Father of M90 ?

Have never seen one of these prior to this week.

It's a Swedish 70s tanker smock that shows lots of similarities to later M90s, particularly the  F variant.

Very well constructed and very well preserved, it shows a useful cod tail and heavy webbing that was designed to  facilitate  extraction of incapacitated tank/armored vehicles personnel..
Webbing forms an harness that is pulled through a zippered pocket at the top back of the smock...  The cod piece can be used separately, or in conjunction with the other webbing.


                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                             
                   
                                                                                                                              



S

Wow, never saw such a jacket before.... Awesome find.

Nice acquisition! I've only seen this in a picture or two, and never in detail. Yeah, I think they probably did find inspiration for the m/90 from this item. It's similar to what happened with the Austrians who wound up basing the M69 standard uniform on the M57/59 Panzer uniform.

Steve

Thanks Steve ..

I am quite happy to have it.. Recently learned that this uniform is called M69, or M69P...

On the lookout for trousers...

S

Swedish tanker trousers .

Designation is supposedly M59.  The above posted tanker jacket is supposedly designated M69/M69P.
I find it strange that  M59s have modern zippers ( very similar to M90 zippers ) while the M69 have aluminum zippers .
Size labels are identical but 3 crowns stamping on trousers has long been washed away..

In any case they do look good together .  Any one have anything on this  ?  Were these pieces worn together or did  M59 tanker jackets and M69 tanker trousers also exist ??




                                                                                                                                   


                                                                                                                                    


                                                                                                                                    



                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                    



S

The M59 did not have zippers. As I remember it, there is the M39 which was a traditional 4 pocket wool uniform with no leg pockets. The M58 was an updated wool uniform which had two pockets on the back of the jacket and leg pockets plus integrated gaiters. The M59 was the summer version and was made of green cotton. Older M39 uniforms were updated to mimic the features of the M58. So thoroughly, I have yet to find an unmodified M39 jacket or trousers.

My guess is that when the Swedes started introducing the M90 the updated M59 uniforms to mimic the primary features. Check out yours very, very, very carefully and see if there are any signs of modifications for the leg pockets or the leg zippers. Look at the knees too. Check for old stitch holes, different stitch count, different thread color, rough seams, etc.

Or this is something purpose made that was designed to use up the old green cotton cloth? But in that case, you'd think they would have used the M90 pattern instead of modifying the old M59.

Steve

These trousers dont look to have been modified at all .

No evidence that would indicate mods, but did observe  a few differences between these and common M59 trousers.

First off, front pocket buttons are the same as the buttons used to support  suspenders, not the 3 crown type usually seen ( identical to those used  for M59 Jacket ).
Pockets have a slight gusset as opposed to the flat pockets of normal M59s.
Also the knee articulation is more prominent .
Most M59 trousers have a flat knee patch while these have gusseted patch.

I have seen some standard M59 trousers with the same gusseted knee patches but believe those to be mods made to later production M59s.

Having said all that, I am puzzled to have found the below image which seems to show another type of tanker pants that look like a perfect match for the M69 tanker jacket..    Could these be M69 trousers ?
Notice cargo pocket  gusset and articulated knee patch.


         
                                       



S

Yup, I'd say you have a specialized service version (AFV crew or helicopter?) or there's another green cotton version of the uniform that I've not come across before. Which wouldn't be surprising since I'm a camo guy

The pic you just uploaded does seem to be the perfect match to your jacket. Maybe the earlier versions had different zippers than the later versions?

Steve

Yes..

The image shows what I believe to be original early M59 tanker trousers that would be a match to M69 tanker jacket.  The mystery here is the designation M69 of the jacket.

What gives me confidence that  pants in the image match aluminum zippered jacket is that  I can discern webbing sown into inside of cargo pocket  .  
Webbing was used as a mean of emergency egress in conjunction with webbing in tanker jacket.

Trousers with plastic zippers look too modern to be early issue, but they are undeniably M59s...
Rear facing leg zippers  are made of same material as pocket zippers.

Perhaps tanker jackets and trousers with modern zippers were issued as an improvement to aluminum zippered type .  Would be nice to find a modern zippered M69 if they did exist..


S

It's pretty rare for a new uniform jacket to be issued without also introducing new uniform trousers, and vice versa. My guess is there's a matching set with metal zippers and a matching set with plastic zippers. Whether the designations of M59 fits the metal type and M69 fits the plastic type, I don't know. Looks like you have trousers of one and a jacket of the other to track down

Are the plastic zippers on your two leg pockets the same? They kinda look different in your pics.

Steve

Had a look at the trousers again today .

Zippers are indeed different. Looks like at least one, if not both, have been replaced.
The leg zippers are plastic as well, but they look to be the same.

Could have been replaced as well, I suppose, but it does not look like it.

What remains strange is the designation and date of the jacket : M69.- 1970.
My favorite Swede ( J ) has confirmed designation. It looks more like '50s vintage to me .

Very possible the trousers were repaired and reissued. Maybe more than once.

S

**********

Found this one today.   It's dated 1976 and has plastic zippers..

Obviously an updated  M59  and a match for the trousers in this tread.


                                                                     


                                                                      

                                                 

                                                                     


                                                                    







S

Ah, so they did update the greens into the m90 cut. Well, that's cool to know! The picture you just posted looks like it was from Sportsmans Guide or similar. I'm wondering if the Swedes are kicking these things out of storage now like they did all the earlier stuff?

Steve