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Hi all!
Been a while since I posted any of my own pieces, I know. I guess I just haven't been able to get anything that can compare to the seemingly endless carousel of beautiful uniforms coming in from this group's more veteran contributors. But in this case, I was tasked by a friend to find out more about this Belgian tank suit he's had floating around for a while. It had been passed around his reenacting group as a substitute for an authentic WWII British "Pixie" tanker suit. (Needless to say, this was in the days before the ABL/Dutch suits got scarce, and reproductions of the British suits were non-existent). It's in an incredibly large size (my friend is 6'3" and when he was a little thinner around the middle it fit him well [without BD underneath, however]) and in pretty darn good shape, considering it was used by a bunch of reenactors! About the only real detractor is the typical blackening (I assume due to the semi-waterproof coating?) on the arms; all the elastic is still springy and the metal hardware is still shiny. And most amazingly- to me, at any rate- it still has the internal suspenders!
Overall construction is very robust and almost identical to the British suit- were there any differences? I have seen earlier examples, the earliest being 1949 (and did the tags change? I notice this one says "AB-BL" unlike the more typical "ABL" that seems to be universal in Belgian surplus. Were any of these actually by UK manufacturing? Or were they all Belgian made, once the surplus British suits ran out? I have one of the British camouflage Pixie suits, dated 1944, so I can't compare to see if the canvas-like material is the same as the British Khaki version. MOreover, I don't have enough knowledge of the British suits to know if they had standard hardware or if there were variations.
I scoured the forum looking for information on these tanker suits, but couldn't find much apart from the odd, oblique reference, so do forgive my ignorance if these are too common to comment on. To me, I have always loved the overengineered nature of these suits, both the original British and the later Dutch/Belgian made examples, despite their many obvious faults.
And if this piece does turn out to be of some interest to someone here, my friend has given me authority to negotiate a potential deal; both of us would prefer to see this (I think) fine example at home among an appreciative collection.
Been a while since I posted any of my own pieces, I know. I guess I just haven't been able to get anything that can compare to the seemingly endless carousel of beautiful uniforms coming in from this group's more veteran contributors. But in this case, I was tasked by a friend to find out more about this Belgian tank suit he's had floating around for a while. It had been passed around his reenacting group as a substitute for an authentic WWII British "Pixie" tanker suit. (Needless to say, this was in the days before the ABL/Dutch suits got scarce, and reproductions of the British suits were non-existent). It's in an incredibly large size (my friend is 6'3" and when he was a little thinner around the middle it fit him well [without BD underneath, however]) and in pretty darn good shape, considering it was used by a bunch of reenactors! About the only real detractor is the typical blackening (I assume due to the semi-waterproof coating?) on the arms; all the elastic is still springy and the metal hardware is still shiny. And most amazingly- to me, at any rate- it still has the internal suspenders!
Overall construction is very robust and almost identical to the British suit- were there any differences? I have seen earlier examples, the earliest being 1949 (and did the tags change? I notice this one says "AB-BL" unlike the more typical "ABL" that seems to be universal in Belgian surplus. Were any of these actually by UK manufacturing? Or were they all Belgian made, once the surplus British suits ran out? I have one of the British camouflage Pixie suits, dated 1944, so I can't compare to see if the canvas-like material is the same as the British Khaki version. MOreover, I don't have enough knowledge of the British suits to know if they had standard hardware or if there were variations.
I scoured the forum looking for information on these tanker suits, but couldn't find much apart from the odd, oblique reference, so do forgive my ignorance if these are too common to comment on. To me, I have always loved the overengineered nature of these suits, both the original British and the later Dutch/Belgian made examples, despite their many obvious faults.
And if this piece does turn out to be of some interest to someone here, my friend has given me authority to negotiate a potential deal; both of us would prefer to see this (I think) fine example at home among an appreciative collection.
