While watching a movie on the Korean war today, I found an unlikely connection between the US Army Korean war greatcoat and the Indian Army.
The story of this greatcoat, possibly from the Korean war goes like this:
During the 1962 conflict with China, India asked for military aid from the US to equip its mountain divisions. We did not have adequate equipment to fight the Chinese at that time.
A few excerpts from articles and documents on the events are given below.
"By November 1, US military supplies were arriving in India by air. At New Delhi’s behest, the first shipment was modest: military advisors, ammunition, rifles, mortars and airlift support. But by November 14 the two had established the “formal basis for military assistance” and Washington was preparing a $50 million package to equip five Indian divisions." from here.
"Both the United States and the Soviet Union stepped in to fill the breach in Indian defenses. Moscow supplied MiG-21 fighters and also built a number of factories in India to assemble advanced weapons.10 The U.S. equipped eight new infantry divisions for mountain defense against the Chinese and rebuilt some defense production facilities. The United States stopped the aid program during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, embittering Indian security managers who marked the United States as an unreliable military supplier." from here, and an interesting tidbit from the CIA archives here.
But the interesting part is this:
Americans probably had surplus clothing and equipment leftover from the Korean war of 1950 to '53, which they shipped to India.
I think that by the time this equipment could arrive, a ceasefire was declared by China. The US Army greatcoat reached an Ordnance depot in Kanpur, where it was dumped and forgotten for 40 years. It was never issued to any unit or formation because the next two wars were fought with Pakistan and probably, the need for this kind of winter clothing was never felt. After 1971, there never was a general mobilization till 2001, which was for Operation Parakram after the terrorist attack on Parliament. This was when the entire Indian Army was mobilized and I was attached to a light regiment in Northern Command, deployed on the Line of Control from School of Artillery, where I was an instructor.
A few days after reaching there, we got a mail from the ordnance depot in Kanpur(addressed generally to the whole army) that they had some surplus coats available on sale at Rs 440. This probably happened because the ordnance depot must have dusted their cobwebs while preparing for a possible war with Pakistan, and discovered these coats(and didn't know what to do with them)! Since I was at the regiment HQ that day and my CO asked me if I was interested, I said yes. When a colonel wants to get a coat, he sends a man to get it, and a captain who's hanging around gets collateral benefits! Since we sent a man, we received greatcoats that were not moth eaten.
This was the US Army greatcoat manufactured during the Korean war, with a wool inner lining. The only time I used it was 9 years later when I was commanding my unit near Srinagar in Kashmir.
COVID-19 Sunday activity led me back to this coat, now lying in a box, but still very much wearable after 70 years!
The story of this greatcoat, possibly from the Korean war goes like this:
During the 1962 conflict with China, India asked for military aid from the US to equip its mountain divisions. We did not have adequate equipment to fight the Chinese at that time.
A few excerpts from articles and documents on the events are given below.
"By November 1, US military supplies were arriving in India by air. At New Delhi’s behest, the first shipment was modest: military advisors, ammunition, rifles, mortars and airlift support. But by November 14 the two had established the “formal basis for military assistance” and Washington was preparing a $50 million package to equip five Indian divisions." from here.
"Both the United States and the Soviet Union stepped in to fill the breach in Indian defenses. Moscow supplied MiG-21 fighters and also built a number of factories in India to assemble advanced weapons.10 The U.S. equipped eight new infantry divisions for mountain defense against the Chinese and rebuilt some defense production facilities. The United States stopped the aid program during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, embittering Indian security managers who marked the United States as an unreliable military supplier." from here, and an interesting tidbit from the CIA archives here.
But the interesting part is this:
Americans probably had surplus clothing and equipment leftover from the Korean war of 1950 to '53, which they shipped to India.
A few days after reaching there, we got a mail from the ordnance depot in Kanpur(addressed generally to the whole army) that they had some surplus coats available on sale at Rs 440. This probably happened because the ordnance depot must have dusted their cobwebs while preparing for a possible war with Pakistan, and discovered these coats(and didn't know what to do with them)! Since I was at the regiment HQ that day and my CO asked me if I was interested, I said yes. When a colonel wants to get a coat, he sends a man to get it, and a captain who's hanging around gets collateral benefits! Since we sent a man, we received greatcoats that were not moth eaten.
This was the US Army greatcoat manufactured during the Korean war, with a wool inner lining. The only time I used it was 9 years later when I was commanding my unit near Srinagar in Kashmir.
COVID-19 Sunday activity led me back to this coat, now lying in a box, but still very much wearable after 70 years!
