Black beret

The black beret is a coloured beret, commonly worn by paramilitaries and militaries around the world, particularly armored forces such as the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment (RTR), the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps (RCAC), and Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) and the Indian Army Armoured Corps.

Notable non-armored military units to wear the black beret include the non-military police and non-special forces elements of the Irish Defence Forces, Russian Naval Infantry (and formerly Soviet) and Russian OMON units, the majority of the United States Army, and United States Air Force (USAF) Tactical Air Control Parties (TACPs).

The usage of black berets by militaries dates to World War I. During the war, the French Army's Chasseurs Alpins wore large black berets as a forage cap. In 1918, near the end of the war, British Army officers Hugh Elles and J. F. C. Fuller decided to outfit members of the Royal Tank Corps with black berets as the colour was least likely to show oil stains. The decision was approved by King George V on 5 March 1924, and black berets were used exclusively within the British Armed Forces as the headdress of the Royal Tank Corps during the interwar period and World War II. When uniforms were issued to the Royal Observer Corps (ROC), there was a surplus of Royal Armoured Corps black berets which were given to the ROC.^{[citation needed]}

One of the most famous photographs of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda was of him wearing a black beret with a gold star. Fidel Castro also wore a black beret during the revolution against the Batista government of Cuba. In the 1960s several activist groups adopted the beret.

The Argentine Navy's Batallón de Infantería de Marina 5 (5th Marine Battalion), of Falklands War Mount Tumbledown fame (1982), wears a black beret. This was introduced by (then) Commander Manuel Tomé around 1977, and the beret was awarded on completion of a Cold Weather and Mountain Warfare Course. Today, all units of the Southern Marine Force of the Argentine Marine Corps wear black berets with unit badges.

In the Australian Army, All RAAC Units (Royal Australian Armoured Corps), wear the black beret.

In the Austrian Bundesheer all armored units (Armored Battalions, Mechanized Infantry Battalions, Artillery Battalions and Mechanized Headquarter Battalions), wear the black beret.

In the Azerbaijani Armed Forces armored units of underwater offence of Azerbaijani Navy wear the black beret.