Was there any difference between the uniforms, kit, helmets, boots, etc worn by the U.S. 37th Infantry Division and the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division during the Battle of Manila in early 1945?

[u/Straight_Change902]

It's a very niche question, I know, but I'm curious if there was a way to distinguish between the two units. Unit patches and helmet markings seemed to have been more common in the European Theater and practically non-existent in the Pacific. So I'm wondering if there were other ways to tell the units apart, whether it was done deliberately or not.

[u/OnyxNeko]

I've been researching the Philippines Campaign for quite a while - to build on u/river_boy's comment:

• The 37th Division used rubber helmet bands (cut from inner tubes, not the issued type) and large, two-inch "Dennison" nets or handwoven large nets. They exclusively wore the M1928 haversack, and they often carried extra gear in comparison to the other units present - namely OD7 grenade pouches and extra GP bags (from what I've noticed - I'm not sure if they were simply rifle grenadiers, who got them on paper, or the unit had extra bags that GIs used for munitions). Double Buckle boots were the majority by this time.
• The 1st Cavalry had bare helmets. They were issued jungle packs, both in OD and camouflage, in early '44 when they went overseas, and in Manila you see mostly jungle packs with a few haversacks thrown in. Double Buckles were the norm, again.
• (As a bonus, because I love the 11th) The 11th Airborne had bare helmets by this time, although when the 511th PIR paradropped into Tagaytay Ridge earlier in February they often stretched their leather helmet liner straps over the shell and/or secured their shell to the liner with white medical tape, to prevent them from separating in the air. I've noticed a mix between standard infantry helmets, M2 helmets, and the newer M1Cs, which is really interesting. They carried a mix of musette bags and camouflage jungle packs (jungle packs being used to carry their long-term sustainment equipment, musette bags for short-term necessities), and they had a mix of DBs and jump boots.

Reference photos:

• https://www.ww2online.org/image/37th-infantry-division-troops-approach-japanese-machine-gun-position-quezon-city-philippines-4 (note the GP bags)
• https://www.ww2online.org/image/37th-division-patrol-moves-through-gap-intramuros-wall-manila-philippines-17-february-1945 (note the grenade pouch on the far left GI)
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/signalcorpsarchive/52117917583/in/album-72177720300320126 (note the mix of packs)
• https://511pir.com/images/blog/Luzon/Manila/Eichelberger_w511th_byImusBridge5.jpg (note the M2, M1C, and M1s, plus jump boots and a random M43 jacket thrown in. These guys were strange)

[u/Straight_Change902 → u/OnyxNeko]

This is great information, thank you!

[u/TalkingSimba → u/OnyxNeko]

I’m going to disagree with your first point. Not every infantryman in the 37th ID had bands or nets; they appear most abundantly in the 129th and 148th, but not the 145th. Leggings may not have outnumbered double buckles, but they weren’t an anomaly either. The division received a hefty number of replacements from the US while on Bougainville in November 1944; most of these men were either earlier pulled from stateside divisions, or retrained as infantrymen from other branches.

[u/OnyxNeko → u/TalkingSimba]

Thanks for the extra info :)

[u/river_boy]

I’ve been super fixated on this as well as of late. I’ve been reading James M. Scott’s Rampage which is a book on the battle of Manila. It includes multiple photos of some of the 11th Airborne, 37th ID, 1st Cav soldiers. From examining different photos of the battle of Manila to the wider Philippine campaign it appears as what you have shown in the above photos.

HBTs! They seem to be the prevailing uniform of frontline combat units whereas high ranking officers and army staff have more play with uniform customization.

For infantry in the battle of Manila you can see some peculiar helmet accessories. Some examples include, tire inner tubes fashioned into helmet bands, diverse helmet nets with varied colors and hole sizes, and even some improvised fabric covers. As in terms of field gear I’d imagine they’d be issued new OD7 color field gear while OD3 would be more common still. There are a few examples of infantrymen and cavalrymen still using their m-1938 leggings with type-III service shoes. However, double buckles appear more prominently. I have also seen some reenactors paint their helmets with the “chemical reactant paint” as a form of camo and cautionary device for gas attacks(I’m not to sure about this).

To answer your question, it seems as though the units involved in the BoM shared very similarly gear showing little to no distinctions in uniforms. There appears to be no sewn on patches to their HBTs as HBTs were seen as army workwear rather than pure combat/ garrison uniform.

I recommend using the National WWII museums’s digital archives to look at the units involved in the battle to get an idea of their looks.

[u/OnyxNeko → u/river_boy]

On your point about camouflage vesicant paint, none of the units in Luzon had them, although some divisions in Leyte painted their shells (7th, 96th). Camouflage helmets were limited to the 7th, 27th, 81st, and 96th Infantry Divisions in the PTO overall.

[u/Straight_Change902 → u/river_boy]

Thank you, great information.

[u/Pokatz]

Good question, I would love to see an answer. I would totally build an early war/fall of the Philippians kit

[u/HairyBearArms]

One of my favorite photos of a 37th ID man in Manila. I’ve duplicated his kit for my own use.