Facebook page: Authentic Farbs

[124cav]

This is a fave of mine.

 

117th Cavalry Recon Sqn troopers with M1A1 Carbines in Nth Africa

[Innerworld3]

Really love this Facebook page. It's a good eye opener to the more uncommon ways soldiers may have worn their gear.

[VladimirBerkov]

Interesting US Navy officer wearing what is possible a dark blue CPO shirt, or civilian shirt even!

[AnDuc49]

Presumably in Vietnam, USMC general officer inspecting troops wearing a WWII HBT uniform, with the troops wearing various graffiti on their helmets.

Any idea on the strap over the helmet on the first guy in the pic? Looks kind of like a rigger liner strap.

[ww2imp]

And finally... yes, there were large soldiers who participated in World War II.

 

I've seen this photo before. I figured the overweight guy would be a REMF. He's gotta be an officer with a jeep. I wonder how he laced his Jump boots being that someone that big usually has difficulty doing so or did he have an orderly to help him. You can't fault him for having the guts to be assigned to gliders. But damn if he is able to keep up... The supply sergeant definately had to be creative to keep him outfitted.

 

I once heard a story about how a supply sergeant someplace had to special order a US helmet that was bigger than the standard size because someone's head was just too big. One can imagine how a GI's helmet was litterally his bathtub!

[willysmb44]

 

The supply sergeant definately had to be creative to keep him outfitted.

 

I once heard a story about how a supply sergeant someplace had to special order a US helmet that was bigger than the standard size because someone's head was just too big. One can imagine how a GI's helmet was litterally his bathtub!

 

I've always been curious to see soldiers well smaller than normal, but let's face it; most re-enactors would rather focus on the larger guys.

In my unit when i was active duty, we had a female who had fete so small, there were no production size boots made for the DoD for her. I can't recall the size now but I think it was like a woman's size 2 or something like that.

i had to sign off for a medical request to make a specially-fitted set of combat boots for her. One pair, that's all they'd make her.

Of course, that's nuts, nobody makes do on only one pair of boots for everything in the Army. She found a good answer for that, by buying boots make for kids. She found a company who made them pretty well, almost as good as the rest of ours.

There was a soldier in another company in our Batt who had a head well larger than an 8. They had to custom make BDUs caps for him. I never met the guy but I always wondered how they fuit him for a K-pot. I wear about a 7 5/8 but the XL kevlar (which many soldiers would argue with me didn't exist, I had to take mine off plenty of time to show the size to people if it came up in discussion) fit me fine. I doubt an XL pot would have fit this guy and I never found out what they did for him for a pot...

But I've never heard of a custom pot during WW2.

[gwb123]

That's the fun about "Authentic Farbs"... never say that "it" never happened. As soon as you do, somebody will prove that "it" happened.

 

They really have a big thing about combat troops wearing beards.

[VladimirBerkov]

 

I've always been curious to see soldiers well smaller than normal, but let's face it; most re-enactors would rather focus on the larger guys.

In my unit when i was active duty, we had a female who had fete so small, there were no production size boots made for the DoD for her. I can't recall the size now but I think it was like a woman's size 2 or something like that.

i had to sign off for a medical request to make a specially-fitted set of combat boots for her. One pair, that's all they'd make her.

Of course, that's nuts, nobody makes do on only one pair of boots for everything in the Army. She found a good answer for that, by buying boots make for kids. She found a company who made them pretty well, almost as good as the rest of ours.

There was a soldier in another company in our Batt who had a head well larger than an 8. They had to custom make BDUs caps for him. I never met the guy but I always wondered how they fuit him for a K-pot. I wear about a 7 5/8 but the XL kevlar (which many soldiers would argue with me didn't exist, I had to take mine off plenty of time to show the size to people if it came up in discussion) fit me fine. I doubt an XL pot would have fit this guy and I never found out what they did for him for a pot...

But I've never heard of a custom pot during WW2.

 

 

I know that not being able to fit in issue gear was grounds for rejection from the service during WW2.

[Cap Camouflage Pattern I]

Yeah, I doubt they make a custom helmet, perhaps they gutted a liner to add an extra inch or two?