Leather Jerkins Brief History
Jerkins have been used by many different militaries since the early 1500’s. They have gone under a number of changes and were widely used in the military and in men’s fashion. The dictionary defines a jerkin as being a man’s short, close-fitting jacket, made usually of light colored leather and often without sleeves. The leather could be pig, cow, sheep and even goat hide. While there was many different variants used by the AEF in WWI from 1917 to 1919 with many different manufacturers and countries, in this article we are going to focus on the Army’s three most common variants.
A Need For Unrestricting Clothing:
The U.S. made leather Jerkin was warm, comfortable, unrestricting and copied from the British leather Jerkin. It featured a wool liner and a thick leather shell. It provided troops with free movement of the arms and shoulders while still providing warmth to crucial parts of the users body. It was only authorized for troops serving in the AEF and was never issued to stateside troops. The wool lined leather jerkin was primarily but not exclusively, issued to soldiers whose duties made wearing the longer overcoat or bulkier mackinaw impractical and difficult. Frequently pictures show them being worn by AEF men serving in the Corps of Engineers, Tank Corps, Medical Corps, mechanics, truck drivers and motorcycle riders but in reality and time many other soldiers and civilian volunteers overseas adopted them for daily use vs the bulky wool overcoats.
British Made US Leather Jerkin
British made jerkins were sold to fresh arriving Doughboys as U.S. supplies caught up with the amount of troops going overseas. In most cases British made examples were old stock refurbished for US specifications. They were made of a oiled leather cow hide made of three large pieces of leather with two triangle pieces at the rear to reinforce stress points. They where made with wool-cotton blend liners usually a two piece construction sewn together with four brown plastic buttons unlike British examples made for British soldiers that had leather capped buttons. Each button and buttonhole was reinforced with a piece of leather on the back to prevent rips.
US Made Leather Jerkin
The U.S. made jerkin was a copy of the British made example but the leather was not oiled and the wool lining was olive drab (OD) green with a two piece construction stitched in the middle. The U.S. tried to save and reuse leather in early 1918 requiring manufacturers to have little to no scrap leather discarded. This caused many jerkin manufacturers to make multipiece leather jerkins as seen in this example.
U.S. made jerkins had two common button types they used either brown or black plastic composite buttons. The buttons and buttonholes were no longer reinforced with extra leather unlike the British made examples. Manufactures tags would be sewn in the liner usually located on the back of the shoulders or on the bottom of the jerkin.
US Wool Jerkin
As the supply of leather began to dwindle in 1918 and the Quartermaster Corps was forced to substitute other materials, such as cotton and wool for leather. Leather available was limited in all countries involved in the war. Due to the urgent demand for more hobnailed shoes the U.S. looked for other materials. Wool could be recycled and reused thus the wool jerkin was made. Production and construction was much simpler with the wool jerkin, it still featured four plastic composite buttons with no extra lining added. Around the front ends of the wool, to prevent fraying cotton canvas was added around the edges to reinforce the wool and prolong the life. In some examples as seem on the right a front pocket was added for a pocket watch or whistle.
*Cover Photo, Soldier Photo & Manufacturing Photos Courtesy of The National Archives & Library of Congress
American Militaria Reference
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