GI Overcoat

Gift of Adrienne Hayslip 2011.184.00433

The US Army introduced the wool overcoat in 1939, principally for use with the service dress uniform and issued with brass buttons. Overcoats issued for field use during the winter of 1944-45 were issued with plastic buttons to save brass. Despite this, many troops, including the ones pictured here, began the Battle of the Bulge with insufficient warm-weather protection.