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m1951 clothing


bilko1
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I'm looking to expand my combat uniform collection to include the m1951,Please can you advise on any good reference books and any tips what to look for.

 

Also did much of it get used in korea?.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Dave.

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Hi Dave

 

Have a look at "U.S. ARMY UNIFORMS OF THE KOREAN WAR" by Shelby Stanton.

ISBN 0-8117-1819-0

 

Cheers

Martyn

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Greg Robinson
I'm looking to expand my combat uniform collection to include the m1951,Please can you advise on any good reference books and any tips what to look for.

 

Also did much of it get used in korea?.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Dave.

 

Dave

 

Most of the M1951 line of cold weather field uniforms arrived late for extensive use in Korea. In particular, the US Army M1950 field jacket plus M1943 FJ's modified to the M1950 spec, saw greater issuance and wear in Korea than the M1951. And same for the M1951 parka, it arrived late for Korea....the M1948 parka was there a lot earlier. Not sure when the M1951 trousers and liners went into service but, again, I'd say they were a bit late for Korea.

 

Greg

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Thanks for that intel on stanton book thumbsup.gif ,I do have a m1950 field jacket so this can be married with a pair of m43 trousers,m45 pack set etc?,I've aquired a pair xl long m51 trousers so i'd like a jacket in same size if poss.

What i'd like to do is a m1951 set up denoting u.s army of occupation for eather germany or italy so any pointers that way would be great.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave.

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The Stanton book is the best I know of too and it is fairly inexpensive. Available in both hard cover and soft cover.

 

There are several threads in our Uniform Reference Section that apply as well.

 

Here's one:

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...p?showtopic=482

 

 

First place i checked mate :D

 

Dave.

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Greg Robinson
Thanks for that intel on stanton book thumbsup.gif ,I do have a m1950 field jacket so this can be married with a pair of m43 trousers,m45 pack set etc?,I've aquired a pair xl long m51 trousers so i'd like a jacket in same size if poss.

What i'd like to do is a m1951 set up denoting u.s army of occupation for eather germany or italy so any pointers that way would be great.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave.

 

Hey Dave

 

For some reason the selling prices of M1951 field jackets have skyrocketed. I wish now I'd kept the minty medium/long sized one I sold a couple years ago for $35. :)

 

Greg

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Greg,

 

I just paid 39 bucks for a mint/nos pair of m51 over trousers size xl long,The jackets have up'ed in price but not to much its the parkas that have :rolleyes: .

 

 

Cheers,

 

Dave.

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Greg Robinson
Greg,

 

I just paid 39 bucks for a mint/nos pair of m51 over trousers size xl long,The jackets have up'ed in price but not to much its the parkas that have :rolleyes: .

Cheers,

 

Dave.

 

Hey Dave

 

I own a mint pair of USMC contract M1951 trousers with liner. You don't see a lot of those. As for the M1951 jackets, parkas, and liners......I agree....the parkas have really gone ape on ebay due to the demand for them from your side of the pond. I've got a real nice M1951 parka on ebay right now and all the interest in it is coming from over there. :D I hope I do better with it than the last time. I had an English high bidder who kept lying to me re payment being on the way. thumbdown.gif

 

Greg

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For less than 40 quid shipped for a pair of m51 trousers i thought i did well thumbsup.gif ,

You got my ebay id check them out as the seller left fb,I looked at a dealers web site and he had a xl/r m51 without liner for......$350 holly cow it thought!!,there does seem a steady stream of m/l m51 jackets fetching around $45-$80ish so i'm thinking i'd need to double that for a big one.

All types of parkas seem to be doing very well at the mo,must be because of summers coming :blink::D

 

Dave.

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Greg Robinson
For less than 40 quid shipped for a pair of m51 trousers i thought i did well thumbsup.gif ,

You got my ebay id check them out as the seller left fb,I looked at a dealers web site and he had a xl/r m51 without liner for......$350 holly cow it thought!!,there does seem a steady stream of m/l m51 jackets fetching around $45-$80ish so i'm thinking i'd need to double that for a big one.

All types of parkas seem to be doing very well at the mo,must be because of summers coming :blink::D

 

Dave.

 

 

Where did you see that $350 field jacket....Lee Jackson Militaria? I've talked to Jack before and all his items surely have gold plating on them judging by his asking prices. He showed me what was a well worn and badly stained USMC M1943 field jacket and he wouldn't take any less than $300 for it. I assume somewhere people are paying those prices....but not me.

 

You'd think those parkas wouldn't sell well since you're having hot weather in London at the moment.....but that's not the case from what I'm seeing.

 

Greg

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Where did you see that $350 field jacket....Lee Jackson Militaria? I've talked to Jack before and all his items surely have gold plating on them judging by his asking prices. He showed me what was a well worn and badly stained USMC M1943 field jacket and he wouldn't take any less than $300 for it. I assume somewhere people are paying those prices....but not me.

 

You'd think those parkas wouldn't sell well since you're having hot weather in London at the moment.....but that's not the case from what I'm seeing.

 

Greg

 

Yep thats the site,seems some want to display the stuff for sale than sell it!!unless some poor mug[golden goose :blink: ] comes along..

 

Replied to your pm mate :D

 

Dave.

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Greg Robinson
Yep thats the site,seems some want to display the stuff for sale than sell it!!unless some poor mug[golden goose :blink: ] comes along..

 

Replied to your pm mate :D

 

Dave.

 

An all too common mindset, especially among antique dealers and pawnshop owners here in the US. And I'm seeing it more and more often with militaria dealers. Rather than move the item quickly at a reasonable profit, they'll sit on an item for months, hell....sometimes years, waiting for the big score. Seems ignorant to me.

 

Greg

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Bob Hudson
I assume somewhere people are paying those prices....but not me.

 

Yeah, who are those people? I sold a 1940 vintage Navy deck coat for $375 and I thought that was wild until a dealer (who paid me $100 for another coat I would have gladly sold for $65) said he would have paid me $500 for the 1940 coat and that he has buyers who would pay $800 for it! Where is this nether world of over-payers?

 

I see a lot M1951 trousers and pass on them because no one has seemed to want them: same with those M1951 wool shirts. I did find a pair in a storage cabinet: made in late 1951, sized about 31x31. I also have an M51 field jacket, but made in 1955.

 

You can get Stanton's Korean War book through the forum's Amazon.com bookstore:

 

KOREAbook.jpg

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Greg Robinson
Yeah, who are those people? I sold a 1940 vintage Navy deck coat for $375 and I thought that was wild until a dealer (who paid me $100 for another coat I would have gladly sold for $65) said he would have paid me $500 for the 1940 coat and that he has buyers who would pay $800 for it! Where is this nether world of over-payers?

 

I see a lot M1951 trousers and pass on them because no one has seemed to want them: same with those M1951 wool shirts. I did find a pair in a storage cabinet: made in late 1951, sized about 31x31. I also have an M51 field jacket, but made in 1955.

 

You can get Stanton's Korean War book through the forum's Amazon.com bookstore:

 

Yep...it's hard to figure!!! I also see a lot of those Korean War vintage cold weather trouser shells.

 

The Army M1951 FJ I've kept for the time being was made in 1955 and has a matching fatigue shirt. Belong to an Army 1st Lt and I got the set for very reasonable money off auctionarms. com. But it's "just" a medium so wouldn't sell for the big bucks that large and extra large do. I think I'd lose weight before I shelled out that kind of money. :D

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M60 Driver

There is little market for the M1951 fishtail parka here in the US, but in Europe and in the UK the prices are astronomical. I just sold one on Ebay for a friend who found it at the local thrift shop, and it went for $350! I have contacts in both the UK and Europe willing to pay these prices. They are selling to the MOD collectors who are reliving their youth now that they are approaching sixty years of age and have the money for both the clothing and more importantly, the fully refurbished 1960s era scooters and motorcycles. Yea Baby!

 

You can still find the parkas in the thrift shops and in traditional surplus stores at low prices. But for militaria collectors, I would advise waiting this bubble out.

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Book is on order thumbsup.gif,Thing is 350 usd is not that much to us at the mo! as it comes out at less than 180 quid as the exchange rate is good for us....Watch when its not good for us,I bet you'll be pushed to shift any thing near $150 let alone $350.

 

Are there many big m51 shirts about??

 

Cheers,

 

Dave.

 

 

 

Yeah, who are those people? I sold a 1940 vintage Navy deck coat for $375 and I thought that was wild until a dealer (who paid me $100 for another coat I would have gladly sold for $65) said he would have paid me $500 for the 1940 coat and that he has buyers who would pay $800 for it! Where is this nether world of over-payers?

 

I see a lot M1951 trousers and pass on them because no one has seemed to want them: same with those M1951 wool shirts. I did find a pair in a storage cabinet: made in late 1951, sized about 31x31. I also have an M51 field jacket, but made in 1955.

 

You can get Stanton's Korean War book through the forum's Amazon.com bookstore:

 

KOREAbook.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

managed to get a FJ liner,Early pattern date but no maker date,Being not to up on post ww2 stuff how can i guess the maker date on it??.

 

Just need a FJ to fit it in ;) .

 

Cheers,

 

Dave.

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post-39-1183211383.jpg

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craig_pickrall

Dave, I do not have an exact match to that label so it is hard to put an accurate date on it. I did a quick look through what I have and most / all of the liners (both M50 and M51) have ink stamped info rather than labels. Some of the M50 and M51 Field Jackets have these white paper labels but not identical to yours. The pattern date of yours is early so the liner is probably early too. There was a pattern change in 1956 but that doesn't help much. Sorry I can't help more. Maybe Greg has more info.

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Greg Robinson
Dave, I do not have an exact match to that label so it is hard to put an accurate date on it. I did a quick look through what I have and most / all of the liners (both M50 and M51) have ink stamped info rather than labels. Some of the M50 and M51 Field Jackets have these white paper labels but not identical to yours. The pattern date of yours is early so the liner is probably early too. There was a pattern change in 1956 but that doesn't help much. Sorry I can't help more. Maybe Greg has more info.

 

I can only answer based on what I've personally observed. Early production USMC M1951 jackets, parkas, and liners made by LW FOSTER had the white labels as did Army production liners made at the Phila QM Depot. And then in the mid 1950's pretty much all those items were once again marked with white labels. So there was a relatively brief period from late '51 until in or around 1956 when Army M1951 items had inkstamped markings except for those made by PQMD.

 

I agree with Craig in saying that your liner is an early production item.....probably mid 1951. They were still manufacturing the Army M1950 wool frieze liner in the Spring of 1951 so I figure it was that Summer when the changeover happened.

 

Greg

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  • 4 weeks later...
Greg Robinson

I just picked up an M1951 parka liner that's made of the same heavy pile lining as found on M1948's. Most of the M1951's used a wool frieze which was less expensive to make and held up better when it got wet. I'm told by a parka dealer in the UK that these were early production liners manufactured during the transition from the M1948 parka to the M1951.

post-4-1185392016.jpg

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