This section of Olive-Drab.com covers the very wide ranging topic of the uniforms, clothing and equipment used by individual soldiers. Everything a solider wears or carries has to be supplied by the military organization based on standards and mission requirements.
137th Infantry Regiment soldier, near Brussels, July 15, 1945.
Today in WW II: 24 May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait: German battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood, flagship of the Home Fleet, killing all but 3 of the 1418 crew. More↓
Since every soldier has to be equipped for a variety of missions, and the requirements change from time to time, it is practically impossible to list all of the clothing and gear used by soldiers even of the U.S. military, and even more so if you include other countries of the world with their army, naval, air and other forces.
PVT Mechael Statton (L) and SGT Alan Leblance, 2 Squad, 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 23rd Engineer Battalion, Task Force Eagle Engineer Brigade, unload blocks of TNT for use against a Croatian bunker, Operation Joint Endeavor, 18 April 1996.
Find More Information on the Internet
There are many fine websites that have additional information on this
topic, too many to list here and too many to keep up with as they come and go.
Use this Google web search form to get an up to date report of what's out there.
For good results, try entering this: army uniform. Then click the Search button.
Highly recommended:
U.S. Militaria Forum is an outstanding website on the topic of American uniforms and equipment.
gunboards.com offers a number of forums that cover web gear, uniforms, packs and other militaria from the U.S. military.
Militaria Bibliography
The pages of Olive-Drab.com that describe U.S. clothing and equipment from World War II have been developed with the guidance of the following list of publications. The two Historical Studies from the Quartermaster General are out of print but can sometimes be found as reprints or as originals from used booksellers or on eBay.
Clothing the Soldier of World War II, QMC Historical Studies, No. 16, by Erna Risch and Thomas A. Pitkin, Historical Section, Office of the Quartermaster General, September 1946
Quartermaster Equipment for Special Forces, QMC Historical Studies, No. 5, by Thomas A. Pitkin, Historical Section, Office of the Quartermaster General, February 1944
