Ha ha, yes. My grandkids inherited these from their other grandpa. He was a pack rat/hoarder.   He left 4 storage units crammed full of crap including 300-400 knives, bayonets and nazi daggers.   Thankfully he separated all the knives from their sheaths from their boxes.   We found bankers boxes of slippers, broken toasters, 5 remote controls and 2 Randall knives (No sheath, no box).   Other boxes of sheaths, and yet other boxes of boxes  😃    

Seeing the back of where the tapes are sewn on can help determine if they were applied recently or not.

I know of no way to restore pliancy once it has gone.  Gentle heat i.e. laying the garment in the sun can temporarily soften it and allow you to form or fold it for display if you are lucky.   Just a note on garment #5. the British khaki asymmetrical impregnated military cape.  There is evidence that these were issued to US troops in the ETO on a limited basis as reverse lend lease.   On page 86 of Shelby Stanton's 'US Army Uniforms of World War II' he states "In November (1944), the Third Army instituted heightened measures to ease the clothing and equipment shortfall.  Thirteen thousand specially procured British waterproof ponchos were issued to each division as substitutes for unavailable raincoats, and the troops were pleased to discover that they provided extra warmth when used as ground sheets."    The above seems to be drawn from a Third Army Logistics Summary Report but the source is not cited directly.   As I write this there is an example of one of these British Ground Gheet/Rain Capes on Ebay named to an American officer.   The proper British nomenclature would be Ground Sheet MK VII as they evolved from rectangular Ground Sheet which lacked the collar, triangular flap, and buttons.

Any info on where those photos were taken?  If it was in China, for example, there was an international force there that included US, British, German, Austrian, French, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and British Indian troops.  This looks rather like a gathering of NCOs from an international group.  The picture is from 1900 -- your picture seems to be sometime closer to WWI.   The sergeant in the dark jacket wearing a visor cap and points of the chevrons pointing down is definitely NOT U.S. (could well be British, except the Brits normally wore chevrons on only the right sleeve, not both sleeves).  The fellows with the brim of their field hat pinned up on the right side and with the crease down the middle is probably Australian.  The fellow wearing shorts, puttees, and with a cane / walking stick is probably British (the U.S. Army didn't wear shorts until after WWII).    

Yes sir, that's him!  Rev. Piepkorn was a well-loved professor and scholar, his page is quite well maintained.  I think the photo of him in uniform is from his ORC service.

Love these projects.  The Civilian Marksmanship Program confirmed a few weeks ago that they will soon be offering new reproduction Garands.   I have a spare rear hand guard retaining clip you can have if you are still looking for one.    

You never know now a days as the counterfeiters have gotten really good at their craft but this seems to match known examples of the beret size WW2 509th PIR patch.  I have attached photographs I have of supposed original beret size 509th PIR patches and they look identical to your patch.    

Looking at a helmet in the collection it seems to be marked like the one in the photo      

here is an old topic on a M1917 Trench knife I used Evapo Rust on. I didnt use any wire brushes or scotch pads etc.    https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/71118-1917-trench-knife/#comment-516207

Thank you! I greatly appreciate the positive comments from you, and everyone else. This is the third and possibly my last of these demilled restoration projects. The other two were an Enfield No 2 revolver and a Bren gun. I put up threads for both of them on our worldmilitariaforum.com.  I’m having fun with these things but I’m at the point of wanting to wind down my collecting activities. But then I’ve been saying that for about 5 years now. 😁 mikie