New Zealand Pacific War Camouflage uniform
Article about: Is this the rarest WW2 camouflage uniform type to survive to present day? The story; In 1941 the standard combat uniform of the NZ Army in tropical zones was khaki cotton drill. At the begin
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New Zealand Pacific War Camouflage uniform
Is this the rarest WW2 camouflage uniform type to survive to present day?
The story; In 1941 the standard combat uniform of the NZ Army in tropical zones was khaki cotton drill. At the beginning of the Pacific war this was what troops took to training in Fiji and New Caledonia. It was quickly realized that Khaki drill was largely ineffective for camouflage in the tropical jungle environment. There the colours green and dark shadows dominate. Field commanders asked for a camouflaged uniform and this was addressed in 1942. In typical "necessity is the mother of invention" the NZ Army took what was the quickest and cheapest option. The standard khaki drill uniform was spray painted in three colours; dark green, light brown and lime green in a mottle irregular pattern which varied in style as it was hand sprayed.
The result was reasonably effective and certainly an improvement over the khaki uniform. 3,200 camo bush shirts and 4,300 camo BD trousers were produced for NZ pacific troops. In addition the New Zealanders adopted a US made HBT soft cap and a NZ manufactured "boonie" hat. These were also spray camouflaged. At the end of the war, what was left over was sold by the NZ Army to deer stalkers and others and were worn out. This type of camo was never again used by the NZ Army. Few examples of these unique uniforms have survived, those that have are likely to be in New Zealand. But i'm hoping this post might bring some example to light. Perhaps a US GI took an souvenir home and it's origin is now forgotten.
Perhaps Rene has an example in his pile? A might add that the Pattern 37 webbing was also painted to match the uniform.
Last edited by Anderson; 07-17-2018 at 02:13 PM.
Reason: add text
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is this saying that 75,000 items of clothing were manually spray-painted?....three times?
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No.Numerical error there cut off a zero. I've got some more interesting photos which if I can get into the right format I'll post.
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Thanks for changing that...but now that leaves my post looking like I can't do the math! :-) ..I thought 32,000 and 43,000 looked a tad high....either way I'm glad I wasn't on that spray gun duty.
One things for sure, these pieces will be rare by volume and absolutely unique by design....all hand-painted.......a faker's paradise!!
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Thanks for showing.
In the late 90's ,a work college (CEO) mentioned that his father served in 3rd NZ Div and his camo uniform was on display at NZ Army Museum Waiouru.
Certainly very rare.
cheers
Phill
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Closest I have is a Aust work jacket dyed for camouflage reasons, most likely done aboard ship en route to New Guinea
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