Over the years I have seen examples of most A2 contracts come up for sale and all those made in the War. As you would expect jackets from large Wartime contracts such as Aero and Poughkeepsie (50,000) tend to come on the market more often. Even some of the smaller contracts such as Cooper (5,000) and Doniger (5,000) exchange hands. I would not expect jackets from the very small early 1930s contracts to come up for sale very often if at all. I have never seen a SAT, 1933 Werber or 1935 Werber come up for sale. These jackets were produced in very small numbers, not exceeding 550. However I have seen and owned examples of the 1940 Aero (quantity 3,500) come on the market, but the 1941 Werber, despite 7,000 being made really is a rare beast. I have probably seen two in the last ten years. I have seen several of the 5,000 Coopers made only a few months after the Werber, including larger sized ones.My question is, why is it almost impossible to find an all original 1941 Werber in a potentially wearable size 44? Any thoughts gents?
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Hard to find original A2 contracts
- Thread starter Roughwear
- Start date
Silver Surfer
Well-Known Member
perhaps not many were made in larger sizes. also, regarding wearable size 44s, i am now of the mind that not only have many surviving originals shrink in size over the years, but they shrank three dimensionally as well. that is to say, for the most part my originals, and many of the the ones i have handled are thinner then the repros made today. i just cant get my head around the concept that horses were thinner skinned 70 years ago then they are now. i know, i know, some will say that horses are better fed today, are better taken care of,, but a lot of the hides today are sourced from around the world, and some places dont have better feed, or care of their animals. nope,, i just think that there is a fair amount of shrinkage to the hides of originals over the years. enough to make a size or two smaller then the labeled size. oh, yeah, ive considered that guys today are relatively bigger, ie: heavier today then the guys of same size 70 years ago. btw: even though many rw 1401s were made, they seem to be hard to come by today in wearable condition. not rare as some other contracts, but just hard to come by. early webers, sats, aeros, fuggetaboutit.
Silver Surfer
Well-Known Member
i might add, as we know many early-pre war a-2s were sent back to the manufacturer, and or the aaf depots for refurbishment. this often meant redying. the redye process was a jacket killer. damn near every redye i have seen has been stiff and brittle, often to the point of breaking apart. dunno what dye process they used back in those days, but it ruined the jackets, and i assume many redyes simply fell apart. a short story regarding a sat redye. its a sat, sat story. back when ebay was fresh and new, i saw a jac that was titled "flight jacket-motorcycle jacket". it was a real dark brown [redye] and had studs popped into it, ya know, like a biker jacket. it had no label, but looked like a weird a-2. strange zipper, button down pockets, etc. upon hind sight, it was with out doubt a sat. at the time i was unfamiliar as to what the elusive, never seen sat looked like, and didnt bid on it. it sold for just over $300. gerk. yes,, the truth IS stranger then fiction.
foster
Well-Known Member
Well, the 1941 Werber was their final A2 contract, if I am not mistaken. Perhaps they never completed production of enough jackets to fill the contract to the specified quantity?
I also agree some may have been sunken on transport ships. That's a likely possibility, if they were sent to overseas depots and not issued from a stateside facility.
I also agree some may have been sunken on transport ships. That's a likely possibility, if they were sent to overseas depots and not issued from a stateside facility.
ButteMT61
Well-Known Member
There are lot of WWII era jackets - mainly A2's in some of the Studio wardrobe storage units here. No clue what contracts - the last time I went we before I knew what little I know now. I wonder what lies there. One of them has a huge collection. I'd have to ask my wife if she remembers which one it was and ask her to keep her eyes open as she's spent the last three weeks getting props for a movie. I've also heard that they won't allow these jackets to be used.
Andrew: Why were the numbers on those so low?
Andrew: Why were the numbers on those so low?
Which contracts do you mean Scott? The pre-War ones reflected the size of the USAAC at the time. Some of the Wartime contractors (e.g.. Doniger and Cooper) were issued with small contracts because they did not have the capacity like Rough Wear, Aero and Doniger to produce the large quantities of A2s required by the US Materiel Command.
airfrogusmc
Well-Known Member
Paul Sanders had a great 33 Werber. I think that was the one Gary wound up with.
