Uniforms...

[Mycroft]

I have a question about WWII uniforms, what are pinks, greens, etc. and what are the diffecnece in the uniforms throught WWII by U.S. Army officers who wore pinks and greens?

 

[binkmeisterRick]

Didn't your mom ever tell you to eat your pinks and greens?

Officer's pinks, or just "pinks," refer to the khaki trousers the officers used to wear with their uniforms. (Think brown uniform dress jacket with khaki trousers.) The material used for the trousers often had a slight reddish or almost pink hue to the material, so they got nicknamed "pinks" for short. If I recall correctly (and somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) this may have originally been a british term. You can find these in army surplus stores. Dig around and you'll almost certainly come across a pair. As for the "greens," I would assume that the same kind of story would follow, but of that I am unsure.

bink

 

[BellyTank]

Yes, it's the combination of the 2 different colored "dress" or walking out uniform items(I don't mean full dress); the "pink"/ drab wool twill uniform trousers(like the tropical dress trousers color but with a pink tinge) with the "green" chocolate brown/dark OD jacket- 4 pocket or the Ike style- both of these items were made of a range of fabrics but were standardised into the "elastique" fabric, like cavalry twill although materials still differed. The pink and green is referrring to this combination of colors, particularly in the European theatre of operations uniform- like the 8thAAF. You do see AAF pilots wearing A-2 jackets and either the pink or green trousers but I imagine the pink trousers were for the dress (walking out)uniform and just preferred by the pilots in the field. The lightweight khaki wool worsted jacket and trousers were standard in the warmer theatres of operation.
Both pink and green shirts were available as well as both colors of ties, which were routinely combined- pink shirt/green tie and vice versa. The dark shirt with the light tie looks pretty good. The early war uniform used the dark shirt and a black tie , which was later deleted from the uniform dress code.
I'm not 100% on the specifics but that's kind of an explanation.

BT.

 

[binkmeisterRick]

Thanks for the details, BellyTank. :cheers1:

bink

 

[Mycroft]

Yea, thanks the helps me a whole lot.

 

[indieflmkr]

As far was what combinations of colors (shirt, trousers and tie), they were often by individual choice or dicated by the stating order of the post or unit the soldier was assigned to, which is why you see such a variation from one soldier to the next.

 

[Fuente]

Can anyone post a picture of the Pinks and Greens Uniform? I am working on sketches for a new Dress Uniform for the US Army and want to use the Pink and Green for inspiration on one of the designs.

Thanks in advance,

Rich :cool2:

 

[Andykev]

Our very own

Wild Root has posted photos of him in his Pinks and Greens.

Wild Root wearing Pinks and Greens

 

[Fuente]

Thanks,

Very Helpful

Rich :cool2:

 

[Wild Root]

Pinks and Greens:

Many an Officer of WWII had these combos of shirt and ties to choose from:

Khaki officers shirt, tan wool tie.

Chocolate or green shirt, tan wool tie or dark green matching tie.

Pink shirt with dark green or tan wool tie.

The Officer's uniform I had on is referred to as "Class A's". It was the standard uniform to wear on or off base. Not all Officers wore the pinks and greens. Some preferred to have matching trousers. Some also wanted everything the same color.

Here is a fine photo (Black and white) to give an idea of the different combos of the Officer's uniform. Some are in flightsuits but note the Officer on the wing to the left, he has matching shirt and tie with the rest of the uniform.

Root.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Looks like a P-39 there, too. Sweet. The early-war American fighters are to me the most interesting.

 

[Wild Root]

Yes sir! A Bell P-39 is right! Very interesting design on that plane. Had a cockpit door much like a car door! The engine was right behind the pilot as well! Not a very sucsesfull fighter though, too bad.

I'm with you Vlad, I love the early war birds best. My personal favorite is the early P-40 B's and C's.

Root.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Not a very sucsesfull fighter though, too bad.

True, not a particularly great fighter due to its performance issues at altitude. However we sent many of the things to the Russians lend-lease and they ended up using them to great effect as low-level tank-busters. The cannon mounted through the prop hub would easily cause havoc with the thin top armor of panzer IIs and IIIs. Many Russian pilots grew really fond of the aircraft.

 

[Hondo]

Well lads for opinion wise, I prefer B-17 bomber, it’s a love affair I had since childhood, due to the courage of its crew and the amount of damage it could with stand, somehow keep on flying, this takes nothing away from hotshot fly boys in P-38’s or P-40’s. And our Russian comrades.
Thanks to all for sharing.

 

[Wild Root]

I failed to mention that the P-40's are my favorite fighters... since they had bombers and fighters (I love them both) I was referring to my favorite fighters, the B-17 is tops in my book when I think about bombers. Mostly the early models like, the C's to F's. I like the G's but something about that chin gun that distracts from the lines of the nose I guess.

Bomber pilots would have been lost with out the fighter escorts! They loved their "Little friends".

Yes, the Russians did put the P-39’s into good use! Did Bell make any other fighters after that one? I can’t recall.

Root.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Bell built a redesigned mid-engined fighter, the P-63 "King Cobra".

 

[jake431]

Yes sir! A Bell P-39 is right! Very interesting design on that plane. Had a cockpit door much like a car door! The engine was right behind the pilot as well! Not a very sucsesfull fighter though, too bad.

I'm with you Vlad, I love the early war birds best. My personal favorite is the early P-40 B's and C's.

Root.

The P-39 was hamstrung by the AAF - they stripped the supercharger off (orginally it had one) and killed the performance at altitude. I've not seen stats of the original fighter but the mid mounted engine would give a good acrobatic potential due to a very centered center of gravity. But without the supercharger, it was doomed to low-level fighting. Oh well.

My favorite AAF fighter is the P-47.

-Jake

 

[Absinthe_1900]

The original performance for the XP-39 was quite good at the time, being about 390 mph if I remember correctly.

The P-39 was a fascinating fighter, that suffered from changing requirements, and Air Corps specs.

Interestingly, the design was saved from cancellation when one of the early helicopter companies was called in to redesign the long drive shaft system on the P-39, when they began to fail from torsional vibrations, the redesigned drive shaft saved the P-39 program, and the technology was applied to both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

The P-39 was hamstrung by the AAF - they stripped the supercharger off (orginally it had one) and killed the performance at altitude. I've not seen stats of the original fighter but the mid mounted engine would give a good acrobatic potential due to a very centered center of gravity. But without the supercharger, it was doomed to low-level fighting. Oh well.

My favorite AAF fighter is the P-47.

-Jake

The P-39 was also originally designed without a lot of features that were eventually added which added a lot of extra weight. The AAF mandated that armor plating, self-sealing fuel tanks and such be added while refusing to allow the original performance specs to change. As if somehow adding hundreds of pounds of extra weight would not change speed, climb or altitude performance...

 

[Zemke Fan]

Reference Works for "Pinks & Greens"

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL THEME OF THIS THREAD...

I have studied this subject extensively in recent years (both as a result of my WWII reenactor interests and a screenplay in progress). The "bible" on this subject (in two volumes) has been written by Jon A. Maguire.

The first volume, entitled: "Silver Wings, Pinks and Greens: Uniforms, Wings & Insignia of USAAF Airmen in World War II" was published in 1994. It is still available on Amazon for $45.00. This volume contains a lot of good photos and an EXTENSIVE section on WWII wings. (If you learn nothing else about wings, remember this: If it has a letter/number combo on the back -- i.e. 9/M -- it's post-WWII vintage.) Also worth mentioning is the fact that Vol. I reprints much of the 1943 U.S. Army Officer's Guide which gives you the complete run down on what goes where and/or with what.)

Maguire Volume I

The second volume (More Silver Wings, Pinks & Greens) gives more WWII examples in all categories (wings, uniforms, insignia, etc.). It also deals with WWI, 1918-1941, CAP and other uniforms, patches, and wings. It, too, is worth having in your library.

Maguire Volume II

Maguire has also written a great A-2 book. You can also find it at Amazon.

Finally, I recommend the book "Fighter Command/American Fighters in Original WWII Color," by Jeffrey L. Ethell and Robert T. Sand, but I am partial to this because it focuses on my two personal favorites, the 56th and the 31st fighter groups.

Fighter Command

This book is available at a steep discount and is coffee-table size.