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USMC AEF Service Coats made from olive drab dyed wool


world war I nerd
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world war I nerd

There was also a variation of the USMC four pocket, forest green P1914 Winter Field coat that was made using both olive drab & forest green woolen fabric.

 

All of the external components of this style of coat was made from forest green woolen material. However, the undersides of the shoulder straps & pocket flaps, as well as the inside of the collar were made from olive drab woolen material.

 

Photos courtesy of Bay State Militaria.com

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world war I nerd

My understanding is that the USMC/Army olive drab P14 style service coat was not an article of issue in the USMC. It was an emergency specification service coat that was to be issued to U.S. Army personnel, because the supply of Army service coats between the summer of 1917 and the spring of 1918 was insufficient for the large number of recruits that were pouring into Army training camps on a daily basis.

 

Presumably, contractors manufacturing forest green USMC P14 Field Coats were directed by the War department to produce a modified version of the USMC coat that somewhat matched the appearance of regulation Army service coats, as explained above in post number .

 

At this point, it is not known for sure if the Tank Corps service coat from above is in fact a USMC/Army hybrid coat or if it is a tailor made service coat. That coat was posted because it had two rows of stitching between the collar & upper pockets, which are found on all USMC P14 Field Coats, but not on any of the service coats adopted and used by the U.S. Army.

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world war I nerd

This may be an image of the USMC/Army hybrid service coat. After going through several hundred photos, this was the only Army service coat I found with two rows of stitching between the collar and upper pockets. Also the shape of the stitching on this coat is much closer to the stitching found on the USMC P14 Winter Field Coat.

 

Left hand photo courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

Right hand photo courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

 

Now if we can just turn up an actual example of a similar coat; it would be nice to see what its contract label says ...

 

Anybody - any thoughts?

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world war I nerd,

 

The coat above on the left is the rough cut Army coat. It has 1 chest dart that stops above the pocket flap. The 2nd visible line that looks like a dart is a sewn line that starts from the collar all the way to the hem.

 

On the USMC coat there are 2 darts that stops above the pocket flap and no visible sewn line from collar to hem.

 

here are some samples of the sewn line from collar to hem.

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world war I nerd

Mrwocco, good eye. When I found that photo, after first seeing what I thought was the two USMC style darts, I thought that it looked an awful lot like a rough cut coat. I should have compared it to a rough cut before posting it as a possible USMC/Army hybrid coat ... Sorry for the confusion and thanks for the correction.

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world war I nerd

Here is a more complete description of the USMC/Army hybrid coat provided by the forum member cwnorma, who once owned one:

 

Over the years I have owned one, and run across about 3-4 additional, of these hybrid coats and they are all nearly identical in construction to a USMC p-14 coat--with the noted exceptions of the non-bellows/non-pleated pockets, non-pointed cuffs, and of course OD material. My feeling is that they are uncommon, but not so much so that one won't show up sooner or later.

 

My theory on them was always that whoever had the contract to manufacture the P-14 coats managed to get a contract to make Army coats and instead of re-tooling all their pattern cutting equipment, and retraining their workforce, simply modified it "enough" to make a passable garment--when Army coats were in short supply.

 

The one I had did not have an SSI and, I recall, US and quartermaster disks, and one or two OSS--all in all unremarkable except for the coat itself. The contract tag was in the bottom left (as facing), at the back, sewn onto the green cotton (USMC-style) lining--this was different from the typical location for most Army coats where the contract tag is sewn inside the lining between the lining and the back material of the coat.

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  • 5 years later...

Interesting topic. 

I wonder which kind of trousers they were wearing then? The normal P14 USMC trousers in forest green or did they also exist in olive drab? Or perhaps also AEF style semi-breeches?

Thanks for the information!

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