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Indochina French TAP lizard pattern


ARVNcollector
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  • 5 months later...

I found this TAP 47/53 smock at my local swap meet several years ago with a USAF sage green jacket. I can't conclusively prove it but I think they belonged to the same person since they were the only 2 Vietnam era items the seller had and because both items have the same "bleach" marks on them.

 

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2_back-7.jpg?resize=768%2C849

The TAP 47/53 also seems to have some stitch remnants of ARVN jump wings above the right pocket.

arvn_wing_remnent.jpg

 

It also had Mitchell camo shelter half fabric as reinforcements on the cuffs.

mitchellrepairs-768x1024.jpg

 

Would it even make sense for a USAF advisor to have worn this?

 

This is the USAF jacket:

1_front5-768x1024.jpg

tag10-768x1024.jpg

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  • 7 months later...

I think I have several shelter quarters made with this pattern of camo. I have not looked at them for a while so I am not positive. They were sold to me as "FFL" zeltbahns as used in Africa. I got them so cheap, I did not care if this was true or not. I think they all have 1950's dates on them, but I might be wrong. I do think the base color on them was more tan than green and they reversed to solid tan.

I guess I need to do some digging...

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Well with somes pictures we could help you to indentified them I had done a little post about the differents type of TAP 47 in an other forum I could publish it there:

 

- Veste de saut 47/51
Bariolée:
tap_4710.jpg
Kaki:
img_2028.jpgimg_2029.jpg
- Veste de saut 47/52
tap_4711.jpgtap_4712.jpg
Algérie:
- Veste de saut 47/53
2j2bzg10.jpg
- Veste de saut 47/54
tap_4716.jpg
tap_4715.jpg

 

for the TAP 47/56 you have a lot of exemple in this topic already !

 

Be carfull there is a lot of Greek or African remake of this pattern the stamps, the cut and the colors are not the sames

 

A.S.

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hello

 

yeah I see what it is, this is a Mle 1951 tent and poncho, they was used during the Algeria war and also a little bit during the Indochina war too. That 's not something realy rare we can find somes for 5€ but still a nice thing to have :) this one is from 1954 and was made at the Nante factory. The triangular form mean this is a early model made from 1951 to 1956. This was also used during the Algerian war and even in the 70's as cover helmet like on this TAP mle 51 :

65f2cc10.jpg

 

A.S

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This is how it look when its set up as tent

 

sans_t12.png

 

this can be also set with the german 1931 Zeltbahn reused by the french after the war and in Indochina

 

baagi_10.jpg

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Thanks for the information. They don't seem to be too common here in the U.S. I bought the 5 or 6 that I have back in the 80's and since then I have only seen a few others at gun shows & militaria shows. All the ones I have are un-issued except for one and I think that I sold that one to a friend about ten years ago. I was told that they were made at one of the French factories that made zeltbahns for the German army during WWII.

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Yeah there we can find this really easely but maybe one day they will start to be more wanted like the jackets TAP 47 56.... 10 years ago they were really easy to find at a good price... nowdays that's difficult to find one under 100€ some time you can find it into the Halloween section but the sellers are more and more informed about the price of military things

 

there was my little impression of an FFL NCO in Indochina with my Mle 1951 Poncho

dscn4419.jpg

 

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Yes this is a P42 trouser and an Denison smoke as jacket

dscn4428.jpg

 

yea after WW2 the french used a lot of differents uniforms, weapons and gears from the differents major armies like USA, UK, Germany and of course french stuff also

 

post-252933-0-93569000-1568736756_thumb.jpg

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Hey there I found this nice pic with an 47 /56 in 'Nam (could be a 53 )

 

attachicon.gifkkl2.jpg

 

A.S.

 

Very interesting pic, the beaver tail and lack of back pockets make it either a TAP 47/52 or 47/53 smock, the main difference being in the tabs around waist and wrists (not visible here).

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