Soldier's Uniforms, Clothing & Gear

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
137th Infantry Regiment soldier, near Brussels, July 15, 1945.

Today in WW II: 17 Oct 1941 USS Kearny [DD-432] torpedoed but not sunk by German submarine U-568, near Iceland, killing 11 sailors, the first American military casualties of WW II.  More ↓
17 Oct 1943 At Gothenburg, about 10,000 seriously wounded and sick German and British POWs, about half from each side, make up the first British-German prisoner exchange of WW II [17-21 Oct].
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.

Soldier's Uniforms, Clothing & Gear

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.

Olive-Drab.com has individual pages for well known items of clothing and equipment from World War II forward. Click on the link for the item that interests you. For first aid kits and other medical equipment, see Military Medicine.

2d Infantry Division Soldier, Brest, France, 9 September 1944
2d Infantry Division Soldier
Brest, France, 9 September 1944.

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
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.