army units were distinguished by their using differently-coloured distinctions, which is a “regimental” system in the British sense, although in the British African sense I would note that the various battalions of the King’s African Rifles employed distinguishing colours, although the KAR was a large umbrella-type regimental identity and its half-dozen or so battalions were spread out all over British east Africa, presumably with a high degree of autonomy in their command arrangements, etc. I use “regiment” on this page in preference to “battalion”, but this is solely for consistency.

A couple of units are also described as “brigades” — the Simba Battalion/Regiment is also occasionally called the “Simba Mechanised Brigade” and one also hears of the “Bugolobi Marine Brigade”. A unit being a “brigade” does, in theory, have the potential to bear on the uniforms — i.e., a brigade ought to have two regiments, which ought, in a British system, to have separate distinctions, but I’m proceeding on the assumption that any “named brigades” like these were, at best, over-strength regiments. There was also a “1st Brigade” and “2nd Brigade”, plus an “Eastern Brigade” and “"Western Brigade” — these were surely operational formations rather than unit identities.

The unit codes on vehicle number plates are probably much less helpful than they first appear. In the Cooper & Fontanellaz book, they state that the first two digits of the vehicle number plates correspond to the number of the unit. This certainly appears to be true some of the time — the unit which (from other evidence) we know to be the (5th) Malire Regiment seems to use “05UA” plates in the footage, at least sometimes. However, there are other occasions where I can say confidently that this system doesn’t apply:

In one piece of footage, we see a BTR-152 marked “1ST SIMBA MECH REGT” and immediately below “14UA52”. The Simba Regiment was either 1st in seniority, in which case one would expect “01UA”, or 4th, for “04UA”.
A jeep can be seen with “25UA70”. The UA absolutely did not have 25 numbered units.
A Land Rover with towed howitzer, and a military police Toyota, can both be seen with “09UA” plates.

It’s possible that, originally, it was intended that the number plates reflect regimental numbers, but either the system became unwieldy and stopped working, or was deliberately set aside for security reasons. At any rate, I don’t think it’s safe to base unit identifications on it, and so I haven’t here.

For reference, the codes I believe I’ve seen are:

05UA (Malire Regiment)
06UA (jeeps, and possibly some Suicide Regiment vehicles)
07UA (jeeps, SKOTs with black diamond insignia)
08UA (jeeps always(?) driven by Amin himself)
09UA (Land Rover with towed howitzer, military police Toyota)
14UA (BTR-152s of the Simba Regiment)
24UA (a Mercedes-Benz belonging to General Tizihwayo, sometime commander of the Western Brigade/Command)
25UA (a jeep)

General comments about the uniforms.

Colours. I use “khaki” here in the British sense — i.e., a relatively dark shade, and not in the American sense of a light tan. The latter I describe as “tan” etc.

Orders of dress. I use “no. 2 dress” to mean, basically, how that term would be understood in the British context, and “service dress” to refer to fatigue and camouflage uniforms — these were worn as campaign dress, internal service dress, exercise dress (etc.), but often also parade dress. Strictly speaking this is a corrupt use of language as, in the British army, no. 2 dress is a uniform, and not an order of dress — British “service dress” is no. 2 dress. But I trust this won’t cause any confusion.

No. 2 dress. Khaki (often with a notable green tinge) four-pocket tunic with silver buttons. Pointed cuffs with two buttons at each cuff. Tan shirt and necktie, the shades varying enormously. Khaki trousers and black leather shoes. A khaki peaked cap with brown chinstrap and khaki peak, or a rifle-green cap with black peak and chinstrap (see text).

Fatigues. An infinite variety of fatigues, bush hats, etc. Generally the shirts seem to have been more tan, and the trousers and hats more green, but I wouldn’t seek to be too dogmatic about this. M1 helmets and what seem to be Czechoslovak M53s also worn. Black boots worn with or without khaki gaiters.

Berets. A black beret was worn by the Suicide Regiment, and the “other airbone unit” wore rifle green berets. Dark green berets (possibly a shade lighter than rifle green?) were perhaps a generic headgear for vehicle crews, but this is extremely conjectural.

Officers’ side caps. These seem to have been consistent between branches — a rifle green side cap in British cut, the edges of the top fold seemingly piped black. Black buttons. Gold circular UA badge with pompon or similar behind. This seems to have been red for the army and light blue for the air force.

Officers’ peaked caps. I can find no obvious system in the use of khaki versus rifle-green caps by officers. It may simply have been a matter of personal taste. Lieutenant-colonels had one line of gold foliage, at the edge of the cap peak, colonels and above two rows.

Lanyards. The system here seems to have been that officers wore these on the right shoulder, and men (seemingly just NCOs) on the left shoulder. Unless I note otherwise, this is the system in use in the descriptions below.

Rank insignia. NCO chevrons seem to have only been worn on the right arm. Shoulder rank insignia followed the classic British system – e.g. a brigadier had the insignia of a “senior colonel”. The main difference is the constant presence of “Uganda Army” below the shoulder rank insignia, for officers and NCOs. On rank slides this was literally the words “UGANDA / ARMY” at the bottom of the slide, and on shoulder straps it was a metal device with “UGANDA” in an arc over “ARMY” (I think?) at the base of the shoulder strap. This device was worn below rank insignia for officers, and on its own for NCOs. Rank slides themselves seem to have consistently been light tan, with insignia and text in black or dark green. There might be some eccentricities here and there in the senior ranks’ collar tabs.

Earlier uniforms, and the transition to the Amin era.

Strictly outside the scope of this review, but I think it might be profitable to set out a couple of notes here.

4th Battalion, King’s African Rifles. The ancestor of the Ugandan army. For such a famous and hard-fighting corps, details of the KAR’s uniforms are strangely elusive, particularly the battalion distinctions. As far as I can discern, then. Enlisted men: a long shirt-tunic, tan, black buttons. Tan shorts. Red fez, green sash and lanyard. Blue puttees worn over socks of an unclear dark colour. On the upper sleeve a red circle with crossed swords. Officers: a four-pocket open-necked tan tunic, etc. Black buttons. Tan slouch hat.

The Ugandan army under Milton Obote. The 4th battalion KAR became the 1st battalion Uganda Rifles at some point in the immediate runup to Ugandan independence in 1962. At independence, or thereabouts, it was renamed the 1st battalion, Uganda Army. The 2nd battalion was raised in 1963, subsequent ones in due course.

In this period, army uniforms continued along KAR lines, with tan uniforms and “rifles” style distinctions (i.e., black buttons and dark NCO chevrons, use (by some units) of dark caps, socks, etc.). For parade (etc.) dress, enlisted men received a four-pocket closed-collar tunic, while officers continued with their open-collar tunic. Branch distinctions (differences in headgear, etc) seem to have sprung up rapidly — I don’t propose to go into detail about these. A fairly consistent feature of the uniforms seems to have been a patch, worn on the upper left sleeve of the tunic, or both sleeves: a green square, on which the Ugandan cockerel emblem on a white circle edged yellow. Presumably, this was intended to be a replacement for the red KAR patch described above. Fatigue uniforms were as they would continue to be. This is a whole separate topic and I’m barely scratching the surface of it here, no doubt.

This was the uniform in use at the time of Amin’s coup, and for a time afterwards — it is much in evidence at Mutesa II’s state funeral in April 1971 (indeed, this event is the best source of colour images and footage of it I am aware of).

Notable in the early footage is the prominent role played by the police — a large rifle-armed police honour guard formation with white tunics (officers: black) is often seen.

Introduction of the khaki no. 2 dress. The earliest certain appearance of the khaki no. 2 dress I can find is July 1971 — worn by Amin himself, on his visit to the UK. He also seems to be wearing it in a 1966 black-and-white photo, shown below — the colour is visibly darker than that worn by the NCO to his right. It seems to have taken longer to be rolled out to the army as a whole — I believe the earliest occasion of it being worn en masse that I can find is January 1972. I’m very hesitant to put solid dates on anything, but my best conjecture from the footage is that the tan four-pocket tunics were obsoleted at some point in the middle of 1972.

There seems to have possibly been a short transitional period where the no. 2 dress was worn with black “metal”, instead of silver — Amin himself is pictured with black buttons in the July 1971 footage I referred to, and another man can be seen with the same in November 1972. Elsewhere, an officer wears silver buttons but black rank pips.

Via Wikimedia Commons. (Copy)

What else became obsolete at this point? Obote-era footage of the army shows units in tan slouch hats and, elsewhere, rifle-green Balmoral caps with rifle-green hackles. These seem to have vanished, likewise the tan caps with dark (rifle-green?) bands which were much in evidence. The sleeve patches with the Ugandan emblem also disappeared. Waist sashes also seem to have fallen out of use around this time — some units had a sash in the Ugandan national colours, the police a red sash. Slouch hats continued to make the occasional appearance, e.g. the footage of the Tiger Regiment’s barracks in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait.

Generals and command staff.

Via Wikimedia Commons. (Copy)

© Le Figaro Films, Mara Films, TV Recontre. (Copy)

Generals’ uniforms. Army and air force generals were distinguished by their rank insignia, of course, and, in the case of no. 2 dress, a red cap band, sometimes a dark (dark blue or rifle green, unclear) cap crown, two rows of gold foliage on the cap peak and gold aiguillettes (piped red for army generals and light blue for air force generals). On some occasions army generals are seen with enormous twisted gold epaulettes, on which embroidered rank insignia on red backing. Often they seem to have worn the distinctions of (presumably) their unit of origin, to whatever extent. See also the Marine Regiment general in that section. Collar tabs seem to have been worn with service dress.

The cap badge was more elaborate, and seems to have varied somewhat in details between one and another. Army generals’ badge was a large gold wreath, in the middle of which (from top): the Ugandan cockerel head, a crossed sabre (top-left to bottom-right) and baton, and a scroll reading, I assume, “UGANDA ARMY”. Air force generals had the cockerel head, then an eagle with spread wings, then a scroll with “UGANDA AIR FORCE”.

A uniform which one tends to overlook, simply from how ubiquitous it is in the source material, is Amin’s iconic blue outfit. This seems to have been an air force general’s uniform — why this one appealed to him so much, out of the entire Ugandan military repertoire, I cannot guess, although it certainly made a handsome appearance. The cap badge seems to have been an army general’s, not an air force general’s.

© Uganda Broadcasting Corporation/Prestel. (Copy)

The “higher” structure of the army seems to have been two brigades, of varying titles. This is perhaps a little outside the scope of my enquiries here. At any rate, there seems to have been a general staff uniform, although details are hard to come by. Men seen around Amin in footage of early date can be seen wearing dark blue side caps with red tops and false peaks, dark blue top seam and trim to the false peak. These are the colours of the Malire Regiment, which is also prominent in this footage, but its officers seem to have all worn berets, which makes me think this is the general staff cap and the colours are a coincidence. A pre-coup photo of Amin, as army chief of staff, seems to show him wearing this cap. The lanyard had red in it, but I can’t comment further. Amin’s vehicle flag as pictured.

Regimental bands.

Bear with me here — I put this at the top for a reason. Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait gives us a good view of a band which I think the context requires must be the band of the 3rd (Tiger) Regiment. Rifle-green caps piped yellow. Rifle-green five-button (silver) four-pocket tunic with standing collar piped yellow, yellow trefoils atop green pointed cuffs piped yellow, rifle-green trousers piped yellow. Rifle-green swallows’ nests piped yellow. Some sort of yellow insignia on the collar. Yellow lyre badge on the upper arm. Yellow NCO chevrons. Yellow flounders at the right shoulder tied to the top tunic button and somewhere on the left breast. White belt, gold square buckle with silver central device. Rifle-green or black drums with a long scroll above the national arms, above something illegible, above another scroll, battle honours on either side. The drum-major with a gold officer style aiguillette on the left shoulder and a rifle-green ornamental drum belt piped gold(?). The conductor with the same time of aiguillette on the right shoulder. Brown Sam Browne belt, sword, etc.

I have seen a couple of clips where dignitaries arriving at Entebbe Airport are greeted by a band which seems to be mostly the Tiger Regiment band —or, at least, another band with the same uniform— but with a handful of men off to one side are wearing what seems to be the same uniform but with the yellow distinctions (except the trouser stripes, oddly) in red, blue or green. So I wonder if what we’re seeing here is an illustration of the colour schemes of the four senior regiments. The Tiger Regiment must have worn yellow (below) and I can make a tenuous case for giving blue to the Simba Regiment (see below). Red and green, then, for the Jinja Regiment and the Gondo Regiment, or vice-versa, which feels plausible. Red is a good generic colour and green, of course, goes to the “Uganda Rifles” heritage of the army, so again a good and decent colour. I just now need more evidence to make attributions here.

In earlier footage the bands seem to have worn sashes under their belts — perhaps of similar colour to those worn by the “special police” (see their section).

1st (“Simba”) Infantry Regiment / Mechanised Regiment.

Cooper & Fontanellaz note this regiment as the 4th, but I think the preponderance of evidence requires that it be the 1st. Let me explain:

The BTR-152 seen in the Tanzanian “Vita vya Kagera” film labelled “1st Simba Mech Regt” is probably decisive. Though it could potentially be intended to read “1st Bn, Simba Mech Regt”, or, if the “Simba” actually was a “Brigade”, as it’s occasionally described, it could be the 1st Simba Regiment as opposed to, I guess, the 2nd Simba Regiment. But to me these are much less likely.
Cooper & Fontanellaz’ Ugandan order of battle for Simba Hills is the Suicide Regiment and the “1st Infantry Battalion”. Their account of the battle has this force lose SKOTs and T-55s to the Tanzanians. The SKOTs aren’t determinative but, we know (from C&F) that the Simba Regiment had T-55s, and we don’t hear of any other unit also having them. So I think this suggests that the 1st Infantry Battalion and the Simba Regiment were the same unit.

The above photo, while horrible both in quality and in subject-matter, is quite exceptional in that it’s explicitly captioned as showing the Simba Regiment (in a clipping from “The Star” newspaper — I think this is the Daily Star of Tanzania). The lack of colour is of course to be regretted, but we can make out FN FALs and, interestingly, berets. This photo (September 1972) predates the unit becoming formally “mechanised” so the berets were, perhaps, worn by the crews of its jeeps or whatever enclosed vehicles they may have had at this point (unclear).

I think it is very likely that my unidentified unit 1 is this unit. The use of blue vehicle flags/pennants perhaps implies blue was the regimental colour — if so, the blue lanyards, tank helmets, and heavy use of rifle-green caps (to me, the latter is a nice “senior reigment” distinction) of unidentified unit 1 all link together I think.

Beyond this, I can’t say much about this unit’s uniforms. If the T-55s with tank riders (below) belong to this regiment then the vehicle crews seem to have had green berets. In wartime footage they appear with what seems to be Zairian “leopard” camouflage.

The regiment was upgraded to a mechanised unit in April 1973 (per US diplomatic cable 1973KAMPAL01195) and not Cooper & Fontanellaz’s 1978. Footage from the Tanzanian “Vita vya Kagera” film shows a Soviet BTR-152 labelled as seen. We see a BTR-152 with “14UA” number plate in other footage (dated January 1976, so far as I can tell), leading a column of SKOTs. C&F don’t give SKOTs to this unit, but I think it’s plausible. The pennant on the BTR isn’t wholly legible, but the final letters are “M R”, presumably for “Mechanised Regiment”. All vehicles seem to be solid green — the BTR in the “Viyta” footage seems to have some sort of yellowish rectangle on the side, but I couldn’t guess whether or not that’s meant to be insignia.

The same January 1976 footage also shows several jeeps, which I think must belong to the same unit as the BTRs and SKOTs. They seem to be in plain green. The pennant is illegible.

I choose to assign the T-55s I’ve seen in footage to this unit — they had T-55s, I haven’t read of any other units having them, and the January 1976 footage I’ve discussed above also shows T-55s in the vehicle procession (though, that in itself doesn’t mean all the vehicles belonged to the same unit, of course). That footage is the earliest appearance of the T-55s I can find. They have a very distinctive, hard-to-describe camouflage: on a darkish green, a light pattern consisting of broadly circular clusters of dots, each cluster with a “tail” of three strokes. The density of the dot/cluster arrangements, and their regularity, seems to vary between tanks. There’s also a few random broad strokes of the lighter colour, on which the pattern continues, but in a dark colour, probably the base darkish green. Perhaps other tanks simply had blotches instead of dot/cluster arrangements.

In another piece of footage (from 1978) we see one T-55 flying a flag with blue field, possibly with black bars top and bottom. There’s also possibly some sort of circular insignia forward of the tactical number, but it’s illegible.

The SKOTs of unidentified unit 18 have a different, but similar in ambience, camouflage pattern, so I’m tempted to attribute those to the Simbas also, but the footage discussed above seems to show them with plain SKOTs, contemporary to this camouflage on the T-55s.

3rd (“Tiger”) Infantry Regiment.

The best attested of the infantry regiments, thanks to their appearance in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait. The identification comes from an officer naming the unit in one scene.

Tiger Regiment (no. 2 dress). No. 2 dress, etc. Brown cap band and cloth peak, some officers with rifle-green caps. Yellow lanyard. Officer rank insignia and cap badge sometimes with a yellow backing, likewise occasionally the men’s (or at least, the NCOs’). White belt with gold buckle and silver central device.

Tiger Regiment (service dress). Fatigues, etc. Yellow stable belt. Dark green(?) socks with yellow tops and flashes, worn with khaki gaiters etc. Yellow lanyard. Slouch hat with light tan band and, on the turn-up, a gold UA badge on a yellow backing. It looks almost like a bugle-horn shape on the one example I have seen (pictured above) but could simply be a square at 45 degrees). A shot in the Tanzanian “Vita vya Kagera” film appears to show a corpse with the yellow belt of this unit, and a jacket in Zairian “leopard” camouflage — for decorum I don’t show this here.

Tiger Regiment (flags). The regimental colours seem to have been the standard type — exact details unclear.

5th (“Malire”) Mechanised Regiment, aka(?) the Suicide Mechanised Regiment.

Structure etc. This is a considerable vexation. There was, unquestionably, a 5th Regiment, which was mechanised and originally based at Malire — hence, the Malire Regiment, Malire Mechanised Regiment, etc. This unit was established in 1967 (Omara-Otunnu) and took a leading role in Amin’s coup in 1971. During Amin’s reign, we hear much of the vividly titled Suicide Regiment, Suicide Mechanised Regiment, etc. The question, which sadly I can’t answer to my own complete satisfaction, is — were these two different units, or did the Malire Regiment become the Suicide Regiment?

Evidence inclining towards them being the same unit.

There’s footage of Amin inspecting the Malire Regiment shortly after the coup (it is, unarguably, this regiment we see). They clearly wear blue-over-red stable belts. Undated, but very late (late 1978 probably) footage shows Amin visiting the barracks of the Suicide Regiment where, again, blue-over-red stable belts are in evidence. There’s plenty of intermediate-date footage with blue-over-red stable belts (e.g. “Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait”) but as none of this identifies the men seen, it has no diagnostic value here. Anyway, in an army with a British-style regimental system like Uganda’s, two regiments having the same stable belt feels implausible.
Cooper & Fontanellaz treat the two units as identical, although it’s unclear on what basis.
Potentially, it’s the Shermans. The UA seems to only have had twelve of these, and the idea of them being split between two units feels highly implausible. “The Malire Regiment” had Shermans, and if I could find a good primary description of “the Suicide Regiment” also having Shermans, I think that would settle the matter.

Evidence inclining towards them being different units.

One can find contemporary mentions of them being different units and, more pressingly, being based in different places. For example, US diplomatic cable 1978BONN08787 reads: “…President Amin relieved Lt. Col. Nasur from his post as commander of the ‘Suicide Regiment’ in Masaka… the president may also be aiming at curtailing the influence of the so-called ‘group of Nubians’ in the army, whose center of power is the Malire Regiment in Bombo, north of Kampala”.
In all the permutations of these units’ names, I’ve never seen e.g. “the Malire Suicide Regiment”, or anything else with both “Malire” and “Suicide” in it.

For the purposes of this section I’m going to treat the Malire Regiment and the Suicide Regiment as the same unit — in any event, even if they’re different units, I have no framework for distinguishing the two visually. Where an item appears in the specific context of “the Malire Regiment” or “the Suicide Regiment” I’ve noted that, however — if they’re the same unit then this is of course an imaginary distinction.

Malire Regiment (service dress). Fatigues, etc. A few men in Czechoslovak “mlok” camouflage. Navy-over-red stable belt with gold buckle. Black beret with gold circular UA badge. Red lanyard. Amin appears in footage wearing the belt of this unit and a twisted navy and red lanyard. Nobody else is wearing such a lanyard in this footage but it appears elsewhere. Amin, while wearing the belt and lanyard of this unit, also wears what I think is an air force side cap with light blue pompon, red centre and gold UA badge (the last two items may be non-standard for the air force). Light NCO chevrons. In 1971, Sterling SMGs and G3 rifles also. Later, AKs of some model, probably G3s also.

Malire Regiment (full dress). The identification comes from the description accompanying a random bit of footage in the British Pathé archives – I believe it to be correct. Black glengarry cap with red and white diced band. Gold circular badge (the UA badge, presumably) on a black flash. Rifle green tunic in “highland” cut. Open neck with three silver(?) front buttons, breast pockets with buttons, no skirt pockets. Plain shoulder straps. Tan shirt with tartan tie. White belt with gold square buckle with silver central device. White sporrans. Tartan kilt and socks. Black boots with khaki gaiters or socks outside the tartan socks. The tartan itself is red predominantly – “Royal Stuart” or some such. Red lanyard. The men equipped with G3 rifles and bayonets. The bayonet scabbard on a white baldric attached to the waistbelt. Officers with brown Sam Browne belts. Bandsmen the same uniform but with rifle green swallows’ nests with red trim. A couple men seem to have a red lyre device on their lower left sleeve. Dark blue(?) drums with the national arms, above something illegible, with battle honours at either side.

Malire/Suicide Regiment (flags). The Malire Regiment’s regimental colours seem to have been the standard type — exact details unclear. An indistinct navy-over-red camp colour with gold text for the Suicide Regiment. For the Malire Regiment: a white or yellow company flag reading “A-COY” in black, below a disc with the Ugandan cockerel. A red company flag reading “[x]-COY” in white (presumably also with the disc). A black company flag with obv. the UA badge on a red circle and rev. “H-Q-COY” in white. A Sherman on parade has some sort of red, blue and white flag, and a SKOT, on a different occasion, a little blue over red diagonal pennant.

The unidentified mechanised unit in “Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait” (service dress). Fatigues, etc. Navy-over-red stable belt with gold buckle. Amin, visiting this unit, wears a black beret with gold circular UA badge on a halved navy (wearer’s right) and red (wearer’s left) backing. This obviously isn’t the general staff beret so may be this unit’s. Other men can be seen with black berets and gold circular UA badges – distance prevents a conclusion re: whether the backing is also there. Red lanyard. Navy socks with red top worn turned over, under khaki puttees or gaiters or similar. Red “flashes” in Scottish style. G3 rifles.

Unidentified mechanised units seen elsewhere (service dress). Fatigues, etc. Items of “lizard” camouflage. Navy-over-red stable belt with gold buckle. Red or entwined red and navy lanyard. A few men can be seen with slouch hats with gold circular UA badge atop a navy (left) and red (right) flash — cf. the badge on Amin’s beret pictured above. The band is a very light tan with, seemingly, a thin red strip at the top. G3 rifles.

Malire/Suicide Regiment (Shermans). At the time of the coup, the Shermans had a white disc on the front right of the glacis plate, and a full-colour UA badge on a white square on the left. There seems to have been no other insignia. By early 1972 this had changed to a green-over-red square flash on the front left, left and rear left. Full-colour UA badge on a white square on the rear right. Shermans are seen in the Kagera War with, seemingly, no insignia.

Malire/Suicide Regiment (SKOTs). A flash on the front right and front left — presumably introduced at the same time as this insignia was for the Shermans. A captured SKOT, paraded in Tanzania after the war, still has this insignia.

Malire/Suicide Regiment (Jeeps). As seen.

Malire/Suicide Regiment (Ferret armoured cars). I’ve only seen the one sad example pictured here — no insignia visible.

Malire/Suicide Regiment (T-34s). Cooper & Fontanellaz give these to the Suicide Regiment. Seen in this item of footage, from this angle, and nowhere else. Solid green — some sort of white thing on the front right, but impossible to tell if it’s insignia or something else.

Suicide Revolutionary Jazz Band. A real thing! Their evidently hand-made banner had the UA crest as its central device.

Airborne.

Structure. There was a 2nd Para[chute? trooper?] Battalion – vividly entitled the “Mountains of the Moon Battalion”. Cooper & Fontanellaz don’t list a 1st Battalion. Neither does the Wikipedia list, but it lists, as a separate unit, the “Paratroopers Military School”. The paratroopers indeed had a school (amusingly depicted in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait), but it feels implausible that this would have been a discrete military unit in itself. The news article Wikipedia cites as its source is unhelpful. However – in Autoportrait we see Amin at the paratrooper school, firing a G3 rifle marked “PS 555”. 1975 footage taken in Kampala shows men in paratrooper uniforms providing security at a ceremony, one of whom is behind a heavy machine-gun marked “HQ 1 PS”. If “PS” stands for “Paratrooper School” then perhaps, indeed, these men could be mobilised and sent on duties in their own right.

At any rate, I think I only see one set of paratrooper unit distinctions.

Airborne (no. 2 dress). No. 2 dress, etc. Brown cap band and cloth peak. Silver parachutist badge on cap band and left breast. Red lanyard. White belt, buckle unclear.

Airborne (service dress). Fatigues, etc, “lizard” camouflage or “mlok” camouflage. Red beret with silver parachutist badge or the gold UA circular badge (the latter perhaps more common). A second silver parachutist badge on the left breast. Red stable belt. Red lanyard – hard to distinguish rank in the footage but probably the same left shoulder/right shoulder distinction as for no. 2 dress. Red-brown “jump boots”. Alternatively, shorts with grey socks with red tops, worn with gaiters. An officer with rifle green side cap, officer’s side cap badge, silver parachute badge pinned to the left. Helmet with indistinct brownish camouflage cover. G3 rifles with collapsible stocks.

Airborne (flags). Indistinct pair of national and regimental colours — the latter maybe blue instead of the typical green? A red camp colour with “AIR BORNE”(?) and further illegible text, in white, above presumably a winged parachute or similar. Note that the image above is flipped horizontally in order for the flag to be legible.

Some sort of other airborne unit(?) (service dress). These men seem to parade behind the “red beret” paratroopers, but separately, and they don’t wear red belts or berets, at least not on parade. They have a distinctive high-stepping quick march and some men seem to wear knives on their belts. Some sort of elite or commando type unit, I imagine. There was possibly a unit actually called the “Commandos” — if so, probably them. “Lizard” camouflage. Rifle-green berets or M1 helmets or liners in a shiny blueish grey colour, at least for parade purposes. Red lanyards. Light chevrons. One man has some sort of yellow upper sleeve insignia, seemingly an eagle descending to attack a serpent or etc (see the flag below). G3 rifles with collapsible stocks. The stable belt seems to have been some red and yellow combination, if I’ve placed this man correctly. Black-and-white photographs of the notorious Abdallah Nasur show him wearing a rifle-green side cap with a small badge with the eagle device, as well as a two-colour lanyard and a stable belt which doesn’t seem to be the same pattern as the one two images to the left.

Some sort of other airborne unit(?) (no. 2 dress). I assume from the upper sleeve insignia that this man belongs to this unit.

This other unit (flags). A splendid, fantastical two-man flag. A golden winded parachute, over a dark green(?) disc with gold edge. Inside the disc is a gold eagle, its wings extending outside the disc, grabbing a snake or similar with its claws. The field seems to be “lizard” camouflage(!).

The Artillery and Signals Regiment.

These two branches were, for whatever reason, combined together. I’ve seen Amin wearing the above stable belt — it’s a conjecture but, the British Royal Artillery wears a belt of this pattern so, I think this is probably a safe guess. The rest of the uniform is olive green with the rifle-green officer side cap.

Footage shows men in black berets and fatigues with vehicle-towed artillery — I must assume this is, also, this regiment. The use of 09UA registrations is very odd as we also see 09UA on a military police vehicle, and that vehicle also has military police flashes, so it can’t be one which they just borrowed. More evidence needed. The artillery vehicles seem to have no flashes anywhere.

The Marine Regiment.

Marine Regiment (no. 2 dress). White cap (red band for officers) with black chinstrap and peak. White embroidered badge (in the general style of the UA badge) on navy blue backing. Navy blue open-collar tunic with silver buttons. White shirt and black tie. A closely twisted white and blue(?) double(?) lanyard. Arced upper sleeve title reading “UGANDA ARMY / MARINES” in light blue on dark blue. Navy blue trousers with broad light blue stripe. White belt with gold square buckle and silver central device. Some men may have had gold open buckles. Officers black leather etc. Bandsmen seem to have had a gold aiguillette.

See also my comments below on “07UA” and unidentified unit 4.

Marine Regiment (service dress). I can’t find this. My “unidentified unit 4” would have been my guess except it seems like I can see a guy with that lanyard in khaki no. 2 dress, which would seem to rule out this unit. Unidentified unit 12 another possibility.

Marine Regiment (flags). The regimental colour was white with the Ugandan flag in the top-left and the UA badge, encircled (exact colours unclear) on the right.

The Military Police.

Uniforms. This one has a few variations. The initial uniform seems to have been a red cap and red-brown belt with gold circular buckle, worn over a red waist sash. Then, a red (crown)/rifle green (band) cap with a red-over-rifle-green stable belt. Finally, a red (crown)/white (band) cap with a red-over-white stable belt. One man can be seen with a rifle-green(?)(crown) / red (band) cap. The lanyard seems to first have been red, then two lanyards, one red and one white — or just one of the two. One man seems to have a dark lanyard of unclear colour. Socks seem to have been all red, or green with red tops, then later green (a dark olive-green, not rifle-green) with white-over-red tops (i.e. red on top when folded over). These presumably changed alongside the changes in cap, more or less. These were often worn with white or khaki gaiters or puttees or similar, or khaki ones. Gold UA badge. Light chevrons. Pistols, sterling SMGs, G3 rifles, some sort of AK with collapsible stock, an RPD machine gun(!) and I think I see an Uzi as well. Some type of helmet (as pictured), poorly painted red. One man has a slouch hat, the flash etc sadly invisible. A colonel can be seen with collar tabs and an incongruous green beret, seemingly with some kind of gold square badge. Officers seemingly could also wear the rifle-green side cap. Officers and men can be seen in no. 2 dress, but not often. A colonel or brigadier can be seen with rifle green cap with red-over-white band, gold UA badge. A man’s head, briefly seen at Amin’s wedding, may be an MP — if so, a solid khaki cap but a red-over-white backing to the cap badge (which is perhaps not the standard UA one). Two men, I think MPs, can be distantly seen wearing greatcoats.

Towards the end of Amin’s reign, the military police can be seen wearing very fetching red jungle hats — the screenshot here is from post-Amin footage but the hats can be seen in the Amin period as well.

Vehicle insignia. As pictured. The use of 09UA here is confusing, as this can also be seen on an artillery tractor (see the Artillery and Signals Regiment, above ). This may have been the “miscellaneous units” code, perhaps.

The Air Force.

Air Force (no. 2 dress). Air force blue cap, tunic and trousers. Cap with black peak and chinstrap. Gold embroidered air force badge on dark blue backing. Four-button open-collared tunic. Silver(?) buttons. Light blue lanyard. Pilot wings above left pocket when worn. The only NCO chevrons I can see are army-style tan on khaki but no doubt there were appropriately coloured ones also. White belt with gold buckle with silver central device. Brown belt etc for officers.

Air Force (service dress). Khaki beret or dark side cap — the colour is frustratingly unclear but either the typical rifle-green or dark blue. The pompon light blue, unclear badge. Amin is seen once with this pompon, but wearing an army uniform — there it has a red centre and gold circular UA badge, which may be a personal touch. Light greyish blue shirt, model 37 type belt and fatigue trousers. White NCO chevrons, officers with dark blue rank slides. The actual flying uniform was a blueish grey overall, worn with rank slides. Note that these slides read “Uganda Army” — presumably the metal arc when metal insignia was worn also did.

Air Force (band). As seen. Blue uniform with yellow facings, etc.

Air Force (flags). The air force honour guard seems to have had army-style flags, down to the green regimental colour. Elsewhere, a blue camp colour with indecipherable emblem and “AIR FORCE” below. The flag of the deliciously named “Suicide Strike Command” as seen.

The State Research Bureau.

A slightly excitable NBC news report (undated) says that Amin’s “S-Men” can be identified by their distinctive dark glasses, worn around the clock, and their car number plates, which supposedly all begin with “UVS”.

The Police.

There seem to have been a few different types of police, and sorting them out is difficult.

“Normal police.” Service dress uniform a distinctive light greenish grey colour, the tunic sometimes with short sleeves. Black caps, lanyards, socks and leather, silver buttons. Black or black with two white stripe stable belts can be seen, rarely. Black NCO chevrons on an olive-drab base. Officers seem to have worn their lanyards on the left, at least sometimes. Confusing picture with senior officers. Lieutenant-colonels (or equivalent) seem to have had one row of silver foliage on the cap and short black collar patches with silver embroidery. Full colonels (or equivalent) had two rows. Officer shoulder insignia had black backing or was on black slides. The cap badge the Ugandan cockerel above a scroll, inside a wreath. Full dress uniform a black four-pocket tunic with silver buttons etc. Black leather. Broad red trouser stripes. On at least one officer, in the black uniform, the lanyard seems to be twisted black and white.

“Red insignia police.” As above but with red double lanyards. A colonel seen in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait wears red collar patches and a red rank slide as well as the red lanyard.

Another police unit. Black caps. Dark grey uniform with brown leather. Red trouser stripes.

Motor police(?) White tunic, etc. These men can be seen doing escort duty on motorbikes with white helmets, etc. etc.

Unidentified Units.

Some speculation about the senior infantry regiments. As I set out at the top of the page, my current working guess is that the four senior regiments were distinguished from each other by the use of red, yellow, blue or green details. I am quite confident I can identify the 3rd Infantry Regiment (see above), which unit used solid yellow lanyards and stable belts. From this starting point, I might then conjecture as follows:

A single man can be seen in footage with a solid green lanyard and stable belt (my unidentified unit 15). Let’s assume, as I have done, that he’s from another of the four senior regiments — if so, it’s perhaps surprising a senior unit should be so rare in the source material, but let’s put that aside for now.
Men can be seen with solid red lanyards (unidentified unit 7) and solid blue lanyards (unidentified unit 1). Following the scheme described above, these ought to be the two other senior regiments.
The paratroopers made much use of solid red lanyards and stable belts — these are seen very commonly in the source material.
Solid red lanyards seem to have been used by the Malire Regiment as well — perhaps also, at points, twisted red and blue ones, but solid red ones are much seen, including on their highland full dress uniform, which one might imagine was a “perfected” uniform.
I assume that two different units wouldn’t have worn the same distinctions. So, if a solid red lanyard and, especially, solid red stable belt, were taken by the paratroopers, perhaps the “red senior infantry regiment” was obliged to to use a different scheme. If so, the red and yellow distinctions of unidentified unit 16 might be a reasonable guess, although this is complicated by one of the figures I picture for this unit wearing a yellow, rather than a red, backing to his cap badge.
I’ve never seen a solid blue stable belt in use, so, perhaps the “blue senior infantry regiment” used something else. Unidentified units 4 and 12 both used blue and white belts, and indeed they may be the same unit. But unidentified unit 4 seems to have also worn a blue and white lanyard, instead of solid blue — this presents rather a serious obstacle.

Further material will hopefully shine further light on this issue.

Unidentified unit 1. These men are seen in both early and late footage. I think it is almost certain this is the Simba Regiment. Blue lanyards. No. 2 dress: rifle-green cap, white belt with gold buckle, light NCO chevrons. This seems to be the only unit where the men consistently wear rifle-green caps — if these are the Simbas, a nice distinction for the senior regiment. Service dress: fatigues etc. or “lizard” camouflage on a few men. AK rifles, magazines in a mix of G3/FAL pouches and locally-made pouches on shoulder straps. The helmets seem to be Czechoskovak M53s(?). A few men have Soviet-style tank helmets — again, we know the Simba Regiment was mechanised.

Unidentified unit 2. Red beret, yellow(?) lanyard and stable belt in some red and yellow (and black?) combination. I think this can’t be the unit below because of the difference in beret colour.

Unidentified unit 3. The grey no. 2 dress and unusual cap badge suggests something outside the army. The national flag colours stable belt and cap band is reminiscent of the “special police”, but the shiny buttons, lack of shoulder patch and different cap badge I think rule this out.

Unidentified unit 4. As seen. I had, tentatively, assigned the man in the first image to unidentified unit 1, but I think I see a second man with the same stable belt (white-over-navy, large central buckle) in a separate piece of very low quality footage. This man seems to have a closely twisted blue and white lanyard, which means he can’t be part of unidentified unit 1, which had solid blue lanyards. The first man is, of course, wearing Zairian “leopard” camouflage.