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Was this Assault vest at D Day?


rayg
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Uh, just for the record- there was ONE batch of these made up by four (and possibly a fifth) companies. They were rushed to England arriving just in time to be issued for the invasion, so no- there was not much of a chance for much variation. Other people have confirmed that things are pretty standard in the ones made by the same company. I'd go around collecting photos of the different ones, but I have enough to do already.

 

Some of them did not get shipped I time, and as far as we can tell stayed here in the states until being surplused off in mint shape. Many of these were sold as fishing vests, and I know of one guy who bought a lot of 5 fishing vests- 2 of them were actually AJs. I also know of a surplus store in NH that sold them as fishing vests at one time (years ago). And my OD7 example was one of those from a surplus store ages ago. .

 

Clearly this one has been washed and aged. When I saw the rotted canvas I immediately thought of bleach. It could even have been used in one of the reenactor landings in salt water, and an even greater chemical reaction from that.

 

My understanding is that ATF (not the first to make them) started off making very close copies, but at some point started using thread that glowed. No idea if that is still true or if he's gone back because people complained. I begged him not to use the real company names in his fakes, but of course "no one will buy them if he misspells a name, or otherwise marks it as fake as it would ruin people's Karma."

 

And as to this a comment about them being waterproofed or having 'stuff' put on them, I have NEVER, EVER heard or seen anything to indicate that. It makes no logical sense, and not one vet I ever talked mentioned anything about that. Neither did any of the records of them, and I would expect if this was done it would have probably been mentioned in the USMC trial papers on them saying it was a good idea, or a bad idea.

 

These things are RARE folks. And they have been reproduced for a long time- and people have tried from the start to age them and make them look real. Unless you have a firm provenance (and I mean firm), and it matches a known real one very carefully (and by real I am going to say it needs to date back before about 1996) then you can dream on, but that is not going to make it real.

 

It NEVER ceases to amaze me what people say about these things. I have been lectured to at shows about them by people who have no clue, and then cite my books as their source. There is NO rhyme or reason about the colors. They were issued as they arrived in whatever color it had been made. both OD 3 and OD7 are correct for any of the units that got them (1st, 29th and a "few" Ranger officers)

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Johan Willaert

They were rushed to England arriving just in time to be issued for the invasion, so no- there was not much of a chance for much variation.

 

At least when these were issued GIs seemed to be excited about them....

 

Camp D-4, Dorchester, England, Late May 1944

post-92-0-96497200-1391245984.jpg

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At least when these were issued GIs seemed to be excited about them....

 

Camp D-4, Dorchester, England, Late May 1944

 

Maybe they knew what prices those vests would going to bring 70 years in the future... :P

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The excitement did not last long (great photo by the way). A number of guys knew they would be a problem and either never took them, or in a few cases left them on the boats. And fi you have ever wore one when it was a reasonable temp out and you are moving around you sweat to death it. Which curiously was the problem with the first modern US Army 'vests' as they had not done their home work.

 

I think this photo could be captioned "all the training the GIs got on assault jackets." they were handed them. That's it. They had to figure it all out themselves.

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Johan Willaert

correct for any of the units that got them (1st, 29th and a "few" Ranger officers)

 

Many years ago I corresponded with several Normandy Ranger veterans about all kinds of things amongst which Ranger use of the AJ on D-Day...

 

From Richard Merrill (E/2nd Rangers) who seemed to have worn a cut down AJ...

 

post-92-0-22135900-1391438959.jpg

 

 

 

From Tom Herring (5th Rangers)...

 

post-92-0-54394200-1391438990.jpg

 

 

Period pictures clearly show Rudder wore an AJ over his Tanker Jacket both during embarkation and at the Pointe du Hoc...

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