M43 Trousers Inquiry

[huntssurplus]

Hello everyone!

Here is something that has been on my mind recently. The M43 trousers seem to be somewhat of a collecting anomaly, besides Paratroopers during Market Garden and onwards, they don't seem like they were worn/issued on a consistent basis? I guess the jackets were more important, but anyways how many variations were there? I've seen some pop up recently with the label "Trousers, Field, Cotton, O.D."  with a pattern date of Feb 22, 1945 that have plastic buttons, and not buttons for suspenders, then I have seen some with no discernable label that have plastic buttons, and buttons for suspenders, and then I have also seen ones with the HBT 13 star buttons all around the waist. Are these different trousers and not the M43? I think I have something confused here. I'm going to pull out Stanton's book on WW2 Army uniforms, but of course would always appreciate some of the forums insight!

Thanks

Hunt

[doyler]