USMC gear needed

[Transport]

Ahoy!

Found this great site and now have been pondering about getting started in KW Living history. So please bear with me on this. As I see it a Marine in the Korean War Era would have been equipped as follows:

P41 utilities
Rough out boots
Leggings
M1 helmet with camo cover
M1923 Cartridge belt
Canteen with either 1st, 2nd or 3rd pattern cover
M1910 or M1912 FAP
10" Bayonet for use with M1 Garand.
Haversack, Knapsack, and suspenders
Camo shelterhalf, pole, pins and guyline
Blanket(s)- USMC forest green
Poncho- camo
Mess kit with utensils
M43 E-tool


What am I missing?
For cold weather the M43 or M51 field jacket?
Were the Marines wearing WW2 style shoepacs or Micky Mouse boots by the Winter of say 51'-52'.
Mittens
Pile cap?

Thanks for your assistance.

Transport out

[Short Timer]

Transport,

From what's left on your list, I'd say that the USMC used all of those things.

Boot-wise, you could have either shoepacs or Mickey Mouse boots during the winter of 1951-52. I've run into a number of folks who say Mickeys were late war, but they were available from the very start of the conflict. There were separate USMC stamped Mickey Mouse boots, so they did exist.

And in terms of gloves, weren't the Marines using the M1949 leather glove shell and inserts? Same with the M51 cold weather gloves (trigger mittens) and inserts? I don't think there was a separate USMC version of either of those.

But I thought Marines wore P44 utilities or Frogskins - anyone know? I mean, I'm sure some of the later utilities made their way over there, but what would the "average" utility uniform be?

- ST

[jonprince]

In terms of utilities so far I've seen P41, P44, camo P44, P46 ( the right designation ? You know what I mean, the post-war manufacture similar to P41) and some use of Army H.B.T's. Either P41 or P44 utilities are good for Korea though, it depends on whether you want to want to use them for W.W.2 aswell or whether you want to go for that more unique Korean War look.

[JBH]

For utilities it's mainly the P41's till the Inchon landing, those guys look purely WW2. The further you go into the war, the more the P44's show up, especially on the replacements. I seem to start noticing them more around Soeul.

Standard boondockers till late war. For cold weather, stick with the shoepacs early on. From every account I've read (so far) it seems that the Marines in Chosin had either shoepacs or just boondockers. Not saying that they didn't have the Mickey Mouse boots at that time point, but I haven't found it mentioned yet.

For cold weather jackets, stick with the M43 or M50 jackets. Again from all accounts I've read so far, the 51's didn't show up in numbers till the spring of '53. For the more extreme cold, go with the Parka Type Overcoat ealy and I'm not sure what to use later. Here's an earlier thread on this subject - theforgottenwar.proboards61.com/index.cgi?board=usmc&action=display&thread=72 . The Marine type is out there, but expensive.

Also, here's another thread showing in detail a Marine "layering up" for cold weather - theforgottenwar.proboards61.com/index.cgi?board=uande&action=display&thread=149

Gloves, Short Timers has it nailed.

Jon - Can you show a photo of the camo P44's in use. I'm interested in seeing that.

I'm still on a learning curve on the Korean War, so investigate further what I stated as I could (more likely are) be wrong on some of this. Can anybody with more knowledge add more on this?

[Transport]

Ahoy!

Wow, thanks for the dope on the uniforms and Cold WX gear.

Like the old saying goes- a photo is worth a thousand words!

Transport out

[jonprince]

Nov 4, 2008 17:00:12 GMT -5 JBH said:

Jon - Can you show a photo of the camo P44's in use. I'm interested in seeing that.

Here you go mate, I know I have two images, I'll have a look and see if I can pull out any more. Will put the other up once it's scanned as I'm away from my scanner at the moment:



And TBH, who amongst us isn't on a learning curve with Korea? God knows, I am! That's one of the things that draws me to the history of the war, so much new information to get dug into.

[JBH]

Thanks for the photo jon. I'm still taking it that the camo's were a very rare thing to be issued??

And, is that an issue sweater he has on under the jacket?

[jonprince]

I'm not sure what he has on under the shirt, the original pic. isn't clear enough to make it out, sorry.

Yup, frogskins seem to be there but in tiny numbers. The other pic. I have is labelled as fighting on Hook Ridge, November 1952. Of 5 men in the pic. only one has frogskins on, the others are in standard dungarees and personally I'd say that's really the way to go for U.S.M.C. in Korea.

[JBH]

Makes you kind of wonder on why those guys were issued those for. It's strange what all turns up with some research.

[pef]

If you can take a look at the David duncan douglas book "This Is War". It covers the marines from the perimeter to the Chosin. P 41 and p44 utilities are quite common. ths book is a great reference

[jonprince]

Sorry for the delay in posting the other pic., chap front-right kneeling has P44 camos, you can just about see the ass pocket in the original pic., other only have camo helmet covers.