Possible to identify jacket/manufacturer/contract/etc from photos?

[RumRunner]

Might be a shot in the dark, but how much information about a particular jacket can be determined from old period photos? Trying to track down what type of A2 my grandfather would have had; no photos of him in the jacket, but these are some of his fellow crewmembers. I presume there's a good chance that they would have been issued the same type of jacket. I notice things like the shape of the pockets and size of the collars, but I know some of you have a much sharper eye for detail.

First photo is from sometime in the fall of 1941, others are from mid to late 1942:

 

[Silver Surfer]

a fast look,,with the big collars' would venture a guess and say monarch.

 

[mulceber]

I presume there's a good chance that they would have been issued the same type of jacket.

Possibly, but not very likely. Here's why: each manufacturer would normally only be making jackets of 1 size each week. So, 1 week they'd be sending out a shipment of size 44s, next week it would be all size 38s. This was to minimize the chance of screw-ups - putting the left chest panel for a size 36 on a size 44 jacket, for example. At the end of the week, all their jackets of one size would be sent out to the quartermasters depot in Philly. What that means is that, when the quartermaster depot had to send out a shipment of jackets to the bases, they'd grab a set number of jackets in each size. There's a good chance that many of the jackets in a given size might be from a single contractor, but not the whole shipment of jackets: so the Quartermaster depot might send out a bunch of 38s, mostly made by Dubow, a bunch of 40s mostly made by Rough Wear, 42s by Aero, 44s by Monarch, etc.

Then when they get to their destination and are unloaded, those jackets are added to the stock the local quartermaster already had. So while there's a pretty good chance that someone else in your grandfather's unit who arrived around the same time and was the same size as him would have a jacket by the same maker, that's really about as far as you can push it.

That's not to say this is a bad idea, and looking at what jackets the people in your grandfather's crew had is about as close as you can get to identifying his jacket. But it REALLY is a crap shoot.

 

[RumRunner]

Possibly, but not very likely. Here's why: each manufacturer would normally only be making jackets of 1 size each week. So, 1 week they'd be sending out a shipment of size 44s, next week it would be all size 38s. This was to minimize the chance of screw-ups - putting the left chest panel for a size 36 on a size 44 jacket, for example. At the end of the week, all their jackets of one size would be sent out to the quartermasters depot in Philly. What that means is that, when the quartermaster depot had to send out a shipment of jackets to the bases, they'd grab a set number of jackets in each size. But they wouldn't very likely be all from the same contractor. There's a good chance that many of the jackets in a given size might be from a single contractor, but not the whole shipment of jackets: so the Quartermaster depot might send out a bunch of 38s, mostly made by Dubow, a bunch of 40s mostly made by Rough Wear, 42s by Aero, 44s by Monarch, etc.

Then when they get to their destination and are unloaded, those jackets are added to the stock the local quartermaster already had. So while there's a pretty good chance that someone else in your grandfather's unit who arrived around the same time and was the same size as him would have a jacket by the same maker, that's really about as far as you can push it.

That's not to say this is a bad idea, and looking at what jackets the people in your grandfather's crew had is about as close as you can get to identifying his jacket. But it REALLY is a crap shoot.

That makes sense, I hadn't considered the bulk logistics of it all.

 

[mulceber]

Still worth doing, since this is all the information you've got. If you have any more information about who these people were (especially if you know which of them arrived at the same time as him), you might be able to narrow it down significantly. Otherwise, I'd say just pick the one you think is coolest looking, find out which contract it is (the folks here can probably help - some of them are SERIOUSLY good at identifying a jacket), and get a repro of that, knowing that it might be the same one he wore.

 

[Chandler]

Really great snapshots @RumRunner -- thanks for sharing and please cherish them.

 

[mulceber]

Yes, definitely. It’s always a treat to see vintage photos of people wearing these jackets.