I would just throw it in the washing machine with a good amount of bleach, it will be dry before it has a chance to rust. That is the way the navy did it and it worked for them. 

Very nice jacket.    

We need to see a picture of the whole scabbard and the bayonet. Before we entered WWI we made P-14 rifles for the British then in 1917 we rechambered them for 30-06 and used them ourselves. We also supplied old M-1917s to Britain under Lend-lease in WWII. So there could be several reasons for the broad arrow including it has been messed with.   

Hello Thank you all for you help and comments Tony

Posts like this are why I LOVE this forum and its contributors!     Thank you for sharing and for your dedicated custody of this treasured item.

I was once told that "AGO" stood for "Approved Government Outfitter" and was used to denote that they were an approved source for insignia etc. GEMSCO used G-2 and G-52 as their Approved Government numbers.   I have no documentation for what I have just written, so you can take it with a grain of salt, but it seems to make sense to me at least.   Allan

Thanks for posting that, jsand. That perfectly illustrates the problem with pewter buckles: they wear to the extreme with major loss of detail.

Makes sense You should also check if they still used the W prefix around that number or not anymore…

I've heard back from Robert, and indeed he stopped making the stencils unfortunately so I've reached out to TJ over the Gee and ordered a set for hood and rear panel, along with a set of his radiator seal sets.   So now the time has come to determine a hood number, as close as original as I can get it. There are no remnants of one on my hood, so no help there. I have MB II0247, date of delivery January 8th, 1942 and I know that an MB with the same d.o.d. and a frame number only 20 higher than mine (II0267) had hood number 2042318 (these numbers were taken from an original WWII US Army document), so I think it's safe to assume my hood number should be in the 2042XXX range, most likely around 20 to 30 around 2042318 (can go either way). This is because when an MB came off the production line, it was parked in a lot outside where painters applied the hood numbers. So it depends if the jeep was parked of the left- or right side of the previous one, and from what side of the row the painter started.   Add to that that jeeps that didn't pass final inspection were sent back inside for repairs and the chaos is complete. An example of the latter can be seen below on this snip of a post- WW2 government auction list of surplus WW2 vehicles in Florida:     MB II0867 was most likely made on January 9th and should have had a hood number around 2042400 in an ideal world but instead has one that's 5k higher, which means repairs took 7 to 10 days to complete. I wonder if the d.o.d. as stamped on the data plate reflected this?   Another fun snip from that same list: MB II0507 has a higher hood number than MB II0539. Both were most likely made on the same day as mine (January 8th 1942), but it shows it really mattered where the jeep was parked in the row and on what side of the row the painter started.       In short, I will most likely never know the 100% correct and original hood number of my jeep but I can get relatively close as 2042XXX is at least in correct range and I have no reason to assume my jeep was pulled from the production line for repairs. Now is MB II0267 with hood number 2042318 the closest confirmed original that I could find so I think I might take the easy was and deduct 20 from hood number 2042318.    I would however be very interested in your feedback/comments  on this! 😊  

Here’s a Navy Flight Surgeon, GEMSCO A.G.O. G-2 hallmarked.