Spare Parts
For non-modeling topics and those without a home elsewhere.
The WW2 US M42 Camouflage Uniform
long_tom
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Illinois, United States
Member Since: March 18, 2006
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Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - 08:13 AM UTC
I read about said uniforms, which were used briefly by US forces and were (from a color picture I saw) tan with brown and green patches. They reportedly were withdrawn when US soldiers wearing them were mistaken for German troops wearing similar uniforms.

Question: there must have been a number of leftover such uniforms as a result. Where did they go and who used them? Were they exported or kept at home for training, etc.? I always wondered.
Jessie_C
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Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - 09:46 AM UTC
Wikipedia says: During 1944, units of the 2nd Armored Division in Normandy were issued with "frog skin"/"leopard spot" camouflage patterns, but similarity to the battledress worn by Waffen SS troops led to friendly fire and it was withdrawn.[14]

Full "leopard spot" uniforms continued to be worn by the USMC Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion (whose role was reprised by the USMC Force Recon units from 1954) and by Combat Swimmer Reconnaissance Units (later to evolve into the Navy SEALs).


{snippage...}

Many war surplus "leopard spot" uniforms were sold to allied nations reforming their armed forces. Worn by French parachutists in the First Indochina War, the "leopard spot" was marketed to civilian hunters under the name "duck hunter".

The CIA supplied "leopard spot" or “duck hunter” camouflage for Brigade 2506 Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and South Vietnamese and Montagnard Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) counter-guerrillas until the pattern was replaced by the tigerstripe pattern in the mid-1960s. [Blechman H & Newman A, 2004].


So it was used by the USMC and American allies after the war. Not to mention countless duck hunters...