As a follow up to my research on the recently acquired reinforced M42 jump jacket, a fellow WWII Airborne collector was kind enough to run the partial Army Serial Number (H-0608) through his database of 43,000 WWII 82nd Airborne personnel and locate a perfect match!

The paratrooper was an enlisted man attached to Regimental HQ&HQ Company of the 504th PIR. It is very common for uniforms to trade owners, which explains the removed officer insignia on this jacket.

Ironically, I had the opportunity to handle a documented reinforced jump jacket at the Kansas City militaria show in May, 2007 worn by T4 Clarence W. Harper HQ&HQ/HQ 2nd Battalion 504th PIR. The jacket reinforcements were identical in construction to my modified jacket. In fact, this trooper may have even known T4 Clarence Harper, being they were both HQ of the 504th!

The 504th PIR did a lot of heavy fighting in Italy and returned to England on 04-22-1944. However, their rosters were depleted, so the 504th was not ordered to stand down and not participate in the Normandy jump. A handful of 504th personnel volunteered as Pathfinders and made the Normandy jump. However, this paratrooper was not one of them.

Since the 504th did not jump in Normandy, they were able to hold onto their reinforced M42 jump suits and subsequently used them on the Holland jump. They were the only entire regiment to wear reinforced M42′s in the Netherlands and on the Holland jump. By then, the other regiments were issued and wearing M43 field jackets and trousers. So, although the veteran did not wear this jacket on D-Day, it was more than likely worn on the Holland jump.

Read WWII Airborne M42 Reinforced Jump Jacket: Part III

Read WWII Airborne M42 Reinforced Jump Jacket: Part I

[Show as slideshow]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Airborne, WWII US Militaria. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.