I’m not going to pretend to be a real expert on this stuff, but I am an amateur gear collector and historian in real life that has all sorts of US military camos, and I have some feedback on the implementation of US camo uniforms.
So I am going to start with what’s in game, and I am going to start with a uniform that I am actually happy with:
The Marine raiders are pretty well done. Their camo, in my opinion, is a tad too dark orangish, and they are wearing the wrong pattern of pants, but overall a pretty faithful representation in a video game.
The reversible camo on the raider’s jacket is about perfect. That jungle camo looks like it actually should.
The jungle camo is what I have most issues with.
The jungle camo is all over the place. The patterns are mismatched, the jacket doesn’t exist, and the helmet is using a camo that never existed. The pattern on the raider’s jacket is far superior.
The trousers are the closest thing to accurate, but like the beach raider camo, its in P44 style which wasn’t used in the early war period.
In real life, all these camo patterns were made from the same material, and there were only slight deviations with the dyes.
8 Likes
(Continuing post because of link/embed limit)
There were only a handful of patterns of this uniform.
The first pattern was a reversible jumpsuit:
This pattern was used by both the US Army and Marines. It was more prevalent in the US Army though, and it was used by Army forces in both Europe and the Pacific theaters.
The USMC developed a new combat uniform using the pattern, the P42.
It also included a matching reversible helmet cover.
The P42 uniform set was available to Marines from the beginning of their combat operations. The P42 trousers are distinct because the have only one pocket on each face of the trousers, and it’s staggered.
3 Likes
(continuing thread because of link/embed limit)
The camo jungle suits and Marine P42s were replaced by the P44 uniforms. These uniforms were actually used by both the Army and Marines as well, although the helmet cover remained a USMC exclusive.
These uniforms made the pockets symmetrical and made them sideways with snaps to secure them.
By the time these uniforms were being deployed however, the military was starting to cease issuing camo uniforms. The Army completely stopped by 1945, and the Marines selectively stopped but kept them in service for certain operations like Iwo Jima.
There was a rain poncho that was used throughout the Pacific, it had different colors compared to the uniforms because of the materials. In 1943, there was limited issue of an M1943 jungle pack.
There’s two more camo uniforms that were used, both exclusive to the paramarines.
There was only one pattern of each of these, a reversible jacket and smock. They are a lot like the Army’s M1942 jump jackets, with slanted pockets and reinforced elbows.
3 Likes
(continuing thread because of link/embed limit)
I will close out this post with some historical photo examples.
US Glider pilot wearing 1942 jungle suit before D-Day:
.jpg.0e8355c02245a77deff0d69d08afb400.jpg)
US Army soldier in P44 uniform posing in front of a Panzer:
US Army tanker inspecting a German car:
Paramarines:
Marines landing at Tarawa:
5 Likes
Very informative. I will say that one of the main reasons why people like Germany’s uniforms is because of their extensive use and wide array of camouflage compared to all the other combatants.
I hope that as time goes on and we get more content as well as more campaigns we see lots of other camouflage uniforms and just cool uniforms in general. Not to mention customization. I personally think the next official campaign will be Sicily and Italy, and I can’t wait to get some Telo Mimetico
One of those aspects where the German armed forces were far ahead of other nation’s militaries was their camouflage.
It would be decades before nations started issuing camo uniforms the way the Germans did. Plus, a lot of their patterns would inspire variations used by all number of nations, some of which are still in use today.
2 Likes
New US camo uniform was just added:
This camo pattern is far superior to the previous ones. That being said, it still doesn’t match the reverse pattern of the Marine Raiders squad, and the uniform itself is inaccurate and doesn’t exist.
The shirt and pants of this new uniform are retextures of existing Army HBT uniforms, and not true P42/P44 uniforms. The shirt isn’t reversible.
The pattern itself is excellent thought. DF should replace all existing frogskin assets with the new pattern.
