Ernest P Shackleton
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,255
- Location
- Midwest
The LMA, aka archive.org, is definitely safe.
Google is not turning up any USN uniform regulations for any year in the 1930s. My guess would be that there was not a major regulation issued but the change was made as an amendment or something, or the change was made without a significant official document. I'll keep searching (casually).Good job @Doctor Damage. We know that up until at least 1922 the WWI peacoat was in service, and we know that by 1941 the style had changed to what we call the WWII peacoat. Now you need to find the regulations from 1934—1936 so we will know what year the style changed. The consensus on the board is that it changed right around that time, probably in 1936.
Do you know for sure the USN issued some sort of uniform regulation around 1936 that changed the design? On what are you basing that date? As I said earlier, Google isn't coming up with anything official dating from the 1930s.Yep, the 1897 peacoat was pretty much unchanged until about 1936.
I've never seen photos of RN sailors in peacoats, not during WW2 or after. and I have not seen photos of anyone wearing a coat like Churchill's and I bet it was his own design (he was known to come up with some weird fashion choices). During WW2 RN sailors wore greatcoats and duffle coats, and today they wear long double-breasted greatcoats on dress parade. I do not believe that there is any basis for the belief that the USN copied peacoats from the RN, in fact in all my years of reading I've never come across mention of a RN peacoat. Some other navies in Europe at various periods have had peacoats, including the Germans, and the USN might have been inspired by those, but I actually strongly suspect the USN peacoat might actually be an American original.Somewhere I have a picture of Sir Winston wearing a peacoat during WWII. I will see if I can find it and post it. It will show us what a British peacoat looked like back then. It was very close to what we had at the time.
Some of our British Brothers were going to try and find pictures of their current day peacoat, but none has been posted. I wonder if the British Navy phased them out, as the US planned to do a few years ago?
This is as close as I've found (below) and those ain't peacoats. The only other outerwear I've seen WW2 RN sailors wearing in photos are duffle coats of course, plus a range of waterproofs. I really do think the US might have been charting new waters with the USN peacoat (or "enlisted man's overcoat" as it was called). Anyways, I know this all sounds counterintuitive or contrary to received history, but I think you're correct to say that RN sailors would have been photographed often and if they were issued peacoats then they would show up in photos, and therefore if peacoats don't show up in photos then we have to question what we assumed was fact.Yes, Sir Winston loved uniforms of all type.
The research I have done all says the US got the peacoat from the Royal Navy. Don't have any first hand information as I wasn't around back then.
There must be tons of photographs of British sailors during WWI and WWII. If they wore peacoats, surely there would be pictures of them wearing them. I never thought much about it because my research showed we got them from England. The peacoat was a standard item of dress for sailors throughout Europe. Surely the greatest navy in the world would have so equipped their sailors?
Those are greatcoats, not peacoats. Here's a RN peacoat from the 1879 Naval Dress Regulations:The sailors in the picture above are wearing what appears to be very long peacoats, but with smaller buttons. The collar and the lapels are dead ringers for our current peacoats. Looks to me as though you have discovered the long lost RN peacoat.
As I mentioned once before I had come across a website which had a photo of a peacoat stating that it was a "1938 USN Peacoat". It appeared to be a WWII edition. Still can't remember where I found it.@Doctor Damage said: "Do you know for sure the USN issued some sort of uniform regulation around 1936 that changed the design? On what are you basing that date? As I said earlier, Google isn't coming up with anything official dating from the 1930s."
Nope don't know for sure about the uniform regulation, but I think we concluded that the WWI peacoat changed to the WWII style in 1936. Don't remember what evidence that was based on. All of that was so long ago, it makes my head swim to think about it.
The sailors in the picture above are wearing what appears to be very long peacoats, but with smaller buttons. The collar and the lapels are dead ringers for our current peacoats. Looks to me as though you have discovered the long lost RN peacoat.
I hope you can fill in the gaps in the peacoat timeline. I have no idea where or how you Peacoat (or someone) will confirm when the design changed from the WW1 to WW2 versions, but it must be possible to do so.Good job of digging these photos up.