Montgomery made a great effort to appear before troops as often as possible, frequently visiting various units and making himself known to the men, often arranging for cigarettes to be distributed. Although he still wore a standard British officer's cap on arrival in the desert, he briefly wore an Australian broad-brimmed hat before switching to wearing the black beret (with the badge of the Royal Tank Regiment next to the British General Officer's badge) for which he became notable. The black beret had been given to him by a soldier when he climbing into a tank to get a closer look at the front lines. Both Brooke and Alexander were astonished by the change in atmosphere when they visited on 19 August, less than a week after Montgomery had taken command.