French TAP smocks

[kammo-man]

Here’s some TAP smocks

The iconic Lizard camouflage jacket was invented in 1947 and weeny through many changes over the years.

The pattern was adopted by the Vietnamese and became the famous tiger pattern.

It also in turn is is in use today by the USAf not bad for a 80 year old scheme .

Here’s the 1947 print along side the 51 print

 

 

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[vostoktrading]

Nice smocks Owen!

Always my favorite camo pattern. Years ago my collector friends & I went up in the hills of central Oahu to see which camo pattern was the best. We had, besides French TAP, US ERDL, Sateen greens, Portuguese colonial, Belgian, VN Tiger Stripes & WW2 US green-side-out camo. Central Oahu is lush with all kinds of green foliage but also has a lot of iron in the soil making for red earth colors as well all kinds of different greens. Hands down the best pattern, at least for this location, was the French. Portuguese came a close second. The worst was the solid green. Stood out like a sore thumb compared to all the camo patterns.

Jon.

[gwb123]

And of course, the US Army wore solid green for years. Also known as "pickle suits".

 

It used to be somewhat embarrassing to show up at a NATO event and be the only ones there without some kind of spiffy camo pattern.

 

Here, members of the Portuguese Army survey an American Supply Depot with members of the 708th Maintenance Bn., Baumholder, Federal Republic of Germany, circa 1982.

[kammo-man]

Jon

Great report

In hindsight did you ever take any pictures?

I know lots of ya never never did !!

Gil

Great pic and sad

Owen

 

 

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[kammo-man]

Here’s the all important smock back pockets

 

 

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[vostoktrading]

Owen,

I did indeed take a few pictures. It was back in the late 1980s. I have to find them. Somewhere in boxes full of pics in my garage. So easy now with digital cameras in every phone.

Question regarding your pic above: What's the significance of the back pocket on the smocks? Early versions? I have about 9 sets and none have a back pocket. I figure they all came from later, Algerian War era? Surplus for the Israelis?

Thanks, Jon.

 

[kammo-man]

Jon

The best ones you have look like the 2 outer ones.

Lets see those ones and I can tell you what ye got.

owen

[vostoktrading]

OK, thanks. Here's the left one:

 

[vostoktrading]

The one on the right above. This one has trousers with suspenders.

 

[vostoktrading]

Here's another with an intact para flap on the back. This wasn't pictured in post #6 above.

 

[vostoktrading]

This one looks like the ones worn in 1978 Kolwezi in the Congo.

 

 

[earlymb]

The devil is in the details between the various variants of Mle. 1947 TAP smocks. I tried to upload a Powerpoint file that shows them, but it was too big.

 

The last jacket you show is not a TAP smock but a TTA (Troupe Toute Armee, general issue) jacket. The smocks can be recognized by the 3 press closures per pocket.

[earlymb]

I found some more info on that last jacket; I believe it to be a camouflaged version of the Tenue de Combat Mle 1947. It was issued to some parachute units in France in 1952, but has not been issued to troops in Indo-China.

[RRA227]

Great jackets. Rich A. in Pa.

[Kia kaha]

Just found this in an old bag under the house.

wings are standard Drago Paris marked

[earlymb]

That appears to be a TAP47 first model smock with the tail removed? Great find!

You have a pic of the back of the jump wings?

[RRA227]

Nice piece.  Rich A. in Pa.

[Kia kaha]

On 12/25/2021 at 12:18 AM, earlymb said:

That appears to be a TAP47 first model smock with the tail removed? Great find!

You have a pic of the back of the jump wings?

[earlymb]

Just 'DRAGO - PARIS' with the 'tile'-pattern' indicates 1956-1988 production I believe.

[AKC123]

Interestingly a decent number of these smocks in the lizard pattern were given to Israel in the 1960’s and can be seen on various photos of Israeli paratroopers in Jerusalem during the six day war in 1967. The Israeli used jackets can be found with the IDF Zahal ink stamp inside the jacket along side the French production markings 

Also here is a good write up of the variations found on camopedia 

 

https://camopedia.org/index.php/French_Airborne_uniform

[sanders90202]

je suis jaloux vos veste sont juste superbe