WWI M1917 Spec 1285 Service Uniform; 5th Tank Company, US Tank Corps; SR TK ENGR

Description

WWI M1917 Spec 1285 Enlisted Service Coat; 5th Tank Company, U.S. Tank Corps; Senior Tank Engineer
For your consideration is this beautiful WWI 5th Tank Company, Senior Tank Engineer M1917 Spec 1285 Enlisted Uniform.
This grouping includes:
•M1917 Spec 1285 Winter Service Coat
•M1917 Spec 1286 Winter Breeches
•M1910 Pistol Belt with Ammo Pouch & Holster
•M1912 Service Cap
•M1910 5th Tank Company Disk
•M1910 US Collar Disk
•Ribbon Bar; Congressional Spanish American War Ribbon, War with Spain Ribbon, Philippines Campaign Ribbon, WWI Ribbon
***BOOTS ARE NOT INCLUDED
****
This uniform is an amazing display piece for an extremely rare type of uniform for the U.S. Tank Corps.
Condition
:
This uniform is a 7.5 out of 10. The coat has mothing at the lower pockets and at the lower front of the tunic. The majority of the mothing is hidden still making this a very nice presentation piece. The cap has mothing on the reverse.
This uniform is complete and original. If you need to see any additional pictures, feel free to ask.
HISTORY OF 5th TANK COMPANY
Organized 16 April 1918 in France as Company B, 1st Tank Center, American Expeditionary Force, From Provisional Company B, Tank Service (Organized 17 April 1918). Redesignated 6 June 1918 as Company B, 326th Battalion, Tank Corps. Redesignated 1 September 1918 as Company B, 344th Battalion, Tank Corps. Redesignated 8 January 1921 as 5th Tank Company. Made Inactive 11 September 1921.
First Platoon became active 31 May 1923. By transfer of Personnel and records of Tank Platoon Number Five. Second Platoon became active 17 September 1927, by redesignation of First Platoon, Ninth Tank Company (1921 as Tank Platoon Number One.) as Second Platoon, Fifth Tank Company.
History of 1917 AEF Service Coat
1917 Service Coat
Specification No. 1268, adopted on August 26, 1917; Superseded by Specification No.1285 on December 4, 1917
After America had entered the European War on April 2, 1917, the Army’s need for olive drab service coats grew, and grew, and grew as more, and more, and more recruits and volunteers flooded into the training camps.
In order to meet the ever increasing demand for woolen service coats, and to help speed up production, new specifications for a slightly simplified version of the 1911 Service Coat were adopted some four months after America declared war on Imperial Germany.
The cut of the 1917 Service Coat was described thusly in a post war report whose topic was concerned with the durability of the articles of clothing that were worn by the first members of the AEF:
Because of the necessity for conserving wool to the greatest extent possible, our uniform coats during the World War were cut on patterns, which though they did not depart materially from the formal general cut of the coat, were made on economical lines.
The most obvious difference to the 1917 Service Coat was that it was now made from a heavier 16 ounce to the yard olive drab melton wool material. The only noticeable external change to its style was that the cuff on each sleeve now had only one row of stitching near its bottom edge instead of two.
Minor styling variations can be found on the 1917 pattern service coats. This however, can largely be attributed to the many different contractors that were involved in their fabrication.
In addition, the increased consumption of wool needed to fulfill the demand for woolen clothing made it necessary for the Quartermaster Corps to relax the rigid standards that it had rigorously been maintained prior to 1917. Beginning in the summer of 1917, lower grades of wool were combined with finer grades, with varying degrees of success, in order to maintain the necessary weight and warmth required by the revised 1917 specifications. The result of the sub-standard wool and premium wool mixtures was that the pre-war service coat’s fineness of texture and appearance had been replaced by a coat whose texture was rough and whose color was all too often uneven.
1917 Service Coat
Specification No. 1285, adopted on December 4, 1917; Superseded by Specification No.1356 on August 28, 1918
Specifications for the 1917 Service Coat were revised in December of 1917. The only change that was made to this specification was that a cheaper mercerized cotton thread was substituted for the more expensive silk thread that had been called for in all the previous service coat specifications. Otherwise, in every other respect, the Specification No. 1285 Service Coat was identical to that of the Specification No. 1268 Service Coat.