That was probably cosmoline and it is a preservative. The army used it all the time. It made a mess, but worked great! Now we need to find out where they all went...

Okay. After the war, many of the M1's were given to our allies and in fact the Greek's used them after WWII. Many were also sold on the open market, so they are literally all around the world.

General Honey, how do you know so much ?

papa

General Papa:

I read a lot, watch a lot of WWII shows plus it helps being married to a spectacular fellow who happens to be a WWII buff. I swear he could teach WWII college history courses.

Thanks for your confidence.

Well, gee, Marion. The things one learns just hanging around here!

Ok, here's one I've been too bashful to ask since it seems EVERYONE knows the answer but me: What are ODs? I know it's a uniform but what kind and WHY do they call it "ODs". What does the "O" and the "D" stand for?

Marilyn

Here ya go darlin', it's OLIVE DRAB. Now you know and can go tell the world. Next time someone poses the question you can jump in and say, "Well of course, it's olive drab!"

Never be shy, we're always here to help and just think, at one time I didn't know either. As my hubbie says, the only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked! Smart man!

IT WAS DRAB !!!Did not go with any thing I had in the closet

Art

Knuck, Knuck, Knuck!!!

OD: THe Engrs. are responible for all army colors.! They have a tech manual that covers colors!

Yes our wool uniform was called OD. It was the comabt uniform in Europe in WW II. OD does mean Olive Deab. to add some confusion. Vehicles were paineted OD. So when the North African invasion started the vehicles were painted a sand color! Many GIs figured that was OD. Not so. Then when the Vehicles got used in other places you would see Both OD OG and Sand colors.

OD was some times reffered to as Offical Duty uniform.

The Free French also wore OD with thier stripes on it. Some had no stripes, Lucky GIs could pass off as French!

And so it goes.

Not a silly question. I've always been confused about what was the official color of OD. Olive = green, right? Drab= dirt, maybe?

Many field uniforms were various shades of GREEN but some jackets such as the tanker jackets & Mackinaws were light TAN then other soldiers wore the BROWN winter uniforms.

I've only been studying the US Uniforms in detail within the last year or two. It appears that the shade varied by the manufacturer.

The Free French also wore OD with thier stripes on it. Some had no stripes, Lucky GIs could pass off as French!

I'm not sure if I follow that. I guess I also don't understand why a GI would want to impersonate a Frenchie.

Steve

After ww 2 M-1 rifles were sent back to the Military in large quantities. Also used in

Korea and possibly early Nam. DCM (Director of Civilian Markshmanship ) sold many,

many rifles to qualified civilians. As is the CMP (Civilian Marksmanship Program) is

still doing. Check on web site www.odcmp.com .. Also surplus M-1 ammo. Many

M-1 rifles were lend leased to both Greece and the Dutch and have been returned.

And yes. O.D. is olive drab, and in the states it was the winter class A uniform consisting of O.D. shirt, pants, blouse , hat and overcoat. Early field jackets were tan,

as were tankers jackets, mackinaws ETC but were considered field equipt. Later field

jackets were green. In ETO the O.D. pants and shirt were the combat uniform, along

with O.D. overcoats, or field jackets, pile liners (under field jacket) . Socks , scarves,

wool knit caps (jeep hats) wool knit gloves ETC were also O.D.. I am sure I missed

some things but that was 60 years ago when I was a 3rd I.D. dogface in ETO. If pic

comes out thats me on the left

Thanks for all the added info!!

To get the photo to turn out, use the FILE ATTACHMENTS feature when you post. Just select browse and look through your harddrive for the photo you'd like to use. It will come out as a "thumbnail-sized" print and anyone who clicks on it will see bigger size.

If it doesn't work, I had to limit the size of files temporarily because I was using too much bandwidth last month. I think I have it under control now. Let me know if you are still experiencing problems. I'm more than happy to help!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my question regarding "ODs". You have no idea how long that has rattled around in my head. It's such a bummer having no male relatives (living, that is) who have been in the military that I could turn to and ask such garden-variety questions.

Okay, here's another one: reading military maps. I bought a book with maps from the U.S. Army regarding various campaigns in Europe starting with Normandy to the end of the war. Each page has a Map Legend on it telling me where the German lines were and where the American/British lines were on such-and-such a date. Gee, thanks. The dates are nice to know but who's who and where - I could have figured that one out myself - but the legends fail to indicate what those x's are inside those rectangular boxes. Some x's are inside the box, some are outside...? Some have a solid parallelogram inside the rectangular box and I'm pretty sure that means an Armored Divison but the others...?

Any takers on this one? Please.

Marilyn

Okay, that's an easy one for me to answer. Those are standard indications for types of units and you can find all the answers to your questions here amongst other places:

Army Units

Click on each designation for further info. I learned all this stuff back in my college days playing war board games such as the Battle of the Bulge, Stalingrad, etc.

Have fun sweetie!

:pdt40:

Okay, that's an easy one for me to answer.

Whew. Thanks. I was typing all of that when I hit a wrong key and it vanished.

Hmmm. Or did you take control of my computer and do that??

Actually, a good place to find this is in the back of ONE of the many volumes of US Army History book, if you have one of them.

Another reference:

FM 5-230 - Topographic Drafting - This is an instructional book used to teach how to draft maps. It begins with the basics of lettering and illustrates drafting tools. Then it gets into very technical details on photogrammetry and photo-mechanical mapping, restitution and photo offset. Section IX is on mapping coordinates and zones and the Army's use of maps in the field.

Pages 300, 20 fold-out pages in back with maps and symbols and photo mosaics + a pair of 3-D glasses.

Steve