Early Belgian Denison Airborne Jacket

Found this nice example recently. Since I can't afford a WWII-era example, this will have to do. These Belgian jackets can still be found fairly cheap, and most are large sizes like this one.

Hmmm... that one has some interesting features. I'm not able to check mine out at the moment, but I'd say there are six features that are inconsistent with Belgian Army issues smocks:

1. Shoulder lining.
2. Internal pockets or some sort of lining in gray cloth?
3. Size tag at neck.
4. Two rows of snaps for the crotch flap instead of three.
5. Narrow crotch flap instead of wide.
6. Hard edges on the brown shapes.

Very interesting piece though. I've never seen a commercial Denison style smock in Belgian brushstroke.

Steve

Steve do you think it could have been a custom tailor job for deployment to Africa ?

There is also some of that green lining on the rear at the bottom. If you look below the snaps on the second pic you can see the stitching for it. The gray material is two inside pockets. Too me, it all looks added on...especially the gray pockets. That is the only tag I could find anywhere. Not even a ghost where one may have been...could be under the green lining though.

Dale

Also, the thing I don't get about the tag is that the jacket is not a size 56 by no means. I would put it more at a size 46.

Hood smock,Civil fabric ?









Compare

I don't know what to make of the British Windproof style smocks or the one with the full zipper front. I have a couple of these too and they are all very worn, like yours. The designs of these various smocks are not the same. Some have 1970s+ buttons on them, others have 1950s/60s buttons. Some of the cloth/pattern/colors appears to be identical to genuine issue, some not. Workmanship is something very good, sometimes quite bad.

They also appear in European 2nd hand clothing shops (I got one of mine from Hungary!), so I do not think they were African contract pieces. If they were I doubt they would have come back to Europe like that. I also have yet to find any signs of them being in Belgian Army warehouses.

My guess is the ones that are very similar to Army issue, with high quality manufacturing, were designed for "private purchase". Especially in the 1960s and early 1970s when the Belgian Army was not purchasing (many) new uniforms. So if a soldier did not find his size, or a good condition, uniform in stock during this period he might have purchased a commercially made item.

The Windproof type is probably just commercial items made by different companies over many different years. Perhaps they were surplus from an African contract, perhaps just using up leftover military cloth.

That's my best guess!

Steve

Great show of camouflage uniforms here .
Love the windproof style !!!!
In a military rag house in LA there must be thousands of pairs of the trousers in bales .
Over the years I got some nice smocks but they are drying up.
owen

First post here, just wondering about the origins of this smock I've had for about 12 years now.







As you can see it's not like any others on this thread, first off it has a spacer inserted to make it longer,when this was done, I don't know(different camo as well)
the top pockets are angled like the British made Denison and it's definitely a quarter zip version.
The only tag is the small "1"(size, I presume?) there is no evidence of any other labels ever being there.
Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Interesting! OK, here's what I can say for sure. This started off as a standard production "Brush Stroke" style Denison smock from the 1970s timeframe. This was the last run they did. Some of the distinguishing characteristics of the late type smock are:

1. Slanted inward chest pockets
2. OD cloth collar
3. Brush Stroke cloth, not M&B cloth

There are other differences, but those are the main ones I immediately spot.

As you say, someone lengthened this. No way to tell if it was done while in service or not. It's a very uncommon modification, though I wouldn't say that means much. Interesting the collar has been restitched for some reason.

A size tag in the neck is very unusual. Looks like it was added post-factory. The Belgians did use an abstract size numbering system for quite a while. For some items they kept that system right up into the 1990s. Which lends some evidence that this was reworked while in the military system since I doubt anybody outside the military would have bothered with a tag like that.

Without feeling the cloth used for lengthening, I can't say where it came from. My guess is 1957 manufactured shelter halves. Some of the cloth is for sure 1950s "Moon & Balls" type while some panels look like Brush Stroke. The Belgians didn't care about the differences between the two so that's not a red flag.

Hope that helps!

Steve

Sorry to revive a dead thread here...getting to the point where I need to sell the original denison uniform I posted in this thread. Am I safe to assume it is a mid 60's commercial smock like the one vonstuck posted? Just want to get the facts straight for the listing.

Some more recent pics of the set...

Definitely not the same as the commercial one that Gilles posted. Yours is mostly the same as the 1956/1958 model, but with the differences I noted above (7+ years ago... wow!). I don't know why anybody would have made what you have because the Belgians had a bazillion of these in stock. Yours looks quite worn so I'm guessing it's legit, but private purchase of some sort. Do you have a picture of the front to re-post?

Steve

I just have the front pics shown here....or are they not showing up?

Excuse my ignorance, but could it possibly be Iraqi?

Mk1rceme wrote:I just have the front pics shown here....or are they not showing up?

Odd! They're showing up for me just fine now.

It's a head scratcher. Without an official ABL label it appears to be "private purchase" or, less likely, some sort of trials item. I have very little doubt that this is not straight commercial. I also don't think it's Iraqi or other export, but that's only a guess because small contracts might not have gone noticed by collectors.

Steve

Ok thanks. I'll list it as a private purchase smock and trousers and see where it goes.

When you have it listed I'd appreciate a heads up. I might be interested in bidding.

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:When you have it listed I'd appreciate a heads up.  I might be interested in bidding.

Steve

Throw me an offer now...you might be surprised. I have no idea on a starting price point yet since I can't find any that have sold recently. Still scouring the internet.

I also have a moons and balls shelter half with accessory pouch. And a hood for the shelter half...to make into a poncho apparently. I haven't figured out how to attach it though.